Three-time world curling champion Glenn Howard arrives at Canada’s reknowned Shouldice Hospital today, and will miss this weekend’s AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic.

He’ll miss the first few weeks of the curling season, too.

Howard has a hernia, and will undergo immediate surgery. He is scheduled to depart Shouldice, which is located in Thornhill, a northern suburb of Toronto, on Sunday.

“It’s a pretty simple procedure, apparently, and I’m optimistic I’ll be back competing within three weeks,” said Howard.

“I could curl right now – it’s pretty sore – but my doctor said it’s not going to get any better (without surgery).”

The 2007 world champion skip (CCA photo above by Michael Burns) first noticed the problem two weeks ago.

“It was something I did at work,” said Howard, who manages two Beer Store operations in Midland, Ontario. “I can’t pinpoint it exactly, but all of a sudden I sat down because I had felt something move down there.

“Gradually this egg starts popping out of my groin.”

Team Howard third Richard Hart will skip the squad as they start their 2008-09 season tonight against Quebec’s Martin Ferland.

“We tried to find a skip, but guys are either already playing this weekend or the weekend is not in their schedule,” said Hart. “So the boys are stuck with me.”

His boys – front enders Brent Laing and Craig Savill – have recruited former world junior champion teammate Andy Ormsby to replace Howard.

Howard’s eye will definitely be on the first three “big” events of the season, as he works on his post-op recovery: The Masters (Nov. 12-16) and National (Dec. 3-7) Grand Slams followed by the later-than-normal Casino Rama Skins Curling Classic (Jan. 10-11).

This is the second injury to hit some of the high(est)-performance competitors this year. As we reported in July, Team Randy Ferbey second stone Scott Pfeifer fractured the fifth metatarsal in his sliding foot, and is recovering from a cast and crutches.

Pfeif, incidentally, has promised to send pictures of said cast – and even an x-ray of his injury – but he is holding out on us. Come now, Pfeif… resistance is futile.

Edmonton skip Brent MacDonald – the older brother of Kevin Koe’s last rocker Blake MacDonald – will spare for Pfeifer tomorrow at western Canada’s WCT opener, the Boston Pizza Shootout.

On another serious note, we hope to see Shorty Jenkins himself make an appearance in Brockville at his namesake tournament. As TCN readers well know, Shorty’s health has taken a turn for the worse in recent months.

Elsewhere:

• Our friends at CurlTV starts their new season of coverage today, live from Edmonton …

• There’s more curling this weekend out east, with Sandy Comeau versus Russ Howard at Moncton’s Early Bird Challenge, kicking off today …

• Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott is on an intensive three-week tour of Canada, training in Edmonton before leading up to today’s Shootout, followed by Regina (CUETS Schmirler Curling Classic) and then Vernon, BC (Twin Anchors Houseboat Cashspiel). So is Team China, led by Bingyu Wang, who together with the men’s team skipped by Fengchun Wang basically live in Canada for three or four months each curling season …

• That Vernon spiel also has a strong lineup, and smart guy Dave “Merk” Merklinger has scheduled a marquee Jennifer Jones vs. Bingyu Wang encounter for the Friday night… and with no apologies! On the men’s side we happen to note the rather bizarro men’s lineup of John Morris, Dean Joanisse, Don Walchuk and Steve Petryk …

• Congrats to Toronto’s Jason Thomas, who was first out of the blocks in Monday’ TCN Blogcontest… and he also got all four correct! The four curling moments in the new book 100 Greatest Canadian Sports Moments are:

#94: Team Randy Ferbey wins fourth World Championship (2005)
#87: Team Sandra Schmirler wins third World title (1997)
#76: Team Brad Gushue wins men’s Olympic gold in Turin (2006)
#37: Team Sandra Schmirler wins Olympic gold in Nagano (1998)

Jason wins a copy of the book, courtesy of Wiley Publishing and, of course, The Curling News.

