Likely’s career comes full circle in Brandon

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This article was published 04/03/2019 (2618 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — John Likely recalls being here before, noting how so much has changed.

The Prince Edward Island skip isn’t referencing the growth of Brandon, Manitoba’s second-largest city, a place he visited 40 years ago to compete in the Canada Winter Games.

He’s talking about his return to the Brier.

Likely curled at the Canadian men’s championship in 1985 in Moncton, N.B., as the second for Wayne Matheson of Charlottetown, finishing 6-5 in the round robin before losing a tie-breaker. He was back for his second kick, going 2-9 as a skip, in Calgary in 2002.

Seventeen years later, it’s still a game of ice and rocks, but not really.

“We’ve never seen (the amount of) curl like this. Even the Briers I was at before, never like this. It’s very tricky. The ice at home is so much straighter and this is a whole new different golf course than we play,” jokes Likely, a retired restaurant owner. “I was in the tie-breakers back in 1985, but that was back when everybody played on club ice and everybody went to the Brier and had a chance.”

In ’85, he ran up against some legendary teams, such as Pat Ryan and Al Hackner, and in ’02 faced the likes of Randy Ferbey, John Morris and Russ Howard.

The changes since then are dramatic. Competitive curlers are fitness freaks, who toss rocks daily, travel extensively to World Tour events and regularly play on swingy arena ice under the glare of TV cameras.

“It’s like taking our amateur Willingdon Cup team, flying them to Augusta (National), putting them on the first tee and saying, ‘Good luck boys, at the Masters,’” says Likely, drawing a colourful comparison to golf. “You’re playing the pros on a course that they play on every day.”

Sticking with that theme, P.E.I. didn’t just shank a few times Sunday morning on the tricky conditions at Amen Corner, it spun a cart off the side of Hogan Bridge. Likely, with lead Robbie Doherty, second Steve Burgess and third Anson Carmody, fell 14-4 to Brendan Bottcher’s team from Edmonton — this week’s wild-card team.

“We just got ourselves in trouble, and you just can’t miss against them,” said Likely, 57, the second-oldest competitor here (Nunavut skip David St. Louis has him by two years). “They don’t let you miss. You pay for it.”

The defeat, tying the record for most points surrendered in one game, came a day after Likely guided his team to a 5-4 victory Saturday over Andrew Symonds of Newfoundland-Labrador. Expect plenty of inflated scores this week as teams play the five-rock free-guard zone and must play a minimum of eight ends before conceding.

These were just the Likely crew’s ninth and 10th games together, after going on a 7-1 run at provincials in mid-January. They stole in the 10th end to defeat two-time defending champion Eddie MacKenzie and grab a berth in the Brandon Brier.

Likely was supposed to be lying by a pool in Florida, his slider hung up for good. But he got coaxed into joining the team when Robert Campbell wasn’t able to play. Carmody, 29, participating in his fifth Canadian men’s championship, says he’s having a blast sharing house time with a guy who is nearly twice his age.

“He’s a great guy to have around. He keeps it pretty light out there. But at the same time, he’s really competitive and takes every game as one we could potentially win, so it’s good,” Carmody said.

Likely’s heading south as soon as the rockfest in western Manitoba is done. It’s interesting, he says, that one last appearance on a national stage happens in the very city he made his big debut.

He doesn’t recall much from the weeklong stay in Brandon for the ’79 Canada Winter Games, just that he was 17 with a growing ambition to curl at an elite level.

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“I was one of the younger ones. We marched in to the bagpipes and that was really something. We made the playoffs and that was big deal,” he said. “Kerry Burtnyk was there, Mark Noseworthy, it was good competition.

He’d leave Brandon that week with a bronze medal around his neck. This time, only memories of the Brier that completes the hat trick will have to suffice.

“I always wanted three because my dad (Andy Likely) had three (1947, ’55, ’56) and I couldn’t get it,” Likely said. “It only took him 10 years… took me 34.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell