Grassie gets two surprise wins

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/11/2011 (5361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The key to winning a national curling championship, particularly in a 14-team round-robin marathon like the Canadian Mixed, is to win all the games you’re expected to win — and then a couple more.

Winnipeg’s Sean Grassie — who, as a Canadian Mixed champion in 2009, knows all about what it takes to succeed on the national level — got a couple of victories on Sunday in this year’s Canadian Mixed in Sudbury, Ont., that would definitely fit into that latter category.

First, it was a 9-8 Manitoba win over Quebec on the morning draw in which Grassie — trailing by three coming home in the 10th end — cracked a game-winning four-ender on the befuddled Quebec foursome skipped by Martin Ferland.

And then on the very next draw, Grassie was trailing Nova Scotia’s Chris Sutherland 5-3 without hammer when he stole three in the eighth end en route to a 7-6 victory.

Manitoba — with Grassie at skip, Tracey Lavery at third, second Scott McCamis and lead Calleen Neufeld — is 3-1 and tied for third place heading into what will be a marathon three-game day for Manitoba today on Day 3 at the Sudbury Curling Club.

“It definitely gives you a good positive feeling when you win a couple games like that,” Grassie said by phone from Sudbury Sunday night. “Hopefully, it will spur us on. It’s a pretty big day for us (today) with three games.”

The three-game day — today’s the only day it will happen this week for Manitoba — is necessary because of a 14-team format the CCA is using for the first time at this year’s Canadian Mixed. The 14 teams includes the usual 10 provinces plus Northern Ontario, but also gives each of Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut its own entry for the first time.

The result of this year’s competition will then carry into next year. The top 10 provinces or territories in Sudbury will all automatically advance to next year’s Mixed, as usual. But the bottom four finishers this week will be relegated and have to play in a four-team double-knockout next year that will advance two of them to the 2012 event and eliminate two others, thus re-creating the 12-team format.

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The two eliminated teams in 2012 would then get a chance to qualify again in 2013 by playing in another four-team pre-event knockout, against the bottom two teams relegated from the 2012 event. And so on.

It’s a more complicated system — not unlike the one used in English soccer — and it is born out of the fact the three territories all have their own curling associations and have long lobbied for full membership in national curling events. In response, the Canadian Curling Association has decided to use the Canadian Mixed and Seniors this winter as pilot events to see if the relegation system could be expanded to their marquee events, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and the Brier, in future years.

The wrinkle, of course, is that while everyone expects the two teams eliminated every year would be two of the three territorial teams, the eliminated teams could also conceivably be better known entries — creating the strange scenario of a Brier or Scotties that could someday be played out without, say, a Manitoba or Alberta entry.

LOOSE HAIRS…Winnipeg’s David Bohn, Brandon’s Rob Fowler and Saskatoon’s Colton Flasch and Steve Laycock were among the eight playoff qualifiers at the $44,000 White’s Drug Store Classic in Swan River. The playoff round is today…The playoff round of a Scotties berth bonspiel is also today at Assiniboine-Memorial Curling Club.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca