Brier Curling: Tuesday Tankard Top Ten

ST. JOHN’S, NL – This is the third time the far eastern tip of North America’s continent has hosted the Brier and so far, the hospitality has exceeded expectations.

If not for the challenge of recovering from a red eye flight from Western Canada – and the dangers of being Screeched In one too many times – I would suggest they host it every year.

On second thought, every other year would be sufficient.

In no particular order of importance or chronological experience, here is Tuesday’s Tankard Top Ten:

1) Though locals make up a large portion of the attendance this year, many people Came From Away to visit the 2026 Montana’s Brier. One couple came from the other Windy City to visit St. John’s and catch the opening weekend of the men’s Canadian Curling Championship. 

Karrie Gottschild and her husband Wilson made the trek from their home near the Chicago Curling Club to St. John’s. Karrie was gifted tickets by visitors to the Chicago Men’s International Bonspiel, where she was volunteering. 

These visitors weren’t complete strangers: they are teammates of Scott Arnold, once Curling Canada’s national junior men’s coach and now the longtime Head of Development for World Curling.

Scott’s uncle Paul Arnold – whom I met in Chicago last October – is married to Karrie’s mom. I learned that Karrie and Wilson sometimes introduce themselves as a horror movie and a volleyball, and that the true secret of the CCC is that it’s a drinking club with a curling problem.

Scott is married to Julie McMullin, winner of the 2023 Canadian Seniors. Julie loves curling but may not be a Brad Jacobs fan as she was seen on TSN waving off an autograph from the recent gold medal winning skip. Afterwards, Julie claimed she only was only being polite and directing Brad to the rest of her crew, but, hailing from London, Ont. I suspect deep down she’s really a Jayden King fan.

2) King is one of several rookie skips at this year’s Brier. King, joined by third Dylan Niepage, second Owen Henry and lead Victor Pietrangelo, sit at 3-2 but both losses have been to Gushue and Jacobs. 

Jayden is the first black skip at the Brier and presumably also the first at the 2024 Canadian Mixed Championship.

He was a recent recipient of two curling scholarship awards and also appeared as Mr. March in the 2024 Curling Cares Calendar, where he directed his fund-raising to two charities, the Curling Canada Foundation’s “For the Love of Curling” program and the London branch of the MS Society of Canada.

At 23, Jayden, like many of the rookies here this week, has a joy for the sport and is dedicated to work at reaching the highest levels, and he’s sure to learn from his veteran competitors. In their Sunday afternoon battle against Brad Gushue, King made some impressive shots to keep the game close, but Team Ontario eventually fell to the home team by a score of 8-4. 

His tutelage continued on Monday morning as his opponents, the reigning Olympic champs, put on a clinic. 

The Ontarians bounced back with a victory over Derek Samalgalski and Team Nunavut on Monday night and have an important date Tuesday afternoon with the “other” team from Newfoundland and Labrador.

3) The Gushue fans that headed to the Patch after Brad’s win over King missed a dramatic victory by Nathan Young and his team from the St. John’s Curling Club. Trailing by two against Tyler Smith and the trio from Prince Edward Island, Nathan made a difficult takeout through a port on his last stone to score three in the 10th end. 

This is Nathan’s third trip to the Brier, having previously competed in 2022 and 2023 with his front end of Nathan Locke and Ben Stringer. This year they are joined by Colin Thomas at third. This is Colin’s second Brier, having played third for Andrew Symonds in 2024 where he finished 2-6. 

Young has already ready matched his highest win total from his last appearance and held hammer in a tight 3-3 battle with Gushue in the fifth end on Monday evening, right up until Brad gutted his provincial counterparts with an in-off to remove the buried shot stone belonging to Young. The result was a steal of two and eventual 8-5 loss.

4) Nathan’s shot against PEI was missed by many fans and then overshadowed by the shot of the week thus far. Sandy MacEwan, fourth for Northern Ontario, made a spectacular runback triple to score two and send his game against Jamie Koe and Team NWT to overtime (video at top of page).

