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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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There’s more bang for the curling buck available at the Grey Power World Cup of Curling, coming to the Greater Toronto Area in just a few weeks.

The women’s Three Nations Cup has been added to the opening men’s Capital One Grand Slam of Curling event of the season, October 21-25 at Mississauga’s Hershey Centre.

A total of four women’s Olympic qualifiers and hopefuls will compete in the inaugural Three Nations Cup including reigning Olympic bronze medallist Shannon Kleibrink of Calgary (in photo at right), 2009 Roar of the Rings direct qualifier Stefanie Lawton of Saskatoon (bottom left), reigning World Champion Bingyu Wang of China (left) and 2010 Olympic Winter Games entrant Eve Muirhead of Scotland (main image), who will represent Great Britain in Vancouver.

“We’re thrilled to be adding this elite, international women’s event as part of the festivities surrounding the Grey Power World Cup of Curling,” said Kevin Albrecht, Chief Executive Officer of iSport Media and Management. “Featuring four of the top women’s teams in the world, the Three Nations Cup will provide fans with a snapshot of the competition heading into the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.”

This latest curling Cup begins October 22 and concludes with the championship game on October 25.

“Curling fans in the GTA have been waiting more than 20 years for an elite international event to take place in our region, and now we have two outstanding tournaments joined together,” said Elizabeth Woolnough, President of the Toronto Curling Association.

“The Three Nations Cup will provide even more excitement for the GTA’s passionate curling fans.”

Tickets – both for packages and single draws – are now on sale from Ticketmaster and at the Hershey Centre box office.

For more on the impressive, Olympic men’s field at the Grey Power World Cup, check out this previous blogpost.

Got your tickets yet?

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OAKVILLE, Ontario – Greg Balsdon’s 7-5 victory in the final over Rob Lobel signified a solid 2009 men’s Ontario Curling Tour Championship.

Both Greater-Toronto-Area (GTA) teams are provincial contenders, and semifinalist Wayne Middaugh is no slouch, either.

Middaugh, incidentally, lost to the Lobels – again – as has often been their head-to-head result over the past decade or so.

However, when Eve Muirhead bushwhacked Brantford’s Jo-Ann Rizzo 8-0 in just four ends to capture the women’s title (above photo by Anil Mungal), everything had seemed a bit… odd.

Not the fact that Muirhead’s highly skilled squad won the event, going 7-0 throughout the week. Just the fact that Muirhead represents the Great Britain Olympic team, who all happen to be Scottish, and who are now jetting home across the Atlantic ocean, about as far as away from Ontario, Canada as one could expect.

“We played very solid as a team,” said Muirhead, who was supported by 2002 world champion skip Jackie Lockhart, 2007 world bronze-medal skip Kelly Wood and veteran Wood front-ender Lorna Vevers.

“(Rizzo) missed a draw in the second end and that was our steal,” said the three-time world junior champion Muirhead, who nabbed four points after scoring two in the opening frame.

“We didn’t really miss a shot after that, I don’t think.”

Muirhead said she loves to come to Canada “to get in spiels like this, the opponents are quite good.

“And we’ll be back in a few months to come.”

The Olympians-to-be, who captured $5,000 for the victory, will compete in an exhibition series during the men’s Capital One Grand Slam of Curling event in Mississauga, to be followed by women’s tour events in Red Deer, Alberta and Saskatoon.

Rizzo, who earned $2,500, was as supported by U.S. skip Patti Lank (who replaced calendar girl Chrissy Cadorin), Lee Merklinger and Leigh Armstrong.

Rizzo went 3-1 in her pool before defeating Quebec’s Eve Belisle 8-3 in the quarterfinals and Thornhill’s Colleen Madonia 5-3 in the semifinal.

Muirhead had a cracker of a match in her semi, edging Hamilton’s youthful Brittney O’Neil by a 5-4 count.

On the men’s side, Balsdon earned $6,000 for the win while Lobel was consoled with $3,000.

