As CTVOlympics reports, it’s another week come and gone on the World Curling Tour.

Digging deeper, one might agree with Lydon Little that BC teams shouldn’t be overlooked heading into the pre-Trials “Road to the Roar” next month in Prince George.

Particularly Kelowna’s Bob Ursel, who has made it to two finals in his two events this season, and who won yesterday’s playoff matches in Vancouver by scores of 7-1, 6-1 and 7-1.

And yesterday’s victory by Jennifer Jones (Calgary Herald photo by Christina Ryan) indicates she has indeed shrugged off last year’s fourth-place worlds finish in Ganeneung, Korea.

She’s been an outright winner in all three tournaments since: last fall’s Grey Power Players’ Championship; the Eurotour opener in Oslo, Norway (beating Olympic champ Anette Norberg) and now the first women’s Grand Slam of the season (beating world champ Bingyu Wang).

Jones has also overtaken the struggling Shannon Kleibrink – now oh-fer in three tournaments this fall – in the Order of Merit standings.

Meanwhile, Brad Gushue’s run of tournament wins came to an abrupt halt, but not before he defeated Kevin Martin for the second time this season. The Gushues ended up losing a C-qualifier to – guess who? – ex-teammate Chris Schille.

As for Martin, and Glenn Howard, neither team has won an event this season. Hmm.

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2006 Olympic champion Anette Norberg is the 2009 Re/Max Women’s Masters champion after defeating Swedish rival Stina Viktorsson by an emphatic 8-4 score in the final at Basel.

Semi-finalists were USA Olympic representatives Debbie McCormick and Switzerland’s Fabienne Fuerbringer, while the quarter-finalists included Vancouver-bound Eve Muirhead of Great Britain and Germany’s Andrea Schoepp.

The Norberg victory follows a runner-up finish two weeks earlier in Oslo, when they were defeated in the championship final by Canada’s Jennifer Jones.

Jones and an impressive group of teams – including 2006 Olympic medallists Mirjam Ott and Shannon Kleibrink – are down to their last lives at Calgary’s Trail Appliances Grand Slam event in Calgary, which wraps up on Monday.

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Three teams are currently 3-0 and into the playoff round at at the RE/Max Women’s Masters in Switzerland.

Sweden’s Anette Norberg, 2003 world champ Debbie McCormick of the United States and Switzerland’s Fabienne Fuerbringer are all in for Sunday’s quarter-finals.

Norberg is coming off a recent runner-up performance and McCormick, who has been struggling early this season, will be pleased with her start to this tournament.

Upset performance of the young 2010 season thus far has to be Fuerbringer, a calendar girl who managed to upset the Great Britain Olympic team, skipped by Eve Muirhead, 8-7 in an extra-end on Friday night.

The Swiss squad had previously beaten 2006 Olympic silver medallist Binia Feltscher-Beeli and 2008 world junior finalist Cissi Ostlund of Sweden.

In the Urs Raeber photo above, Team Muirhead battles England’s Kirsty Balfour in opening round action.

Another photo can be seen at The Curling News Facebook group page. Have you joined yet?

Men’s and women’s action also continues in Calgary, while men’s Tour play is ongoing in Vancouver and Brandon.

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This busy weekend of curling continues with Monday’s finals of the Sandra Schmirler Charity Classic in Regina.

Among the quarterfinalists are Calgary’s Heather Rankin (photo above) who takes on 2007 world champion Kelly Scott on Monday morning.

Our friend Pal Trulsen kept his time warp going all the way to the semifinals in Oslo, where he finally lost to heir apparent Thomas Ulsrud. In the final, Sweden’s youthful Oskar Eriksson – second and fourth at the last two world junior championships – upset Ulsrud for the men’s victory.

We’re expecting the Swedes to update their team blog sometime on Monday… probably with a headline like Vi vann! or perhaps Helige Gud! Vi slog dem alla!

The women’s crown went to Canada’s Jennifer Jones, who took out a variety of strong teams including defending Olympic champion Anette Norberg in the final. Both Oslo Cup finales ended in 5-4 scorelines.

Elsewhere in Canada, the big story is that Brad Gushue won his third tournament in a row, beating Ian Fitzner-Leblanc in the final of the Appleton Cashspiel in Halifax. The Gushues took out Canada’s 2009 world junior rep Brett Gallant in one semi, while Fitzner-Leblanc defeated 2004 Brier champ Mark Dacey in the other.