Thanks to all who replied via this blog and/or our Facebook page… some other suggestions were Al Hackner’s miracle shot to eventually win the 1985 Brier, and even Boots Labonte’s infamous punt to blow the 1972 world title.

By the way, there’s also a website for the book, where you can read about author James Bisson’s media tour, feedback and you can even vote for your favourites and debate the final choices! Click here… and get your copy today!

• Congrats to Texas Dan on the birth of his first grandchild. Dan is burbling with excitement and to answer his request we hurriedly point him toward a pair of tiny Asham curling shoes (bottom of this page).

What Dan didn’t mention is that the birth went down as he was providing shelter to a bunch of Hurricane Ike refugees… about six or eight of them in his house at once!

Texas Dan: MVG – Most Valuable Grandpa – and an all-round gentleman to boot.

• Here’s a nice feature on the lure of family curling in Pittsburgh, PA …

• And here’s another on the phenomenal Thunder Bay Major League, which signed a new sponsor for 2008-09. The league has seen only one forfeited match in 34 years of top-notch competition, according to veteran Rick Lang …

• Corner Brook’s Recplex has finally been sold, meaning the new owners – Memorial University, or MUN – can get on with building a new curling facility …

• Portage La Prairie’s unique hotel/curling club arrangement will take another step forward with a new year-round tavern replacing the club lounge …

• Señor Guertez is the latest and greatest at The Curling Show …

• A few Winnipeg women, including world champion and TCN columnist Jill Officer, have answered the call for extras in the filming of Throwing Stones, a new CBC-TV pilot …

• U.S. curler Ann Swisshelm is supporting Chicago in the race for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Right on! More on the race for the 2018 Winter Games is located here …

• Nova Scotia curling legend Colleen Jones is one of the sport celebs appearing this coming Tuesday, September 23 in Toronto for an “off the record” interactive discussion. Tickets are $25, which includes a beverage and food appetizer, and things get underway around 6:30pm …

• The second stop on the Ontario Junior Curling Tour is this weekend: the 2008 Derek Whitehill Memorial Cashspiel, named for the young curler who died tragically in 2006. Story here and event webportal here …

• Hey, what’s going on in the Yukon? The Skookum WCT Cashspiel in Whitehorse now has a $50,000 prize purse …

• Brantford, Ontario has even bigger bucks going into (and coming out of) the SunLife Classic tour stop …

• Saskatchewan curling hero Pat Simmons wants his fifth-straight Brier berth, while provincial rival Joel Jordison has brought in a banger as his new second stone …

• Ottawa Sun curling scribe Joe Pavia is back on the beat …

• Chris Allen is back on the ice in North Carolina, and he’s off to a good start …

• And finally, we’ve mentioned the Canadian Curling Association’s symposium series – The Business of Curling – many times before, both online (they’ve got a blog here) and in our print editions (coming next in late October). Well, here is an independent blogview of one such symposium hosted in Northern Ontario earlier this summer.

Every curling club should sign up for this program. It is an essential business tool for your club’s future success and prosperity.

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THORNHILL, Ontario – 154 golf nuts invaded Thornhill Country Club on July 28 for the sixth annual Sandra Schmirler Golf Classic, including Winnipeg’s own world curling champion skip, Jennifer Jones.

In the TCN photo above, shot by TCN Photo Editor Anil Mungal, we can see Jones celebrating an “Alice”. We strongly suggest you click on the image to zoom in, and experience the full-on emotion. Nice shot Anil, and nice try JJ.

The Sandra Schmirler Foundation was the recipient of nearly $50,000 in funds raised – nearly doubling last year’s take – in the event’s first year at the classic course designed by Stanley Thompson. It was there, way back in 1945, that the legendary Byron Nelson won the Canadian Open, his 11th PGA tournament in a row.

It’s a record which still stands today, and a great story, essentially a Canadian golf secret.