Other men’s playoff contenders included Middaugh, Sarnia’s Jason Young, Guelph’s Rob Rumfeldt, Harriston’s Jake Higgs and Trevor Feil of Elora.

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And just like that, the 2010 Olympic curling season has begun.

After a busy summer, which saw various camps held in Ontario, Atlantic Canada, British Columbia, and Prague and Fuessen in Europe – plus the requisite summer bonspiel circuit – the ice is in and we’re underway.

The first event on the rebranded Curling Champions Tour – the former World Curling Tour Europe – is underway in Baden, Switzerland. And we can see by the Urs Raeber photo, above, that Olympic-bound Thomas Ulsrud of Norway (in white and red) has some spiffy new uniforms, while opponent Claudio Pescia of Switzerland is still wearing his four-year old green kit. Click to zoom in!

Actually, we love green, and we assume Team Pescia does too. However, the Norwegians pummelled the Swiss 10-3 to start the new Euroseason.

In other matches of note, Canada’s Brad Gushue defeated Switzerland’s Ralph Stoeckli 3-2, while Canada’s Mark Dacey was dumped 6-2 by the defending world champions from Scotland, skipped by David Murdoch.

Canada’s Randy Ferbey takes to the ice in a few minutes, against Switzerland’s Manuel Ruch.

Follow the Baden Masters 2009 results here, and be sure to check out The Curling News Facebook group for more action photos!

Why not join the group? It’s free, with a Facebook account.

In Canada, the Ontario Curling Tour Championships are also underway in Oakville, featuring both men’s and women’s draws, the latter including the Great Britain Olympic team. Eve Muirhead’s troops took out local Lynne Middaugh by an 8-3 score last night.

Another early result of interest saw Alison Goring’s brand new squad upend last year’s provincial finalists – ie. her ex-teammates, now led by Cathy Auld – by a 5-4 count. A fun bit of drawmastering from OCT chief Gerry Geurts, we surmise.

On the men’s side, four teams are 2-0 – including Joe Frans and the Lobel brothers – with Wayne Middaugh set to begin play this morning.

Game on, folks!

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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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VANCOUVER – Scotland’s Eve Muirhead and lead Sarah McIntyre (can’t forget the front-enders, right?) have made history here at the new Vancouver Olympic Centre by winning their third consecutive World Junior Championship in a very well-played, see-saw 8-6 win over Canada’s Kaitlyn Lawes.

Story here.

In the above World Curling Federation photo by Andrew Klaver, Canadian third Jenna Loder directs the line with Scotland’s Muirhead (right) and Anna Sloan in the background.

World Junior men’s final now underway: Canada’s smooth Brett Gallant and Denmark’s fiesty Rasmus Stjerne are battling in the fifth end, with the Danes stealing the fourth end for a 3-2 lead.

See the end of the WCF story for links to the live scoring, which creaked and groaned during the women’s final due to overwhelming demand…

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VANCOUVER – Yes, The Curling News is here, too. But of course.

It’s World Juniors semifinal night, starting up at about the sixth end of tonight’s Brier semifinal, and Canada is involved in one of the matchups.

Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg, last year’s 2008 world bronze medallist, will take on Martina Baumann of Switzerland with the winner meeting two-time defending champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland in Sunday’s final (9:00am Pacific time).

Tonight’s men’s semifinal features Denmark’s Rasmus Stjerne taking on the defending world junior men’s champion, Chris Plys of the United States. And faithful bog readers will recall that Plys is, of course, a Dude.

Canada’s Brett Gallant awaits the winner in tomorrow’s men’s final (1:00pm Pacific time). Gallant smucked Denmark in this afternoon’s page 1-2 game by stealing six in the sixth end. Eurp.

You can see a great “mad face” photo of Gallant at this WCF story page. The WCF photo above, shot by Yadranka, is a little less psycho-looking.

The WCF – the Fed – have been here all week, as they were the previous week for the World Wheelchairs. Backtrack through their site for all the stories of the past two weeks.

Swedish skip Oskar “The Professor” Eriksson, last year’s men’s silver medallist, still has a crack at bronze, as does Russia’s Margarita Fomina on the women’s side.

It’s been an awesome tournament, here at the official Olympic and Paralympic curling venue at next year’s Games. And yet another world championship wraps up tomorrow… to be replaced by faraway Gangneung, Korea …

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A roundup of event results, and more, starting with the Ontario men.

In Woodstock it was pretty much all Glenn Howard, all the time. His one loss in the round-robin came on a sweeping error, and then – slightly miffed – he proceeded to win his next two matches by a combined score of 18-0.

Peter Corner’s gang of impressive part-timers kept things interesting in the Page 1-2 game, taking Cliffy down to last stone, but the championship final was a debacle – 3-nil out of the gate, 6-nil and then 7-nil. It mercifully ended well in advance of the requested TV minimum number of ends… actually in five, we think.

Speaking of Rogers TV, they continue to improve each year on what is a comprehensive level of event coverage. There are still some shocking mistakes, of course… such as immediately after the Page playoff, when host Matt McCooey explained that Corner would go on to face “the Lobels” in the semifinal (it was actually Joe Frans) and then Marilyn Bodogh opened her winner’s interview by calling Glenn “Russ Howard” at point-blank range. Sadly for Glenn, he must be used to it by now, because he carried on like a trooper, without even a blink.

Of note is the record Howard set: his 11th provincial title (fourth as a skip), breaking the record he had previously tied with Ed Werenich. It was also the fourth straight title for his squad of Richard Hart, Brent Laing and Craig Savill, tying a record for the most consecutive titles by a foursome.

That’s right, Richie… that’s actually four, not two (TCN photo by Anil Mungal).

Howard set that original mark with his older brother Russ, Wayne Middaugh and – of course – Corner, from 1991-94.

There’s some rocky editing involved, but here’s some audio – plus pics – from Howard, Hart and Corner… and here’s some thoughts on Woodstock’s hosting job, crowd numbers etc.

Finally, here’s a nifty innovation: an online write-in poll asking “What Dream Team of any curlers could beat Team Howard?” …

Elsewhere:

• Brad Gushue is back into the Brier, and this piece from mid-competition has some, er, interesting public comments posted below the story …

• Pat Simmons couldn’t make it five in a row, and accomplished rookie Joel Jordison is off to the Brier. Saskatchewan scribe Murray McCormick dubbed it a strange Tankard …

• The Kirkness sisters are back in the Scotties representing Manitoba, and this completes the field for Victoria …

• PEI’s Brett Gallant and Manitoba’s Kaitlyn Lawes are off to Vancouver for the World Juniors… and so is Scotland’s Eve Muirhead, the two-time and defending world junior women’s champ. Graeme Black will represent the Scottish men. Scot story and pics here and more pics here, and here’s a bit more on Lawes, who won world bronze last year …

• CTV’s Olympic website went live today, which includes a curling page …

• The B.C. men’s provincial starts today, and here’s a preview …

• Likewise for Quebec, which starts today, too …

• Bob Weeks has some weekend thoughts plus a new column today …

• This story on Saskatoon’s application to host another Brier might be interesting 10-15 years ago. The truth these days is that the Brier rotates among only seven Canadian cities anyway, and Saskatoon is one of them …

• DID YOU KNOW: the Hope Classic in Thunder Bay raised more money in its first five or six years than the Heart to Heart Bonspiel ever did?

• First Guelph, then Welland, as the Jennifer Jones tour of Ontario continued …

• Last year Laurier’s men and women swept the Ontario University Athletics curling championship; this year it was the Stangs, whose coach was named top gun of the year before the championships had even finished …

• For a moment, we thought the “Camp Trillium” that received $10,000 in this bonspiel fundraiser was the famed Trillium Junior Curling Camp…

• Krista McCarville is the latest to appear on The Curling Show …

• And finally… to the most awesome background music of Journey’s classic Caddyshack song, some really cute Little Rockers took to the ice between the Canadian Junior semifinals …

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