KW Fall Classic in Kitchener saw Toronto’s Julie Hastings defeat Stoney Creek’s Karen Bell 4-2 while Bradford’s Dale Matchett beat Jake Higgs of Harriston 8-7 to win the men’s crown.

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The World Curling Federation has released the draw for the Curling Competition at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

The draw is available via direct download at the WCF homepage, within the posting dated July 28.

Competition begins February 16 with three draws scheduled daily – alternating between men’s and women’s play – up to February 23.

Canada’s women’s team, which will be determined on December 12 in Edmonton, opens at 14:00 against Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott, the only curling athlete in history with two Olympic medals (silver in both 2002 and 2006).

Canada continues with matches against Japan on Feb. 17, Germany on Feb. 18 and Denmark’s Angelina Jensen, the 2007 world finalist, on Feb. 19.

Canada’s major crunch comes on the final three days of the round robin.

On Feb. 21, Canada battles 2003 world champion Debbie McCormick of the United States and, later, defending world champion Bingyu Wang of China.

On Feb. 22, their opponent is the defending Olympic champion and two-time world champion Anette Norberg of Sweden.

On Feb. 23, the Canadian women face another two matches, against Great Britain – most likely skipped by three-time world junior champion Eve Muirhead – followed by the round robin finale against 2006 European champions Russia.

The Canadian women do not compete on Saturday, February 20.

Canada’s men’s team, which will be determined on December 13 in Edmonton, opens with two matches on Feb. 16, against Norway (most likely 2008 and 2009 world bronze medallist Thomas Ulsrud) and Germany’s Andy Kapp, a two-time Olympian and multiple world finalist.

Following a full day off on February 17, the Canadians face two next-day opponents: Sweden (most likely the defending world university champions skipped by Niklas Edin) and then France’s Thomas Dufour.

On Feb. 19, Canada challenges Denmark’s Ulrik Schmidt.

On Feb. 20, Canada faces Great Britain’s David Murdoch, the two-time and defending world champion, in the evening draw. Murdoch defeated Canada’s Kevin Martin three consecutive times to win last April’s 2009 Ford World Men’s Championship in Moncton, and as reported by The Curling News, has been training specifically to defeat Canada for Olympic gold at Vancouver.

Canada then battles Switzerland on Feb. 21. The Swiss defeated Canada for Olympic gold at Nagano in 1998 and captured bronze at Salt Lake in 2002, and also scored demonstration gold at the 1992 Games in Albertville.

On Feb. 22 the Canadians meet John Shuster of the United States. Shuster was a member of the 2006 U.S. Olympic curling team, skipped by Pete Fenson, which scored the bronze medal.

On Feb. 23, Canada concludes the round robin with an afternoon match against China’s Fengchun Wang, the surprise fourth-place finisher at the 2008 world championship. This will mark the fourth consecutive day in which the Canadian men’s team competes only once.

February 24 is reserved for tiebreakers with the semifinals scheduled for February 25.

The Women’s Final takes place February 26 and the Men’s Final on February 27.

Canada has never missed the podium in Olympic medal-status competition, winning gold in 1998 (women’s) and 2006 (men’s) while scoring two silver medals in men’s play and two bronze medals in women’s play.

Venue photo by the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation

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Remember those loveable Curling Zombies?

They took to the streets, which is what zombies do.

They hung out at The Beer Store, which was something new.

They infatuated the Rogers TV folks during last February’s Ontario Tankard.

And believe it or not, they are still groaning their way around the country.

Fresh off this past Saturday’s screening at the CFC’s Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto, our favourite undead curlers are off to St. John’s in Newfoundland. Deadspiel will make its Eastern Canadian premier at the Nickel Independent Film Festival (June 23-27) with a show date of Thursday June 25, part of the 10:00pm Late Night Horror Show.

The film is also appearing at this week’s Detroit Windsor Film Fest, on Friday, June 26, and then in west-end Toronto at the Mississauga Independent Film Festival in early July.

Another showing will take place at Montreal’s famed Fantasia Festival next month.

We’ve got a recent feature from Independent Scene right here, and a brief trailer teaser was also recently released, which you can see here.

For more on the film, consult the Deadspiel website.

