Hamblin gives up steal of eight
Morris vet decides to laugh, not cry
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/01/2011 (5718 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
IT was the day after the night before and Lorne Hamblin could only laugh.
Hamblin is a former Manitoba Curling Association president, coach of the 2002 world junior champions and tireless volunteer at the Morris Curling Club.
And on Sunday, in addition to all those other things, he was also the man who gave up a steal of eight at the MCA Bonspiel.
“We all laughed. What else could we do,” Hamblin mused Sunday as he reflected upon the nightmarish fourth end of the night before.
Hamblin was playing West Kildonan’s Brian Leskiw on Sheet 6 at the Granite Curling Club on the 6 p.m. Saturday evening draw in a minor-event game.
The game was tied 3-3, Hamblin had the hammer and, aside from lightning-quick ice conditions, there was no reason to think anything unusual was about to happen.
As Leskiw piled rocks up in the house, Hamblin called, unsuccessfully, for corners and freezes. Hamblin thought he had a deuce in order as late as the first skip rocks, but a couple of great shots by Leskiw and a miss by Hamblin had the Morris farmer facing seven when he went to throw the final rock of the end.
It was supposed to be an open hit for one. “But I got it started and on that ice, it just took off,” Hamblin said.
When the dust settled, Hamblin had wrecked on the only Leskiw stone that wasn’t in the rings — and promptly knocked it in for a steal of eight and a conceded 11-3 loss.
“That’s curling,” Hamblin said. “Wrong side of the inch.”
Eight-enders are not entirely uncommon at the MCA Bonspiel — there were two in one day at the 1999 Bonspiel, for instance. But the steal of eight was the first in memory, according to bonspiel headquarters.
And it was one of two curling rarities in a 24-hour period at the bonspiel. On the noon draw Sunday, it took three extra ends to finally get a result in a minor-event game between Deer Lodge’s John McLachlan and Fort Garry’s Cyril Durand.
With the game tied 4-4, McLachlan missed a draw to the rings for the win in the first extra end and then hit and rolled out in the second. He finally got the job done in the third extra end, posting a 5-4 victory.
paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca
