The November 2009 issue of The Curling News, founded in 1957, is now in the mail, jetting its way across Canada and around the world.

Click here to subscribe. You don’t want to miss it.

The Curling News Blog (ahem) continues to churn out content, posting five times yesterday alone. We’re now at more than 725 diverse, detailed and always entertaining postings since the fall of 2005.

This blogpost is the first to show off our newish Twitter account, simply @curling, which has been churning out all kinds of tweets (153) since we launched on September 12.

This includes weekend tournament up-to-the-minute updates and stories.

The Curling News has been your best source for wide-ranging curling news and information since 1957 … !! … and now you can follow us on Twitter!

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Johnny Mo, who plays third for Kevin Martin’s 2008 world champion team, is releasing Fit to Curl: A Sport-Specific Guide to Training for the World’s Greatest Game.

“I’ve seen the game evolve,” says Morris. “The old stereotypes about curlers just aren’t true anymore. If you look at the top players, nearly all of them are very fit athletes with Olympic aspirations who devote a great deal of time to physical conditioning.”

Morris points out that high-performance curlers aren’t the only ones who can benefit from the sport-specific training offered in the book.

“The book is written so that curlers of all levels can follow a program that suits them,” says JoMo. “Even the recreational player who curls once or twice a week and competes in a couple of bonspiels will enjoy the game more by working out just a few hours a week. They’ll be able to contribute more when they compete and feel better about their overall level of fitness.”

Filled with color photography of many of the world’s top players – the pics are supplied by CurlingZone’s Dallas Bittle, SWEEP! chief Jim Henderson and, of course, Anil Mungal of this here The Curling News – the book details the physical demands of the sport and offers three levels of training programs – with calendars – to “make it easy for people to incorporate a fitness routine into their life. Even the typical curler who juggles family, career and the sport can find time for the workouts – many can be completed in less than an hour.”

Morris, who also skipped teams to world junior titles in 1998 and 1999, also suggests that “Whether you’re delivering a stone or sweeping from end to end, curling places unique demands on the body. It only makes sense to follow a training program that will help you feel fresh and perform better on the ice.”

Morris wrote the book with Dean Gemmell, who played lead for Quebec in the 1988 Brier and now produces a popular podcast called The Curling Show from his home in Short Hills, New Jersey. A side benefit of working on the book, remarks Gemmell, is that “I’m a more fit curler at 42 than I was at 20.”

Gemmell also notes that one dollar from the sale of every book in Canada will be given to the Canadian Curling Association to support junior curling programs throughout the country.

“John believes strongly in the value of curling in the life of a young person,” says Gemmell. We hope that this might help introduce a few more kids to the sport or keep them playing.”

Fit to Curl is available for purchase as of now through the official website and in curling pro shops. Shipping commences on September 8.

The website offers a 17-page preview download, which includes the table of contents and some fine pics, including one classic from 1993. Yes, John, Sav’s hair is worse than yours.

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As faithful TCN readers already know, the Swiss coaching experiment starring Russ Howard is more-or-less over but a dual Manitoba-Swiss experiment, at the national team level, has just begun.

Yesterday’s news that Alberta’s Rennee Sonnenberg has agreed to coach the Danish Olympic women’s team is just one more example of Canada’s influence in the world of curling. And there already exists an example within Denmark: Winnipeg’s John Helston, who won the 1984 Brier with skip Mike Riley, has been working with the Olympic men’s team – skipped by Ulrik Schmidt – for a few years now.

Which brings us to another Schmidt. We understand that the U.S. Olympic teams will be jetting to Switzerland, tomorrow, for 10 days of training, accompanied with teams from Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.

The training centre is the Kussnacht Curlinghalle, which just happens to be one of the stomping grounds of Rodger Schmidt, the Canadian-born curling coach who has been based in Switzerland for many years.

Schmidt, of course, is the well-regarded European columnist for The Curling News… although we dug this news up from our side of the Atlantic, using Swiss search engines and U.S.-based spies.

And the Canadian coaching beat goes on.

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Considering the feature story written by world champion Jill Officer in the November 2008 issue of The Curling News, we shall assume you recall hearing about a new Canadian TV comedy series called Throwing Stones.

An exclusive online excerpt of that story follows… in a bit.

The show tells the tale of five women trying to stay afloat amidst the chaos of life: demanding children, high-maintenance husbands, mortgages that keep them awake at night, uninspiring jobs, and all the challenges that come from being a wife, a mother and more significantly, a woman.

And all is forgotten, all is left behind, when they meet weekly at the West Kildonan Curling Club in Winnipeg.

The show uses the principles of curling as a metaphor for life. Patti (played by Academy Award winner Patty Duke) believes that all the lessons, rules and wisdom you need in life, you can learn from curling. Every episode begins with Patti philosophizing about one aspect of curling. It is this principle of curling and its larger application to life that is explored in each episode.

Throwing Stones was an original pilot developed and produced for the CBC. We heard earlier this spring that CBC had turned down the show, due to both the economy and new programming guidelines. This, of course, totally sucks.

But it also means that the pilot will be airing on July 15 – this Wednesday – with very little publicity or promotion. As such, the show producers are asking curlers to tune in on July 15 and, if you like the show, send your feedback (ie. your righteous anger) directly to CBC via this webpage.

So do tune in. Meanwhile, here’s an excerpt or two from Jill Officer’s behind-the-scenes column back in November… which you would have received, along with the photo above (taken by Joey Isford) if you had subscribed to The Curling News …

Patti Duke, the Hail Mary and 21 bucks an hour

Standing on the ice pretending to talk to my pretend teammate, I felt a little ridiculous. My lips were moving, but no sounds were coming out. I also had more expression than when I’m really talking – and I think I’m generally pretty expressive.

This was my first experience as an actress – no wonder it’s called acting; you’re not really doing anything, at least for the “extras” on set, which is where I fit in. A curling-themed pilot for a CBC TV series was being shot on location at West Kildonan Curling Club in Winnipeg. The rink was turned into a film set in September when film producers took over the building, painted some touch-ups and set up shop for three days of shooting Throwing Stones – a series with a very Men with Brooms feel to it (ie. a little unrealistic).

The series stars Oscar winner and three-time Emmy Award winner Anna Marie “Patty” Duke. Well, she at least *edited to prevent spoilers* until she *edited to prevent spoilers* which I know my editor would want me to point out *edited to prevent spoilers* and was very similar to *edited to prevent spoilers* the Scotties in 2005 – and then *edited to prevent spoilers*.

Weeks before the shoot, an email circulated by a local casting company (and editor gk) was asking for female curlers between the ages of 20 and 60 to bring their skills to the set as background curlers. Given that the pay started at $21 an hour (overtime was more) I thought, hey, why not? That way I could throw a few rocks, see what this was all about and, of course, have something to write about for The Curling News.

The call time for us “skilled” workers was about 9:00am. I showed up to find a number of my fellow local competitors – Chelsea Carey, Kaleigh Strath, Cheri-Ann Loder, Jill Proctor – and many more. For some of the younger girls like Kaleigh, it was a chance to change their status as a starving student – for a couple of weeks anyway – and make a few hundred bucks in a day even though they had to skip class to do it. Can you blame them? Heck no!

As extras, even we had to go through wardrobe, make-up and hair. Wardrobe was a challenge. We were asked to bring clothing with no logos and we couldn’t bring anything black, white or red. That was a problem for me as it would be for many competitive curlers who have sponsor logos plastered all over their curling gear and the stuff that doesn’t have logos consists of the popular colours of… black, white or red.

I raided my closets of sweatshirts, curling clothes, etc, but I couldn’t find anything that fit the rules. The only logo that was approved was Asham, but even then my Asham sweatshirts were red and black. Ugh! I eventually had to raid mom’s closet where I found a plain pink sweatshirt that ended up being my wardrobe of choice by the pros.

After pretending to talk to someone, doing monotonous tasks in the background, faking yelling “hurry” while my pretend teammates avoided the huge lighting equipment that covered half of our sheet, playing cards in the downtime and then basically being on the ice for five hours straight not really doing anything – including never throwing a rock – it was time to call it a wrap for the day, some 14 hours later!

We think actors and other entertainers live the good life, but getting a taste of what it’s like to be on a film set has proven to me that it’s not all that easy. Granted we didn’t get the golden treatment, like our own trailer nor a bed to rest our head on, but having to “hang around” all day is, believe it or not, absolutely exhausting. By 11:00pm my legs were stiff, my back ached and the sound of “that’s a wrap” was enough to make me peel right out of there despite the discomfort I was feeling.

Imagine that, huh? I could write the headline for gk right now: “Elite athlete isn’t even in good enough shape to stand around for 14 hours.”

Really though, I would challenge any high-performance athlete – from any sport – to stand in the cold for hours on end, dressed for a regular curling game, but not doing any throwing or sweeping. Somehow I think anyone would feel the same way.

