‘Immature’ and ‘puke’ toss rocks at each other

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This article was published 11/02/2011 (5654 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BEAUSEJOUR — Winnipeg’s Ryan Fry, who has never won a Canadian championship in his on-ice career, was the talk of Canadian curling from coast to coast Thursday after he called out the winningest Canadian curler of all time.

Fry sent the blistering email to Calgary Herald curling writer Al Cameron Thursday — then consented to have it made public.

In it, he lambasted Edmonton’s Randy Ferbey, who played on the cashspiel circuit this winter with Fry on Brad Gushue’s Newfoundland-based team.

Ferbey had told Cameron and other media at the Alberta playdowns Wednesday that he had recently parted ways with the Gushue team after a disappointing season.

The six-time Canadian and four-time world champion had some choice words for his former teammates, saying “they quit on me,” and suggesting Gushue was a control freak.

That didn’t sit well with Fry, who won two provincial junior titles in Manitoba in 1996 and 1997 and whose curling apex in this province was reached in 2007 when he won a Manitoba men’s title as third for Jeff Stoughton.

“I have played with some very well-known, talented curlers through my time in the sport,” wrote Fry, who moved to Newfoundland a few years ago to curl with Gushue. “Brad is one of them. He is a great teammate, a very good friend and, to be honest, is being unfairly portrayed by a very immature man in Randy Ferbey.

“I believe it is time he decided to retire. It takes a very special person to take the frustrations of a poor season out on former teammates, no matter what the case. His recent vent is one that shows his need to stay current in the media in a game that has passed him by.

“The sport has changed and the class of players have evolved. We have become athletes. There is very little room in the sport now for competitors like Randy Ferbey. I wish Randy the best and hope maturity comes with retirement.”

Ferbey, not surprisingly, fought back with some choice words of his own later in the day.

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“A little young puke like him is going to push me into retirement? Yeah, whatever,” Ferbey told Cameron.

“You guys know me well enough; I’ve given you everything for the last 15 years, and for somebody to say that about me, it’s pretty damning. This is where I think an editorial should be done. You should see the email Brad sent me; it was like I’m the worst piece of s– on the Earth.

“I’ve given my heart and soul to the game. I’ve played with hundreds and hundreds of curlers, and I’ve gotten along with every single one of them, almost 99.9 per cent of them, and I’ve never had this issue with any curlers ever before. At the same time, coming from Ryan, I’m not surprised. Coming from Brad, I’m a bit surprised. Part of the language he used in the email was totally unfounded.”

Ferbey has reunited at the Alberta provincials this week with former Winnipegger David Nedohin, with whom he won four Canadian championships. The two men have a new front end and have struggled this week at the Alberta provincials, losing their first two games and clinging to life on the C-side heading into this morning.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca