As promoted yesterday by Kevin Martin, Jennifer Jones and a really big stone, tickets for the 2009 Canadian Olympic Trials – the Roar of the Rings – go on sale this Saturday morning. Ticketmaster shall be the place.

Same for tickets for the pre-Trials Qualifier in Prince George, B.C. Those ducats are also on sale as of Saturday.

And in other quickee news…

• Vote for curling here, if you please …

• The next women’s Slam starts in Nova Scotia tomorrow, with the legendary Colleen Jones pinch-hitting for Kelowna skip Kelly Scott. Results should be available here or here …

• Speaking of the word Olympic, the 2010 Olympic Torch is coming to a town near you – like Regina, fer example – and you can check out the torch route and your area on this page, via the interactive map …

• Canuck curling coach Paul Webster, who was featured in our March 2008 issue, is the latest on The Curling Show …

• Duffbert has a review of Curling Etcetera posted here …

• It seems that Swedish curling for novices involves helmets… and more helmets. Probably a good idea, actually …

• And finally… the next time your third is getting mouthy over your shot calling, we suggest you drop this pearl of wisdom:

“(W) = (.75)(ax + b(1-z) + cy + c(1-y)) + (.25)(ex + fy + g(1-y)).”

Yes indeed, Kevin Palmer’s brain-bending Curling With Math blog has a new story posted, as well as this recently archived piece …

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]

The Chad is back.

We’re talking about Chad McMullan, the former honcho of the World Curling Tour and World Curling Players’ Association, back when the Grand Slam was an IMG property.

The former Winnipegger has lived in Toronto since the early part of the decade, and has now resurfaced as proprieter of Rock Solid Productions Inc., a new company unveiling some rather cool corporate and educational curling applications within The Big Smoke.

His first property, Rock Solid Outings, seeks out and delivers corporate curling days from the boardrooms to the curling clubs… and not the more traditional other way ’round.

“Most clubs have dedicated rental rates but they don’t have the manpower to go out and sell the club outside of the membership,” explains McMullan.

“We go out to the corporate community and pitch the concept of a corporate day to them directly, then we find the club that suits them best, in terms of location, logitics and cost. Then we execute the event, so it’s a full turnkey for the client. Everything is done for them from start to finish.”

McMullan provides various options for the client, including access to curling champions… of which there is no shortage of in the Greater Toronto Area. Instruction is handled by a Rock Solid representative or, in some cases, the club pro or manager, or someone assigned by the club.

“We work case-by-case with clubs, however they like to work,” says McMullan. “Some managers have their set way of doing things, others are open to new models. The point is to get their open ice filled and some new revenues, and potential new members, in the door.”

With next year’s Masters of Curling taking place at the Air Canada Centre, plus the big promo bump of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, we’re betting that McMullan will be a very busy fellow.

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]

After reading this here chat thread about Canadian curling coaches, Russ Howard flew his star pupils – Switzerland’s Team Ralph Stöckli – over to Moncton and then into Toronto yesterday.

OK, we’re kidding, this Canadian Tour has been planned for a while.

Following a week of training in Moncton, with the Stöcklis bunking in at Russ’ house, the squad made a pinch-hit appearance for Team Steski in the Toronto Major League last night at St. George’s. They lost a close one to defending provincial Silver Tankard champ Bill Duck, the club manager.

In the TCN photo taken by Anil Mungal, that’s skip Stöckli at left, followed by third Jan Hauser, The Olympic Champion Yelling Guy, second Markus Eggler (who himself skipped Switzrland to the 1992 world championship) and lead Simon Strübin.

Today the Swiss hit the 401 for the short drive to Waterloo for the first Capital One Grand Slam of the year, the Masters of Curling.

More on Russ and his charges in the December issue of The Curling News, which goes to press next week. Are you a subscriber?

Lots to say about Slam number one:

• There’s a CBC Slam season preview located here;

• Glenn Howard, who has a new interview posted over at The Curling Show, comes in ranked number one, ahead of Kevin Martin (according to us, anyway);

• As Brian Belfry writes, this could be Ontario’s last chance to see the once-previously-retired Kerry Burtnyk throw a live stone;

•Dis you catch the announcement of the brand-new $170,000 Capital One Cup …?

• And the one regarding world’s first Curling Rewards credit card – click on the ad banner atop this fine website (and this one, too) …?

• How about the Million Dollar Button contest, now underway and which climaxes at the third men’s Slam at Winnipeg in January?

• What about the not-yet-publicized reveal that next fall’s mammoth Toronto 2009 event – hosted at the Air Canada Centre – has been rebranded as the Masters of Curling Toronto 2009?

That reveal also shows that a secret All-Star men’s team will round out the field – that’s the good news – and that a new $14.00 facility fee has been applied to ticket purchases. That is most certainly the bad news.

What of last fall’s club ticket drive? Those ducats didn’t have a facility fee applied to them at the time…

“TCA will pick up the cost of the facility fee for the package offered last year,” said Toronto Curling Association president Elizabeth Woolnough. “That cost will not be passed down to the clubs, nor to the ticket holders.”

Finally, don’t forget the webcast and television coverage: CBC Sports Online has live streaming of the weekend playoff round (action starts tonight) and both CBC-TV and BOLD will combine to cover those playoff games – three of them – on television.

Anything else, you ask?

• At the Canadian Mixed, the wheat chaffers were undefeated at 7-0 as of Tuesday night and Manitoba skip Sean Grassie even wrote this introductory column for the Winnipeg Sun.

Meanwhile our friend townie bastard is working behind the scenes as a member of the organizing committee… and despite his previous fretting, his photos are just fine!

• You heard about the 2010 Tim Hortons Brier heading to Halifax, right? if not, read this and this …

• Guess what: Rainy River will survive …

• It’s just a guess, but it looks like the Toronto Curling Association might be behind this Vaughan Today feature. The participation message is strong among three different sources …

• Here’s a cool idea: check out Hamilton, Ontario’s “Club 64” league for juniors …

• 2006 Olympic wheelchair curling champion Chris Daw is in a Newfoundland hospital recovering from a broken hip …

• Stefanie Lawton is taking a year off work to chase her Vancouver Olympic dream …

• Wisconsin curling hero Bob simply did a great job …

• We’ve got just one more Midland, Michigan TV story for you …

• Crash! They’ve had their first injury at the new club in Columbus, Ohio; and congratulations, by the way …

• DID YOU KNOW: that the venerable Wall Street Journal gave us a call today? Nope, we don’t know why either. We’re playing voicemail tag right now …

• Napanee, Ontario is gunning to host either the 2010 or 2011 Ontario Men’s TSC Tankard at their newish $9.8 million Strathcona Paper Centre …

• More madness in Moose Jaw as local politicians are threatened over the proposed $61.3 million sportsplex, which would include a new home for the local Hillcrest Curling Club …

• Finally, Bob Weeks has been dishing on an interesting webstrategy quoted by the Canadian Curling Association (follow-up located here) …

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]

Here we are, back again, with the 52nd season of the world authority on the sport of curling.

The Curling News is the granddaddy of this blog, the monthly newsprint edition, and it is chock full of stuff you don’t see here.

Like our monthly TV Guide, which lists all the great curling action available on your TV screen – even local Super Leagues in cities like Brandon and Regina.

And fantastic curling writers like Calgary’s Larry Wood and our resident Canadian-in-Switzerland, Rodger Schmidt.

And fantastic curling writers who also throw a mean competitive stone on the ice, like defending world champion Jill Officer and Halifax’s Teri Lake.

Don’t delay, subscribe today.

Our website subscription page is located here.

In this issue:

• A summary of all the summer curling hijinks

• The first look at the Brazilians

• They Said It starring Michael J. Fox, Brad Gushue, NBA coach Phil Jackson and more!

• Larry Wood challenges your powers of observation

• More Zombie Curling! Yarragharagh!

• Team Glenn Howard rocks inaugural Fantasy Camp

• Thompson returns with the Eversharp blade

• Jill Officer on set: Lights! Camera! Action!

• The Dominion launches the Canadian Club Championship

• Capital One Star of the Future: Mike McEwen

• Teri Lake reviews Curling Etcetera

• Shannon Kleibrink on a roll

• Masters of Curling preview

• The Curling News TV Guide for November/December

• Rodger Schmidt says the future is in Europe, not Asia

And more!

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]

Movember, the month of moustaches, is back in full force. Curling men are asked to not shave for the entire month, beginning tomorrow, to show support for the fight against prostate cancer. BalancePlus chief – and the coach of Team Glenn Howard – is Mr. Scott Taylor, and he is the prime mover behind this campaign, which you can read about in the October 29 posting at the SWEEP! magazine site.

You may recall our promotion of this thing last year. And yes, that’s them Howards (photo above by Tae) after winning Brantford’s SunLife cashspiel last Movember. Wonderfully cheesy, and all for a great cause.

What else is going on, you ask?

• The 2010 “Olympic Brier” is bound for Halifax, and will be announced there next week. Another story is located here, and another here …

• They’re looking for more Tim Hortons Brier volunteers in Calgary, stories here and here …

• As yesterday’s post indicated, today is the last day for one kind of tickets to the Ford Worlds in Moncton and tomorrow launches another series of ticket packages …

• Bismark, North Dakota will host the Brazil/USA Worlds challenge on January 30 to February 1. Background info located here …

• The Chinese have left Canada and are in New Zealand, preparing for the Pacific Championships which start on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Aussies – who had a productive yet somewhat disappointing performance in Grand Forks – are looking for more success …

• The new $1.5M curling centre in Midland, Michigan is ready to open, as ABC-12, WNEM TV and NBC-25 all show us. The debut opening is November 8 …

• The A-division draw is up for the 2008 Le Gruyère European Curling Championships …

• CONTEST ALERT: This one is for readers in the Kitchener-Waterloo area of Ontario, as the local blat if offering up six pairs of Event Passes to the first Capital One Grand Slam of the season, the Masters of Curling …

• Amy Nixon is on The Curling Show, and other recents have been KPark, B.C.’s Bob Ursel and everyone’s favourite, mrnn …

• We are now 496 days away from Vancouver’s other major sports doo-dah, the Paralympic Winter Games …

• 2002 Olympic bronze medallist and 2000 world champion skip Kelley Law surfaced last week, and as this story tells, she is content with her life away from the curling ice …

• Nerdsopolis has returned our recent shout-out: grazie …

• The dark side of curling? Bring it on, baby! After all, this is the Halloween weekend …

• This Dutch blog likes the Women of Kurling and their Kalendar …

• There may be hope for northern Ontario’s Rainy River club following their critical meeting last Friday …

• California’s Wine Country Curling Club will learn its fate at a Vacaville city council meeting on November 11 …

• 29 years of writing about local women’s curling? Wow …

• Rookies tossed some “22kg stone thingys” at Fenton’s the other day …

• Don Gordon of Lake Cowichan, B.C. quotes a curling story in talking tough about supporting a local arena upgrade plan …

• We have more curling tales from Schenectady, NY and also from Greg in Hollywood …

• The site of the original “Callie” was set ablaze on Wednesday …

• Melfort, SK needs an icemaker …

• Kamloops city councillor Arjun Singh has blogged about a local curling club asking for funding …

• Finally, we like this definition of curling posted by the Kalamazoo CC:

CURLING: The difference between a great winter and a crappy, not-enough-snow-to-really-ski winter!

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]

As this advert shows, tomorrow, Oct. 31 is last day to get top-choice full-event passes for the 2009 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship in Moncton.

Click the image to zoom in.

These are the “gold” end-zone seats available as nine-day event passes, saving you upwards of $150.00.

There’s another ticket announcement coming later today concerning the two “Champs” packages: “Weekend Champs” (Thursday through Sunday) and “Weekday Champs” (Monday through Wednesday and then Friday through Sunday).

Watch for all news and ticket announcements on the event webpage, with the ticketing page located here.

This year’s Ford Worlds is a very big deal, as it celebrated 50 years of world men’s curling. You do not want to miss this one, folks.

To conclude today’s brief blogpost, here’s a rundown of last weekend’s event winners. Watch tomorrow’s blogpost for still more awesome curling news and info …

• Mirjam Ott and surprising Stefan Karnusian will represent Switzerland at December’s European Championships while the unsurprising Scottish results see Kelly Wood and David Murdoch also returning to defend their 2007 medals ….

• The impressive junior skip Kaitlyn Lawes was the real story of the second women’s Slam, won by Michelle Englot …

• Team Glenn Howard is pretty in pink after winning their third straight Brandon tour event …

• Victoire pour Guy!

• To no one’s surprise, Kevin Martin won in Bonnyville …

• And finally, Suzanne “No Longer Gaudet” Birt won the Lady Monctonian …

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]

We were scanning the various provincial Tour websites this morning, and something in Ontario caught our eye.

Early November’s Mount Lawn Gord Carroll Classic is named after local legend Gord Carroll, who was inducted into the local sports hall of fame last year. Curling dinosaurs (like us) may recall the first few years of print advertisements which announced the new sponsor of Ontario’s Nokia Cup provincial back in the day: the ad showed a dashing fellow wearing a poor boy hat sliding out of the hack without a broom, but with a mobile phone held up to his ear. That was Gordie!

Anyway, this year’s event has 24 men’s and 12 women’s teams, plays a triple knockout and has a $30,000 prize purse.

The men’s champions get $7,000 but qualifying money is a hefty $2,000.

And all this for a $525 entry fee.