I wonder how Connie Laliberte fared: as the “consultant” helping out the production crew, she was there longer than anyone, but at least she had things to do… including setting up. And I think about that Men With Brooms flick, too… amazing to think that nearly a hundred of my fellow competitors went through something similar, some of them for multiple days. My “extra” sources tell me that for those who returned to filming over the next two days – I could not – also spent 12 to 14 hours on set… including one night which finally wrapped at 4:00am! OMG!

I was so exhausted after the first day I was actually thankful I didn’t return to the miming, standing around in the cold and passing time.

I was, however, thankful for the $350 cheque that arrived in the mail a few weeks later.

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The final issue of the 52nd season of The Curling News has been sent to subscribers, so all that remains is to get it to you.

Click here to subscribe today.

You won’t want to miss our take on the curling world, in this critical pre-Olympic season, which includes:

• The Brier: Kevin Martin’s Men are really that good

• The Scotties: Larry Wood wraps it up

• The Wrench Speaks III: One last blast from Eddie Werenich

• They Said It: an awesome finale to the 2009 season… including Bill Cosby!

• Matt Hames on drawing for the hammer

• The Capital One Grand Slam in Grand Prairie

• Vancouver Olympic Centre: open for business

• The Dominion Club Corner: The Dominion Club Championship is underway

• Larry Wood on the World Cup of Curling

• The Canada Cup: it runneth over

• The Curling News TV Guide: April 2009 (but of course)

AND MORE!

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Tonight is the season finale of Rick Mercer Report, and in said finale, the Canadian funnyman goes wheelchair curling.

Of course, as a faithful reader of The Curling News Blog, you already knew this. And you knew this many times over. And et cetera and so on …

In the Dallas Bittle photo above, we see that Mercer did actually get a stone in motion. Tune in tonight at 8:00pm (on CBC) to see the results.

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CALGARY – In this Facebook photo snapped by New Brunswick fan Rebecca Tremblay, we can see the Brier media scrum which followed the epic Glenn Howard versus Russ Howard (and Steve Howard) battle on Tuesday. Click to zoom in (a little).

A gaggle of major curling poobahs are indicated by number. Plus the key on-ice protagonists.

At number eight is the shoo-in for Brier Media Rookie of The Year – if they had such an award – Dalene Heck of The Curling News.

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CALGARY – In a joint interview with Peyton and Eli Manning after Eli’s historic Super Bowl win, Peyton had the following to say when asked if he would like to face his brother in the Super Bowl someday:

“Yeah, I’d love to kick his ass in the Super bowl next year. And win the MVP – league and Super Bowl – the world needs to know who the best Manning is.”

Peyton aptly ducked when Eli playfully took a swing at his head.

The only NFL contest between these two brothers saw Eli win against his older sibling in a close match. If all of the Brier predictions about Ontario’s Glenn Howard hold true, then we will also see the younger Howard beat up on his older brother, New Brunswick’s Russ Howard, Tuesday morning in a truly historic athletic contest between brothers.

Will an Ontario win over New Brunswick show the world who the best Howard is? Will Russ take his loss gracefully as opposed to vowing vengeance? Can we count on fists flying at the end of tomorrow’s match?

No.

Probably.

Probably not. But you never know with brothers.

This battle has been talked about. The media here in Calgary have gone to great lengths to point out that the last time two brothers faced off as skips at the Brier was way back in 1942.

But The Curling News – a dandy little newspaper if I’ve ever seen one – has scooped everybody with a couple of key points, as published in the March Brier issue that came out last week, and which is in some supply – but dwindling fast – here at the Saddledome.

The first is that the last time brothers faced off at the Brier – including non-skips – the year was 1995, the place, Halifax. Jeff Ryan played third for the victorious Manitoba team skipped by Kerry Burtnyk. Pat Ryan, now country music superstar, played third for Rick Folk’s defending champions from Kelowna. Burtnyk finished with a 12-2 record while Folk was 6-5. In their 11th-draw collision, Burtnyk shaded Folk 7-6 in 11 ends.

The second TCN scoop is that the only other known Brier brotherly debate – apart from them Campbells, Gordon of Hamilton and Don of Vancouver, in ’42 – transpired at the 1970 Brier in Winnipeg. Hap Mabey of Moncton skipped the New Brunswick entry and brother Roger played lead for Les Bowering’s Newfoundland squad. Neither team was a title threat.

The third and final TCN chapter actually researches the various head to head battles that Russ and Glenn have had in the past decade or so. Thanks to this, additional context is available for those of you making picks on whom will whack whom. That makes this stuff gold!

And it’s not even a finite science, as curling record-keeping tends to falter out of the CCA domain. The TCN editor tells me Glenn Howard and Richard Hart were both sourced for info on these recent tilts… and that they both imagined a game against Russ – at a Slam in Port Hawkesbury – that never actually happened. I kid you not.

So here’s the excerpt from the story in the March 2009 issue The Curling News concerning recent Howard battles, some of which also made its way into Sunday’s daily Tankard Times.

And good luck with your picks…

For the record, there have been seven “recent” battles between the brothers since 2001.

Three occurred at the Players’ Championship (Russ winning twice in 2001 and Glenn winning in 2005 (photo above by Ted Richards, click to zoom in) and two took place at the former Gander, NL stop on the Asham World Curling Tour, the Don Bartlett Classic, in ’02 and ’04 (split results).

There was also a battle at the 2002 TSN Skins Game in Grande Prairie, and an instance in 2007 where Russ jetted to a spiel in Portage to spare for Randy Ferbey (both won by Glenn).

So the youngster holds a 4-3 advantage heading into the Saddledome.

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The Brier.

It’s a curling tradition. And we at The Curling News have a Brier tradition: the careful, loving production of this essential issue, with all the reportage, speculation, photos, TV info and well, stuff that one could ever ask for.

Feast your eyes on this one, folks. In this issue…

• Here We Go Again: will anyone else crash Calgary’s Kevin Martin versus Glenn Howard Brier party?

• Innsbruck 2012: yes, there’s more curling in another Olympic Games, folks… and Rodger Schmidt says the new Youth Winter Olympic Games just might save the sport of curling

• Big Brotherly Love: Howard versus Howard at the Brier – why is it historic, and who has beaten whom, and where and when, leading up to the battle?

• The Wrench Speaks Yet Again: our final chapter, third of three, with Ed “The Wrench” Werenich… and you’d better believe he names the names

• The Curling News TV Guide: our monthly look at curling on television, with a bonus feature on new TSN talkie Brian Mudryk

• Brier Changes Afoot? Larry Wood has spies on the ground and all kinds of wild rumours on big changes coming to the sport of curling

• Sponsor Watch: Recession? What recession? New curling sponsors for CCA and for the WCF, too

• U.S. Curling Flaws: Matt Hames came, he played and then wrote about the U.S. Olympic Trials system

• Capital One Grand Slam Report: the BDO Canadian Open, “Average Guy” Ron, Capital One Cup points update, and Grey Power on tap for Grande Priaire

• 51 Years Ago: We revisit the March 18, 1958 issue of Canadian Curling News – Matt Baldwin wins his second Brier in a row over high-school aged Terry Braunstein, and you won’t believe the photo of a teenaged Ray “Tay” Turnbull

• A Tale of Many Howards: Glenn, Russ, and now Ashley, Scott and Carly (and Judy)… when is the Howard invasion going to stop?

• Q & A with Greg Stremlaw: the CCA CEO on his first 18 months on the job, and what still needs to be done

• They Said It: Martin, Dacey, Ferbey, Morris, Mead, Brown, Corner, Howard, Kennedy and 1953 Brier champ Russ Jackman in our monthly quotable quotes

AND MORE!

So… why not subscribe today?

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Word from Scotland that one of the world’s great curling publications, The Scottish Curler, may cease operations after the May 2009 issue is, in our opinion, a disaster for the sport’s homeland.

And a damned shame for all curling fans.

A statement, which will appear in the forthcoming March issue, is now posted at the über-popular companion blog, Curling Today.

Clearly there are hopes that the publication may continue, in either print and/or online form… although this might not resemble the product of years past. And a glorious past it is, in which The Scottish Curler has a full three years on The Curling News, having been founded in 1954.

The major reason is financial, but there is also the issue of the upcoming retirement of editor Bob Cowan, pictured above, who first breathed new life into the tome seven years ago. And should an online version continue, we have our doubts as to whether or not it could ever match the sheer volume, quality and passion of Cowan’s output, which began with this wee introductory post almost two years ago.

And what of Curling History, the new blog introduced back in June, which focusses on the sport’s ancient history? While still young at heart and sometimes overlooked by the energy of Curling Today, this effort has found many fans including yours truly. We are big fans of the Roaring Game’s beginnings, and it would be a shame to lose this one, too.

Although the title of this blogpost is all doom-and-gloom, we choose to look to the future with optimism. As such, we wish the owners – and any potential future partners – the best of luck in ensuring this title continues, just as we wish Bob Cowan all the best in his well-deserved retirement!

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