Other stuff…

• Some news from Norway. First, the country has produced its first DVD on curling, a 29-minute how-to which features Pal Trulsen and Thomas Ulsrud. Second, coach Thoralf Hognestad is stepping down from the Norwegian wheelchair curling team, which he guided to two world championships in 2007 and 2008 …

• Sweden has confirmed Team Anette Norberg as their women’s Olympic rep for Vancouver 2010. Meanwhile, young hopeful Niklas Edin is still in limbo, but feels his men’s team will get the nod sometime during or after December. You can see the formal announcements here …

• According to the Vernon Morning Star, the B.C. town will host a Capital One Grand Slam of Curling men’s event in December of 2010 …

• Saskatchewan curling legends Sam Richardson and Jan Betker both make appearances in this short (1:23) video promoting Saskatchewan curling, part of the federal government’s Travel Canada promotion …

• For those of you who are suspicious of clicking on game links that we provide here – and we don’t necessarily blame you for your caution – the developers of the infamous “Brown Cow Curing” videogame (a web-based freebie) have posted some video of their effort …

• And finally, 2008 world champion Jennifer Jones teamed with new Edmonton Oliers hockey coach Pat Quinn for a recent appearance in Thunder Bay, Ontario …

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GANGNEUNG, Korea – Team Canada put in a valiant effort against Sweden this afternoon, but it was not to be.

Canadian curling fans, so used to seeing Jennifer Jones and Co. make wild comebacks, almost saw yet another one today.

In total control in the ninth end, one up with hammer, the Joneses ran into trouble – missing five of eight shots, including both of Jennifer’s – and dropped a steal of two.

In the 10th, things didn’t look much better when Dawn Askin was very light on a guard and Cathy O came light on an essential come around.

But JJ took matter into her own hands, making a hit and roll on her first one and then letting fly with a delicate chip ’n flop attempt on her last one, and exceedingly difficult shot with a razor-thin margin of error.

As Jill Officer said, the skipper missed it “by millimetres.”

In the 10th end , with the ice straightening out, Jones’ long guard effort couldn’t be stuffed behind, and she was a tad heavy too, and Anette Norberg of Sweden followed her down for the freeze, and the win.

Great effort, and the first time in a long while – possibly ever? – that a 9-2 record only got you into the Page 3/4 game.

With a two-time world champ and defending Olympic champion as your fourth-place opponent.

Hey now.

Nice event going on here in Gangneung.

Nice WCF pic by Lee Young Gyu, taken as the skipper realized her fate in the fateful ninth end. Click to expand photo size.

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ÖRNSKÖLDSVIK, Sweden – Two great final games, one an up-and-down rollercoaster, the other a tightly-wound study of tactical maneuvering, have brought the Le Gruyère European Curling Championships 2008 to a stunning conclusion.

Scotland’s David Murdoch won an improbable second straight men’s victory with a shocking comeback win over Norway. On the women’s side, Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott buried some five years of frustration by finally defeating the mighty Anette Norberg of Sweden not once, not twice, but thrice in as many days… and in Sweden, no less.

That’s Swiss third Carmen Schaefer – you know her as Carmen of Curling, versions one and also two – celebrating upon the impact of her skip’s final takeout. Swedish third Eva Lund (background) knows what’s coming, Swiss third Valeria Spaelty (left) is rapidly getting airborne and of course WCTV cameras are right in there (WCF photo by Urs Raeber).

Another great photo of Swiss elation can be found here, taken by AFP.

Did you know that in just four days Ott and Norberg will become teammates, together with Bingyu Wang of China, as Team World takes on Team North America at the Continental Cup of Curling in Camrose, Alberta, Canada?

The men from Finland are back in the Worlds – Ford edition, coming up in Moncton – but without M-15, aka Markku Uusipaavalniemi, of course. The 2008 Eurohosts are thus out of the worlds, and Sweden’s men’s program is in complete disarray. Spain and Ireland are back down to next year’s B-Pool in Aberdeen, Scotland.

England’s women stay in the A-Pool and send the Dutch down next year, along with the Czech Republic. Norway’s women, finally minus Dordi Nordby and also missing the elusive Linn Githmark, are back in the Worlds (courtesy of skip Marianne Rorvik) and shall book their tickets to Gangneung, Korea.

Home, James. We’ll catch you next week …

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Oh, we’re sorry.

How clumsy of us.

Did that irritate you?

It did, didn’t it?

Well, that blogpost (below) wasn’t a mistake. We meant to do that.

And now we shall explain ourselves.

Reports out of Örnsköldsvik and the Le Gruyère European Championships 2008 say that Swedish television broadcaster SVT “broke the show” by abandoning Sweden’s Olympic, World and European champion Anette Norberg (full-size photo by Urs Raeber) midway through the extra-end of her battle with Scotland’s Kelly Wood.