Then we discovered that all teams are all being chauffeured around town in limousines.

Hmmmm.

Something very good is happening in Whitby, which hosted the Ontario men’s provincial a few years ago. Right now the event attracts strong southern Ontario teams, but at this rate of growth perhaps the Gordie’s spiel is on its way to eventually attracting some big guns from out of town.

Curling dinosaurs (like us) may remember a major Whitby cashspiel years ago called the Sun Life. Paul Savage, Ed Werenich, Bob Charlebois, Jim Sharples and so many more made that event a regular stop in their annual Tour schedule.

They’re going back to the future in Whitby!

• There’s lots of competition this weekend on the various tours, but Manitoba is hosting two biggees; Ray Turnbull’s annual women’s Grand Slam stop in Winnipeg and the men’s WCT stop in Portage …

• DID YOU KNOW: that Kerry Burtnyk’s imported third, Don Walchuk, has followed the Park/Stoughton script and is officially a Manitoban?

• They’re getting pumped in Swift Current, Sask. for an appearance by world champ Jennifer Jones …

• Burtnyk was at yesterday’s news conference launching today’s early bird ticket sales for the January Grand Slam stop in Winnipeg, the BDO Classic Canadian Open …

• Well, aren’t we darned. Youth sensation Rachel Homan did it again, winning in London for the second year in a row, this time with a final-game victory over world silver medallist Bingyu Wang of China …

• Wayne Middaugh and Glenn Howard stopped by four Kitchener-Waterloo area curling clubs yesterday to promote the first Capital One Grand Slam: the Masters of Curling, which hits that area in mid-November. Here’s a peek at Howard’s appearance in Elmira, and here’s a peek at Middaugh’s bizarre headgear in Guelph …

• Hey, nice new look for the Charlottetown CC …

• By the way, does your club have real hogs at the lines?

• The 2010 Canadian Juniors are off to Quebec …

• DID YOU KNOW II: that the Gibsons Curling Club in B.C. is offering a $1,000 bursary for a 2009 high school graduate interested in learning the ice making ropes?

• Actually, curling isn’t just for Italian nerds… we welcome nerds of all nationalities …

• Speaking of Italy, here’s not one but two Italian wheelchair curling stories …

• We agree: this curling joke is Impressively Unimpressive …

• A different Becker will make his world curling debut for New Zealand in April …

C’est un bon début pour L’equipe Belisle …

• Today’s U.S. curling spotlights are on South Plainfield in New Jersey, and in Pittsburgh, and also in Boston, where they just started up last Monday …

• Happy 70th anniversary to Scotland’s Falkirk ladies …

• 2006 Paralympic wheelchair gold medallist Sonja Gaudet is one of three athletes profiled in a new Vancouver 2010 campaign involving vehicle license plates …

• Speaking of Savage and The Wrench, it looks like most of the old 1983 world champion team are supporting Ontario’s 2009 provincial Tankard. Notice the golf shoes and gloves, however …

• Here’s a thoroughly strange curling featurette, in Danish …

• Here’s our curling team website of the week: Team Niklas Edin of Sweden …

• Sick of all those sick zombie curling blogposts? Well, we’re not: Renerd has reviewed the film Deadspiel right here …

• We’re not sure this fellow is supporting curling as much as he is dissing NASCAR racing …

• Now on to the bad news: Northern Ontario’s Rainy River Curling Club is in trouble, with the town looking to help out, but things sound gloomy. Today, Friday, is doomsday …

• Finally, club manager Ellery Robichaud of Curling Beausejour in Moncton says it best in this CCA Business of Curling blogpost:

Our number one secret is we changed what we were selling before. We stopped doing things the same way we did them before. With that philosophy you only get the people you’ve already got. If you only ask your members what they want, you’ll get what you’ve already got. But if you want new people, you have to ask people who aren’t curling why they aren’t curling.

We had to change the product. Curling clubs that want to sell the same thing they sold in the ’70s just won’t be successful.

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]

Aaraeeaareeyyaaarraagh.

(Zombie curlers from the short film Deadspiel took to the streets last Sunday before the film premiere.)

Yuurrghaaraghhyurk blaarrk arruugh greaaaghurrrgh murraargh!

(There’s been lots of media coverage of the march!)

Grroooaarrghuurrghhgarhghaaarrggharghaaaaaauuuuhhhh.

(Here’s a brief video clip of the producers introducing the film.)

Uurrhghhuuhhnnnuragh ghhrargh.

(And a brief video review.)

Wuuaarragh GHRAARK!

(photo courtesy of Andy Warner!)

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]