by Rodger Schmidt
CCA photo byMichael Burns(click on image to view larger)
CAN vs SCO – one more time for goldBASEL, Switzerland – Tom Brewster and Scotland had a long day on Saturday, but all that really matters to them now is that they are in the World final– again.
About 360 days ago this same lineup was in this same position against a Canadian team led by Jeff Stoughton. Brewster will be coming in to the final with confidence after his Saturday at the St. Jakobshalle. Glenn Howard and company looked occasionally vulnerable at times on the frosty pond called Sheet B, and Brewster had superb draw weight, and who knows might have happened had his draw in end six not forgotten to curl on its way in to the four-foot.
This left Howard a dramatic double-takeout for four points which seemed to end the game, however, no one told Brewster... and it wasn’t until Howard finally hit the four foot with a draw in the extra-end that Howard could make plans for the Sunday final.
Whether conscious or dreaming, Brewster and Co. spent the night contemplating how offensive they should be in the grand finale.. The Scottish skip has the draw shots to do it but will he put it all on the line every end – or wait for Howard to give him something before makes a move?
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The ice over the last two days has been extremely frosty due to the warm, wet weather in Switzerland and the inability of the facility to keep the climate outside. This made for a number of flat-ice picks, or frost-ice picks, in the back half of the 1-2 playoff and semifinal games. It caused Howard to give up a steal on end 10 of his 1-2 game and it led Sweden to get in trouble and give up three points to Scotland on end five of their semifinal .
Based on the weather report anything could happen on Sunday. The ice crew has brought in additional mobile dehumidifiers and parked them along the sides of the sheets in an effort to suck water out of the building, but it is anyone’s guess as to how effective they are.
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12 teams began the title hunt a week ago, and it’s telling that the four teams remaining in this competition are the teams that most people would have expected to be here.
These four squads have played the most competitive games over the past few seasons and they are the most “game-hardened” teams in Basel; as such there is a clear divide between these four and the other eight. The world is changing and it will become more and more difficult for teams that can’t afford the time and money to play as semi-professionals to break in to the top four ever again in these competitions. Nations aspiring for future Olympic Winter Games will be further challenged to break with tradition, and restructure programs in order to build teams and maintain programs over a longer period of time.
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As I reported in my column in the April issue of The Curling News, the World Curling Federation has a new Vice President following the resignation of Patrick Hürlimann. The Swiss skip who led his team to Olympic gold back in 1998, has decided that family – and feeding them – comes first, and thus decided he could not continue as a future Presidential candidate, nor even to continue as a board member.
The WCF has elected Bent Ramsfjell of Norway to replace him as VP.
Interestingly, Ramsfjell is a Olympic gold medallist too – he won his as lead for Pal Trulsen in 2002. This setting of standards for future WCF Vice Presidents means the next VP is 75 per cent likely to come from Newfoundland.