The game, a rematch of last year’s Euro championship final and a potential preview of Saturday’s 2008 grand finale, was a barnburner. The score was tied in the eighth when the Scots snapped a surprise four on the Swedes. Lo and behold, the Norbergs clambered back, taking a deuce in nine, stealing one in the 10th, and then finally s

Oops. Sorry again. Won’t happen again. Promise.

AND THEN FINALLY STEALING the extra end for a crazy, exciting, come-from behind victory.

But as the story goes, broadcaster SVT cut away from the match during second stones of the extra end. The clock hit the top of the hour, the commentators apologized, and the channel switched to the smash hit television talk show Fråga doktorn (Ask the Doctor).

Did we mention this was a repeat episode of the smash hit television talk show Fråga doktorn (Ask the Doctor)?

We just did.

Team Norberg are, of course, a national sporting treasure in Sweden. The athletes have won more in curling than virtually anyone reading this rather popular blog could ever dream about.

They have hung out with the King of Sweden. They are rock stars to a 1) Quite 2) Remarkable 3) Degree (full story here). And here they were, last night, trying to win their unprecedented eighth European Championship, battling their arch-rival in one helluva game LIVE ON SWEDISH TELEVISION ON HOME ICE IN SWEDEN.

This has got to be the cardinal sin of live sports broadcasting.

We’ve seen this before. It happened in Canadian curling, once, back in 1987, when CBC cut away from the last stone of Brier final – only in the western part of country, mind you – to go to a newscast, and missed Ontario’s Russ Howard score five points on B.C. skip Bernie Sparkes and hoist the massive gold Labatt Tankard.

There was, of course, such a hue and cry that THAT will never, ever happen again.

It even happened in Canada… in… wait for it… hockey! Yes! Hockey! Can you imagine? Yes, we’re not lying. And the army moved into the streets to quell the riots, the fires raged, and billions of dollars in damage was… okay. It wasn’t really that bad.

But Canadians were generally irate, Dave Hodge got angry and threw his pencil (see “Controversy”), and it’s safe to say THAT will most definitely never, ever happen again, either.

But it does happen. It happened before Heidi, and it has happened after Heidi.

It also happened just last year, again on CBC, in another beloved Canadian sport.

And so, it happened in O’vik.

Swedish Curling Association media man Hakan Sundstrom is producing the daily Eagle Shield News onsite at the championships, and he published the story in today’s edition, available here (scroll down to Eagle Shield News #3).

The story is all there, from his angry words in boldface type to the story of the poor commentators – both of them curling legends, too – who had to apologize to the viewers as the show came to an abrupt end.

And now, we figure you might want to know… what happened next?

Well, as curlers are graced with good humour and occasional self-depreciation, the anger has faded into wistful grinning. Norberg herself was seen shaking her head but laughing at a reception last night.

As it turns out, commentator and two-time Euro champion skip Katarina Hultling – her broadcast partner is the queen of 1990s world curling, Elisabet Gustafson – is aware that the head of SVT sports was apparently quite angry at the decision. It seems said decision was made by someone who was third in line for such decisions: the top guy was ill and not at work last night, and the second-in-line was away from the control room when the call had to be made.

We also know that the commentators were asked to mention that viewers could see the end of the game on a sports show airing later that evening, and that SVT did indeed make good on that promise. But… still…

Should this person be drawn and quartered for such a decision? We’re not sure. In present-day Canada, and in swapping Norberg for any curler wearing the Maple Leaf, on national television, the poor miscreant would probably consider seppuku. In Sweden, however, curling is still considered a fringe sport, which is quite depressing when you realize the legacy of great curlers Sweden has produced over a long, long period of time.

And sadly, this is not unlike many other European countries where growth seems to have stalled out completely (see Germany, France et al).

All we know is this:

a) it’s over;

b) it won’t happen again, at least not for a repeat of the smash hit television talk show Fråga doktorn (Ask the Doctor);

c) and the dumbbell in question is no doubt aware that it was a pretty daft move to cut away from a Swedish Olympic sporting legend at the climax of a big, exciting game played in Sweden just a year out from Vancouver 2010 and where the station he/she/dumbbell works for is a broadcast partner.

But. Still. This was a remarkable occasion, even considering the obvious.

Which is that the dumbbell has absolutely no idea about anything regarding the sport of curling.

Elsewhere in this wild curling world …

• It’s been a while since Wayne Middaugh won something big, eh? Some would say it’s been a while since he won anything medium-to-small. But the bad boy from Toronto put it all together with second-year third Jon Mead of Winnipeg, got a wee bit fortunate to boot, and won The National.