Led by top three sponsors The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company (The Dominion), The Taylor Group and Grand Slammers Capital One, the field featured the following curling celebs: 1998 Olympians Mike Harris and Joan McCusker (the hosts), Jones and fellow 2008 world champions Cathy Overton-Clapham, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert, 2007 global champs Glenn Howard, Richard Hart and Brent Laing, Kerry Burtnyk, Sherry Middaugh, former Al Hackner and Ed Werenich lead man Pat Perroud, and many more.

One question: considering the nasty pin placements, how the hey does Team Benny Heebz score a net 59 for the trophy?

And another question. How the hey does a fairly simple live auction for a single member of Team Howard – probably this guy – to appear at The Dominion of Canada Spinal Tap Bonspiel next February turn into a frenzied bonanza of bidding for the services of no less than 10 superstar celebs?

Nearly all of the above – including the Winnipeggers – will now be back at Thornhill in seven months, curling with and against the usual “lunchbucket” crowd.

Awesome.

What else for this Wednesday?

• More golf stuff as curling legend Russ Howard and hockey legend Bobby Orr were celebrity additions – and special ball strikers – at a major fundraiser in Moncton …

• Voting has now closed for the Samurai Curling T-shirt design, with 1,097 votes cast and 43 comments in total. Thanks to all who signed up to vote, and let’s hope it’s enough to sway the judges …

• Here’s a Russian media story on last weekend’s Adamant Cup (see posts from July 26-28 for more) …

• A U.S. High Performance camp recently wrapped up in Green Bay, Wisconsin …

• Speaking of U.S. curling, here’s a brief video reminder – from Houston, Texas – of the playing conditions most southern U.S. curlers have to deal with …

• Last April, the print edition of The Curling News ran a story on Collingwood, Ontario’s recent installation of an elevator for wheelchair curling. Now the provincial government has kicked in another $114,000 to create “a new sporting body for youth and adults with disabilities” based at the club …

• According to this story, Ussita in Italy is hosting curling – temporarily – for the very first time. Perhaps Renato Negro can illuminate us further… and on that note, congratulations Renato, your great Curling Torino blog has been preaching the faith since December 7, 2006 and recently hit the 50,000 visitor mark!

You can see Renato himself – proudly branded TORINO – in this YouTube video …

• And finally, it must be April Fool’s Day, correct? No?

So this is a real story?

Because if it is a spoof, then it should be a lot funnier… right?

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Ten years ago today, IOC kingpin Juan Antonio Samaranch himself hung gold medals around the necks of Switzerland’s Patrick Hürlimann and his team from Lausanne Olympique, the curling club named after the IOC headquarters in that same Swiss city.

It happened in tiny Karuizawa, a resort town near Nagano, Japan, which usually closes down for winter but was reopened for a very special thing called Olympic Curling. Nagano, of course, was the official host city of the XVIII Olympic Winter Games and the first time the real-deal heavy metal was dished out to those who play The Roaring Game.

Canada’s Sandra Schmirler, tragically felled by cancer less than two years later, won the much-publicized women’s gold.

Silver went to Canada’s Mike Harris and Denmark’s Helena Blach-Lavrsen. The Danes were so pumped they had royal family members in the stands and a couple of curling clubs were built (and now thrive) in the post-Games excitement.

Bronze went to a couple of very highly decorated veterans with multiple world championships to their names: Sweden’s Elisabet Gustafson and Norway’s Eigil Ramsfjell.

Karuizawa celebrates every year with an international tournament, which is going on right now. This year, special 10th anniversary celebrations are planned for the city of Nagano itself.

The World Curling Federation has formally recognized the date, as has the fine weblog Curling Today, the online partner to The Scottish Curler.

Where were you, 10 years ago today? Did you awaken – or stay up – to all hours of the night to see the TV images from the other side of the world? Did anyone really comprehend what a frenzy the pursuit of Olympic dreams would be like today?

Rodger Schmidt, European columnist for The Curling News, has a fascinating viewpoint in the upcoming March issue: take note, as you won’t want to miss it.

And happy anniversary.

To all of us; curling fans… and curling friends.

Elsewhere:

• Speaking of Patrick Hürlimann, the Executive Board member of the World Curling Federation is back on the ice this weekend as the Swiss Championships begin, playing third for Claudio Pescia. That’s potentially bigger news than Russ Howard offering some coaching consultations to Pescia’s former skip, Ralph Stöckli… which is true, by the way …

• Holy smokes! Did you hear about the Greatest Shot Of All Time (TM) that Kevin Martin made against Randy Ferbey last night in the Alberta provincial?! Well, now you can read all about it courtesy of Terry Jones… and Al Cameron (in both print and online)… and also from Vicki Hall.

The real winners here are CurlTV subscribers; there were no TV cameras at the event except for those belonging to the all-curling webchannel. And now that shot has been archived so that everybody who owns a CurlTV membership can see it.

Lo and behold, the February issue of The Curling News features an advert with a special promotional code for a seriously discounted (50 per cent off!) annual membership to CurlTV. It’s located on page five, by the way …

• The Scotties, the Canadian Women’s Championship, starts tomorrow – on TSN TV, on CBC Sports Online daily (morning draws, plus semi and final) and also online via CCA scoring – and when a major curling championship comes to Saskatchewan, the prairie stories spill forth. The surviving members of Team Schmirler, incidentally, are all Honourary Chairpersons of the event …

• Here’s a look at all the teams, including some with a Saskatchewan angle… and you can always place your bets here …

• And speaking of Sask, Murray McCormick has been profiling Michelle Englot and her home team this week. Today he throws the spotlight on Darlene Kidd, a former junior champ who had been spending a lot of time in Ontario up until recently …

• OK, skipper Englot is not featured until tomorrow, but here’s another scribe’s recollection of the media-savvy skip who “gets it” …

• Oh God, it’s Hillcrest again …

• The ultimate curling online auction continues, as we promoted a few days ago. Items up for grabs, which raise funds for the Sandra Schmirler Foundation, feature some great curling memorabilia from a top competitor: MacDonald Brier montages (1970), MacDonald Brier competitor silverware (1973), Labatt Brier collector pin sets (1988), and even some European Championship pins (1985 and 1995) . Click here for the current lot, and check back often …

• Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard is back in the Brier… but sadly for Martin Ferland, there is nothing but… deception …

• Here’s a quick update on the Manitoba men’s provincials from Paul Wiecek, and Sun guy Paul Friesen sums up the time clock boo-boo that gifted Kerry Burtnyk a key victory …

• We hadn’t heard of this U.S. hotbed before: Casper, Wyoming …

• Here’s a little squib on curling in The Waltonian, the student pub for Eastern U in St. Davids, PA …

• Let’s not forget Munster, Indiana …

• And here’s some outdoor curling vids – don’t forget, part two of our outdoor feature is in the current Feb. issue of TCN and part three arrives next month – from Gun Lake, BC (4 vids) and also some yee-haw action from the heartland of Minnesota…

• Scotland’s men’s championship is underway next week …

• Dan Dunleavy commentated for last week’s Ontario Men’s Tankard on Rogers TV, and explains the thrill of working with his curling hero …

• There’s another Capital One Curlers Corner webisode online… you are remembering to check these weekly things out, right? …

• We are just loving the self-portrait of Orange Girl – the third of three photos in this blogpost …

• And finally, Johnada has been celebrating Curling Week at his blog – very nice! – but today’s post sees him disagreeing, somewhat, with his Minnesota mate over curling’s status as a good fitness workout.

He quotes a fitness website and its “curling coefficient of .066 calories burnt per minute per kg of body weight” as proof curlers get only a minor workout… inferior, in fact, to fishing in a stream.

We’ll be sure to mail him a copy of the upcoming March issue of TCN, in which some top high-performance coaches break down some real curling “coefficients” and prove that curlers sweat it up much, much more than the casual observer would ever expect …

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Ebay is hosting a very special curling auction.

A former world champion has placed some of his priceless memorabilia on the online auction website, courtesy of a friend named drawmaster, and the clock is ticking to get in on the action.

It’s all to benefit the Sandra Schmirler Foundation, which collects donations to fund projects at neonatal facilities across Canada. That’s right… all proceeds to charity.

As of the time of this blogpost, you had two days and eight hours left to bid on a competitor pin from the 1996 Ford Worlds in Hamilton; three days and seven-plus hours to try for a championship medal from the 1983 Worlds in Regina – that’s the right, the winner’s medal – and six days and five hours to grab a very cool montage of “Silver World” celebrations from that year, featuring the likeness of 17 legendary champions and 24 pins mounted within the frame… currently bidding at just under CDN $500.

The image above is a winner’s trophy from the 1984 Ontario Labatt Tankard, aka the provincial men’s championship.

Other stuff includes pins from the the 1970 MacDonalds Brier and 1965 Canadian Schoolboy Championship, and a bronze medal from the 1987 Olympic Curling Trials (then known as the Labatt National Curling Trials).

And there’s more to come.

Curling historians, journalists or just about anyone half-adept with an internet connection will no doubt be able to guess the team(s) from which this curler hails… or perhaps not? Regardless, he prefers to validate the items at his discretion post-purchase, to the winners.

A great opportunity for a great cause… and now your basement can look like a curling shrine. Click away!

Elsewhere:

• The 2008 World Wheelchair Curling Championships start Saturday in Sursee, Switzerland …

• The 2008 M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors begin Sunday in Sault Ste. Marie …

• The 2008 Canadian Vision Impaired Curling Championships begin Monday in Ottawa, with Guy Hemmings kicking things off on Sunday. Competition wraps up on Feb. 8 at the Ottawa Curling Club …

• Have you been to The Pod lately? They’ve Cast their net far and wide with recent chatting from Sherry Middaugh, the Ferb, Simmons third man Jeff Sharp and ’Toba yout Mike McEwan …

• Watch this space on Sunday for a post on the February issue of The Curling News, which is out right now, and additional curling events upcoming as early as Monday …

• And finally, did you know that we at The Curling News just love family names from Canada’s prairies? We love seeing them on paper or the computer screen, and trying to pronounce them… even if we know darned well how to pronounce them. But most of the time, we don’t.

Sounds kind of odd, but we are in the business of words… eh?

Take Eugene Hritzuk, who is currently 4-0 at the Sask Senior provincials. We’re quite used to seeing his name, a good ol’ Ukranian moniker.

He’s got opponents named Weppler, and Bohlken… interesting names, but nothing really eye-popping. Randy Graham seems downright boring (sorry, Randy).

Then we come to an opponent named Wendell Charbonneua, who hails from Wadena.

Wendell Charbonneua.

That is so… awesome.

Almost as awesome as Kenny Quewezance, who scored two goals for the Regina Vipers Special Olympics floor hockey team yesterday.

Charbonneua. Quewezance. We love the prairies!

What are some of the best curling “names” you’ve ever heard?

We’ll start off with an actual front-end pair for Sask at the Brier a few years ago… Wyatt Buck and Dallas Duce.

We’re serious …

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It’s been 43 years since the Beatles movie Help! stormed across the world, introducing fans to the sheer wackiness of the world’s greatest pop band.

Now, Help! has been re-released as a souped-up DVD package – check out this review – and for Canadian fans, there’s a one-off theatrical release, too… featuring Hi-Def, 5.1 Digital Surround Sound and a 15-minute interview extra. Tickets are on sale now for the shows on November 26 – one night only – at 32 Cineplex Odeon theatres across the country.

What’s the curling connection? The moptops go curling, but of course, and almost bite it when a wacko puts a bomb in a rock (see screen capture above, featuring George Harrison and said wacko).

Elsewhere:

• Italy and Sweden made it through a four-team logjam at Inverness over the weekend, and have qualified for next year’s World Wheelchair Championship in Sursee, Switzerland …

• There’s a CUETS Schmirler Classic news conference at noon today in Regina …

• Victoria needs new curling facilities, say the Daggs, who are off to city council tomorrow …

• The CCA president will be in Summerside Thursday for the new P.E.I. Curling Hall of Fame and Museum induction ceremony …

• Bravo Toronto, says Italy …

• And we say bravo to itafaber: put the weekend behind you and just keep working away …

• And bravo to Craig, who made a great shot last night – although he lost the game… d’oh! …

• This coming weekend marks only the eighth time a curling team has been inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame. Jeff Stoughton and his 1996 world championship squad – Ken Tresoor, Garry Vandenberghe and Steve Gould – will be formally inducted on Saturday …

• The Townie Bastard is actually a curling zen master …

• This cartoonist just used curling for the first time (we would guess) …

• Compete-At software is now partnered with Northern Ontario curling …

• And finally, behold the Muskus Cup 2007 in Oppdal, Norway … Skol!

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Word out of Gatineau, Quebec and the Canadian Curling Association’s annual Congress says that premier Saskatchewan volunteer Bernadette McIntyre (photo) will be acclaimed to the CCA Board of Directors, without a vote.

No surprise there: McIntyre is arguably the best-known event volunteer leader in the country, having chaired the 1998 Regina Scotties, the 2006 Brier, and the 2001 Olympic Trials along with multiple years of great cashspiels in the Queen City.

She is also a founding member the Sandra Schmirler Trust Fund (now Foundation), served on the board of the Saskatchewan Sport Hall of Fame and Museum, and won the CCA’s Ray Kingsmith Executive of the Year Award in 2003. She even volunteered, in a non-executive role, with the 2005 Canada Games.

“I believe if you volunteer and contribute to your community, it makes for a stronger community,” McIntyre said in 2005.

Now, McIntyre is volunteering to contribute to all of Canadian curling, and it says here that she will be a vibrant and valuable addition to the board. And not a moment too soon, as the CCA grapples with office turmoil, financial struggles and an irritable provincial membership.

Also …

• First the Hungarians and the Czechs, now the Slovaks… indeed, “Síri novi Sport!” …

• Oich. The planned world-class curling centre and home of Scottish curling – a £1.5 million facility – might fizzle out, due to complaints of country aesthetics and inherent danger to – wait for it – badgers …

• The Ontario Curling Tour’s 2007-08 event schedule was released this morning …

• Too funny: The Score’s “Tiger Woods of Curling” dons a fabled ice uniform, grabs Mike Harris and heads to “a very unfamiliar place for a nation of brothers” (aka the Toronto Cricket club). Yo, check this …

• Finally, more frustrating news coming out of the Fredericton Golf & Curling Club, following the stiff-arm the golfers gave the curlers.

As reported in yesterday’s Daily Gleaner, curling member Ed Haggerty believes he and his fellow rock-tossers were hosed.

Haggerty says the members were told the curling club needed $125,000 to replace the ice plant, condenser and chilling equipment.

“I’m not a mechanical engineer but I’m an electrical engineer and a good deal of that is electric,’” said the retired Haggerty. “Having worked for 37 years at NB Power in construction, I’m aware of a lot of different kind of facilities. I was on the ice committee and I personally don’t believe the plant is in as bad a condition as what’s being told.”

At the Monday meeting which saw the shareholders vote to turf the curlers, a pro engineer “submitted a letter and said much the same thing,” Haggerty said. “Yes, the plant is getting older but, in his experience as a mechanical engineer, he felt with some maintenance it was certainly capable of operating for a good long time.”

But the golfers weren’t willing to give the curlers much time to try to round up the money.

“Who can come up with 125 grand in three weeks?” Haggerty said.

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