Brier field a patchwork of heavyweights, rookies

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/02/2011 (5566 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BEAUSEJOUR — Jeff Stoughton will face a solid, but unremarkable, field at the 2011 Tim Hortons Brier in London next month.

The field will once again be lead by heavyweights Glenn Howard of Ontario and Kevin Martin of Alberta, but beyond that it is a mish-mash of Brier rookies and reruns.

Newfoundland will send 2006 Olympic gold medallist Brad Gushue, while Nova Scotia will send 2005 finalist Shawn Adams and Saskatchewan will send perpetual also-ran Pat Simmons. Quebec will send a rookie in François Gagné, while B.C. will send Jim Cotter, who defeated Neil Dangerfield 6-4 on Sunday evening.

Rounding out the field in London will be P.E.I.’s Eddie MacKenzie, New Brunswick’s James Grattan and N.W.T.’s Jamie Koe.

The tragic-comedy of the day yesterday came in the Northern Ontario final in Thunder Bay where Joe Scharf was on his way to the Brier until he authored an epic meltdown, giving up a deuce in the ninth end and then a steal of three more in the 10th to lose the final 7-6 to Brad Jacobs.

— — —

JEFF Stoughton lead Steve Gould joined an exclusive club Sunday with his sixth Manitoba men’s curling championship.

Only Stoughton, with nine, has won more. “They never get old. And every time Jeff has made a change and added a player, we seem to win,” said Gould, adding: “Maybe we should all listen to our phone in April.”

While this is Stoughton’s third Manitoba title in a row, he did it with a brand-new team that saw Reid Carruthers replace Rob Fowler at second and Jon Mead replace Kevin Park at third.

“We were gearing up all week, all year for this,” said Gould. “You guys were around, we had more fun than anyone this week. I don’t know — pretty special, six times.”

— — —

MIKE McEwen third BJ Neufeld was asked if he agreed with his skip’s contention following Sunday’s loss that their team represented Manitoba’s best chance to win the Brier.

“I wouldn’t argue with that,” said Neufeld. “I think if we had made it to the Brier, we would have felt very comfortable there. I think we would have had a really good chance to win — a really good chance.

“Not to take anything away from Jeff — Jeff will have a good chance, too. But we’re definitely never satisfied with second place. So we’ll keep working as hard as we can work and I’m sure we’ll win a lot of these.”

— — —

JEFF Stoughton third Jon Mead revealed after his team won the final that he was delighted Mike McEwen beat Brandon’s Terry McNamee 6-3 in the semifinal Sunday morning to advance to the final.

“I actually was glad we were playing (McEwen) in the final,” Mead said. “Not that I wanted to play them by any stretch because, like I said, they’re as good as anyone in the world. But if we weren’t going to go, I wanted it to be those guys. Because they earned it. They do everything right.

“The only reason these two teams are in this final is we work harder than everyone else in the field over the years. I feel bad for them. I like those guys on a personal level. I like their approach to the game. And they will win this — there’s no question.”

— — —

REID Carruthers got a taste of the Brier in 2008 as a fifth for Kerry Burtnyk and he thinks this team is well positioned to compete on the national stage.

“Definitely. We’ve got to two finals in the Slams this year. And when you’re playing in the Slams, you’re playing against the best 18 teams in the world. So for us to get to the final just means we’re that close.

“And we beat Mike and he’s ranked No. 1 in the world. So when we beat Mike, when we’re clicking on all cylinders, there’s no reason we can’t win the Brier.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca