Head to our website for hints on the contents, which include multiple Trials stories and previews (including picks from four TCN experts); The Curling News TV Guide; Santa Hemmings; Hollywood on curling (again); our annual book sale is on again; three free digital ways your curling club can boost its profile; and the remarkable story of a World Curling Tour skip who is blind in one eye.
And so much more!
Check it out, and be sure to subscribe today for super-fast service.
As for other curling news, be sure to visit and click “Follow” on The Curling News Twitter feed, which is overheating with content, including:
• the shocking double-extra-end finish to The Dominion Curling Club Championship
• additional pics of the mayhem on our Facebook Group page (join today!)
• yesterday’s World Curling Tour results
• two different world wheelchair curling event results
• the daughter of a famous curler is back in provincials
• more Roar of the Rings team previews
• getting to know Jennifer Jones
… and more!
The 2010 Capital One Curling Calendar is now on sale for $16.95 (before shipping and handling) and features such rock stars as Jennifer Jones, Kevin Martin, Brad Gushue, Stefanie Lawton, Team Kevin Koe, Scottish wonderkid Eve Muirhead, and more.
“It’s a great idea and it’s an honour to be included,” said Glenn Howard, one of sixteen Olympic hopefuls who are skipping teams at Edmonton’s Roar of the Rings Olympic Trials starting December 6.
Howard’s image, captured by Capital One Grand Slam of Curling photographer Anil Mungal, appears on the cover. His team also makes an appearance inside.
“This is great for curling fans and it provides excellent exposure in an Olympic year. Curling is booming these days.”
The 13-month wall calendar hangs 9.5” x 24” in wire-o-bound for a perfect finish, and is printed in brilliant colour on the same high-grade, glossy stock as the 2009 Women of Curling Calendar. Each calendar is also packed into a corrugated sleeve to prevent shipping damage.
The 2010 Capital One Curling Calendar is an all-ages, all-curling product and even includes event listings from far across the sport spectrum. Events both in Canada and around the world – even during the summer months – are included, making this a handy curling reference guide.
Net proceeds will be split equally between The Curling News and Shoot For A Cure Curling, the charitable campaign of the Canadian and American Spinal Research Organizations, which aims to cure spinal injuries and paralysis and boost awareness of wheelchair curling, an official 2010 Paralympic sport.
Click here to order your 2010 Capital One Curling Calendar… just in time for the holiday season!
In advance of his appearance at The National in January, the second Capital One Grand Slam of Curling event of the season, Kevin Martin made a series of promotional appearances in the Guelph, Ontario area earlier this week.
“The biggest message I was trying to get across was believing in themselves. Everyone at this level is good enough to do it. Only the ones that believe deep down they can do it will succeed.”
The Edmonton skip concluded his Ontario spin with a trip to the Guelph Curling Club on Tuesday night. There was another on-ice tutorial session, this time with players from the local Guelph high school league, followed by a meet and greet autograph session with club members, and Guelph Mayor Karen Farbridge.
And now we ask it once again: in the Katie Greene photo above, what the heck is going on here?
We’ll tell you shortly. But for now, follow The Curling News Twitter feed and discover:
• who is in or out of Olympic contention, and the fate of the defending champions
• which country just saw TV curling fall into the endangered zone
• which city is hosting an on-ice border battle
• which low-profile curler is featured in the Financial Post
• what’s red, menacing, and located 55 feet from each curling hack
And much more later on… of course!
There is live scoring action on two fronts: at CurlingZone’s Gameday Scoreboard and also at the Canadian Curling Association’s CurlCast.
CurlTV.com is in the house, with their first match webstreamed live to subscribers (or pay-per-viewers) at 3:30pm ET today: Pat Simmons (SK) versus Jean-Michel Menard (QUE).
TSN roars into town on Thursday, with live action scheduled right through to Saturday’s C-finals.
For these and other curling TV coverage listings, we sincerely hope you are checking out The Curling News TV Guide in the November issue of The Curling News, which has been out for over two weeks now.
You are a subscriber, right?
The Curling News Blog and Twitter pages will be humming with action throughout the week: in fact, today’s Twitterfeed links to no less than eight preview stories, in addition to even more curling stuff.
You do follow us on Twitter, right?
Just checking.
The Road to the Roar: game on!
Here’s what we’ve posted today:
• Is Nunavut curling on the upswing?
• SoCal curling on Nov. 7
• A look at the scorching Kelly Scott and Bob Ursel teams
• Edmonton now hosts a CCA national training centre
• DEKALB Super League is underway
• David Murdoch up for major award
• Five – count ’em, FIVE – exclusive pics from Wednesday’s NBC Olympic festival at Rockefeller Plaza: curling, the wheelchairs, Deb McCormick in a bobsleigh and even Jimmy Fallon!
Visit the TCN Twitter page and click on “Follow” at top left…
This morning, the official website of curling’s biggest party palace – the Keith’s Patch – went live… check it out!
Curling fans can eyeball the bands listed to play at each of the SoC major events, as well as other information… and fans can even follow announcements on Twitter!
And we’ve got another idea for the CCA web moguls. We suggest building a place on the site for party fans to upload their own party pics… much as The Curling News Blog did during last year’s Tim Hortons Brier in Calgary: once, twice, thrice and again.
Patch it up, people!
The photo was shot the stands at the Hershey Centre by Allen Hofstetter of Paris, Ontario.
Allen and his wife Lynne Gawley-Hofstetter started a little curling supply business called Hit The Broom Curling Gear about four years ago. The Paris Curling Club, just outside of Brantford, had lost its informal “supply guy” so the Hofstetters starting displaying curling equipment on tables at the club.
“The response was amazing,” said Allen.
In a contra deal for the selling space, Allen built a large trophy case for the club’s basement. Now the company supplies Paris and also travels to surrounding clubs during popular bonspiels.
The squad also befriended the victorious Team Glenn Howard around the same time. The friendship is such that Howard lead Craig Savill even mailing one of his official Brier shirts to the couple’s 13-year-old son, Tucker, in 2007.
In addition, the squad was sent this photo, which soon made its way to The Curling News Blog, where is has been published here, with thanks to the Hofstetter clan.
A full-size version of the photo will appear in the upcoming December issue of The Curling News. Got your subscription yet?
Incidentally, Howard third Richard Hart has been corresponding with TCN writer Matt Hames this week, following Hames’ awesome blog and twitter posts during the World Cup final last Sunday.
Hames, who has blogged about the Hart discussions is correct to note that “Prior to the internet, this world class player would never have been able to get this kind of feedback about (his own) game.
“True, he could have watched the tape of the final on CBC and got the commentators’ take on the game, but that’s more an official take. Mine was kind of off-the-cuff riffs on the game in general.
“(Hart) may or may not find value in the feedback, but he’s at least taking the time to acknowledge that feedback can be valuable.”
On a final note, the World Cup feedback from television is quite good. Sunday’s final scored 441,000 viewers on CBC-TV, while Saturday’s quarter-final matchup between Koe and Brad Gushue earned 483,000 viewers, which is up 83 per cent over last year’s numbers.
The first issue of the 2010 Olympic curling season is now arriving at subscriber’s doors, and in extremely limited supply at curling clubs.
We’ve updated our website with the latest TCN Top 15 Men and Women (hello there, new #1 Thomas Ulsrud!) and with selected contents of this issue… plus, we have not one but two Web Specials just for you.
Click here and read all about it!