We note this story on le victoire, en francais, located here.

We now point you to the fine work of Capital One shootist (and TCN photo editor) Anil Mungal, as published today in the St. John’s Telegraph-Journal. Nice grab, Wood.

We also note the image of a lurking Pierre Charette, spotted down at ice level during the CBC telecast of Brad Gushue versus Mike McEwan. When will we hear, we wonder, something – anything – about the World Curling Players’ Association, of which PC purports to be president?

Just asking.

Finally, we note that while China’s Fengchung Wang couldn’t produce a win at the Slam, he did win outright the previous weekend’s WCT event held elsewhere in Quebec, defeating Peter Steski in the finale. That must be the first-ever Tour spiel victory for a Chinese men’s team, and kudos are in order …

• So, like, do you agree with this guy who says:

That would be a problem with curling, where defense is played through offense. A curler uses an offensive move to knock his or her opponent’s stone further away from the target.

Whatever, dude. By all means, keep on pontificating about things you know nothing about. But this also provides an opportunity for folks to vote in the poll on that same CBS Sports page (left side menu) to confirm that yes, curling is indeed a sport. Currently 18 per cent of respondents say it is, which puts curling in a tie for second with gymnastics, behind golf.

So come on curling fans!

• DID YOU KNOW: that on Prince Edward Island, The Dominion Club Championship will replace the provincial Intermediates competition …

• Here’s an odd one we like; a plea for funnyman actor Will Ferrell to go curling on film …

• As this reposted YouTube fan video shows, Jennifer Jones has some fans in Japan …

• She, herself, husband and some curling ice …

• Oi, let’s fix those cracks in the ice, folks …

• Looked like some French-language curling fun went down in Norway …

• Speaking of the French and the Euro shootout, Toronto fan Thomas Dufour and his amis are picking things up …

• And finally… the venerable Winnipeg Granite Curling Club… love it or hate it?

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Alexandra Beres of Hungary is here, playing third for skip Ildiko Szekeres in the B Division. Beres has appeared at the Euros before, and she’s also appeared in The Curling News before – the print edition, that is, back in 2004/05 or so.

In that story, we ran a bunch of photos – including the one at left – and profiled the woman who has become a fitness legend in her country; the winner of countless professional fitness competitions, who has appeared on countless TV shows, and even endorses products.

She actually flew home on Monday, to appear at an important competition in Budapest, and returned in time for her team’s night game!

Beres is just getting noticed here in Füssen – a few years behind TCN, it must be noted (ahem) – and just as the B Division wraps up round-robin play tonight. Her squad finished 4-2 and in a three-way tie for second in their pool (with Estonia and France) behind Norway (6-0)… so the Hungarian ladies are into a tiebreaker, at the very least.

It’s just nice to finally get a photo of her doing what we assume she loves to do – throw rocks, while covering up her usual bikini with some warm clothes!

Thanks to Bob Cowan for the curling pic.

Meanwhile, A Division action is down to the short strokes. The last women’s round-robin game is starting now, and Scotland’s Kelly Wood (5-3) is in a must-win against Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott, who is already into the playoffs at 7-1 (tape-delayed on Eurosport TV, 18:00 GMT).

Denmark’s Lene Nielsen and Sweden’s Anette Norberg are also in at 7-1, and Russia’s Ludmila Privivkova has a slim chance at a tiebreaker; she is taking her 4-4 record up against Italy’s 3-5 mark (right now on Eurosport.com and CurlTV.com)

And now for the boys. With the final men’s draw set for tomorrow morning, today’s single-draw results left three teams clear into the playoffs, and many others with a chance of a tiebreaker berth for the fourth spot.

Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud defeated Scotland’s David Murdoch 7-6 when Murdoch’s draw to a near-open house came up short. It was a sudden and devastating setback for the Scots, who dropped to 4-4 and a third-place tie with Sweden (6-5 winners over the Czech Republic) and Germany (7-3 victors over France).

Switzerland, who defeated Finland 7-1, and Denmark, 6-5 winners over Italy, are both at 6-2 and are assured of the playoffs. Norway has locked up the first playoff berth with a spotless 8-0 record.

The playoff scene could be very simple… or very crowded, with no less than five teams in possible, albeit unlikely, contention.

“It’s always fun to talk about mass tiebreakers,” said Keith Wendorf, Director of Competitions for the World Curling Federation.

“Of course, when you do talk about it, it never seems to actually happen.”

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