By promoting the Koe stone, MacEwen essentially made a quadruple takeout.

The Northwest Territories prevailed in the extra frame, but Sandy’s shot will be tough to overcome on the 2026 Brier highlight reel.

It’s the first Brier for the 40-year-old vice-principal from Princess Anne Public School. His next contest was a clash of clans against Mike McEwen’s Team Saskatchewan on Monday afternoon.

An early deuce by “Mc” and a single by “Mac” was followed by four blank ends and then singles in seven, eight and nine by the Wheat province finished off the squad from Sudbury. They moved to 2-3 after a Tuesday morning win over B.C.’s Cody Tanaka.

5) Rewinding back to Sunday morning, a McEwen game demonstrates how retaining hammer with a blank adds strategy to the sport. 

In a battle of elder veterans, McEwen held a one-point lead in the ninth end. Rather than being forced to attempt a shot for two, Alberta’s Kevin Koe was left with choice. It appeared Kevin could play a soft-weight double for two to go up one.

Instead, he threw a shot few others but Kevin Koe would attempt, a big weight peel for a triple and roll out to blank. Koe went on to take three in the final end and notch the victory.

6) The minus 15 windchill on Monday reminded travellers to never leave home without proper ear protection. I spotted this beauty on the head of Brendan Bilawka’s mom, Cheryl. 

Brendan is lead for Team Calvert and we discussed whether the finely knitted toque was a bison or a buffalo. I grew up in Winnipeg and recalled the goal in curling was always to join the Buffalo Club. Cheryl agreed. 

The internet clarifies that both bison and buffalo are in the bovidae family, but the two are not closely related. Buffalo are found in Africa and Asia, not North America. Despite this, there is a city called Buffalo, which also has an NFL team called the Bills, which is named after the famous American Old West frontiersman and showman “Buffalo Bill” (William F. Cody). 

Oddly, there was only one Bill Cody, yet the football team added an “s” to make Bills plural.

The previous name for the football team in Buffalo? The “Bisons,” now adopted by the minor league baseball team. 

7) You won’t find any Manitoba headgear in the Brier merchandise emporium, but there are several puffin-themed designs and a $60 collectors’ edition non-bobbling bobble-head Brad Gushue figurine. 

Sometimes, a photo is worth a thousand words and other times it can leave you speechless.

8) I also did not spot any Bovidae headgear at Nonia.

Shops in St. John’s were encouraged to  decorate their window displays with curling themes and my vote goes to the handcrafted knit shop on Water St. run by the Newfoundland Outport Nursing and Industrial Association (NONIA). 

The niece of 1976 Brier champion Ken Templeton sits on the board for the not-for profit organization and uncle Ken provided some artifacts for the display. Business manager Sherry House passed my name and number on to Ken, and I hope to record an episode of the Curling Legends Podcast later this week. 

Nonia sells quality items made by around 140 different knitters across the province and if you are in the neighbourhood, it’s worth a visit. 

9) In the evening, a beverage was shared with the St. John’s Brier Director of Access and Accreditation, Gary Maddigan. His title helps differentiate his role from that of building security outside the Mary Brown’s Centre but, rest assured, Gary is ensuring order is maintained on the inside of the facility. 

Gary held a similar position at the 2017 Brier and explained how the opening night nine years ago sold more drinks than the entire Scotties Tournament of Hearts championship held a month earlier. 

The secret was having large bins filled with ice and four packs of beer, purchased with four original Brier tokens. Faced with over a week to go, the Patch patrons bought out tokens by the bushels, and the 2017 Brier quickly ran out! This is possibly a primary reason Curling Canada events now uses a point-of-sale credit card tap system rather than the fabled replica gold doubloons. 

Gary (not to be confused with next in command “Glenn”) also explained why he’s now referred to as the “Right Honourable No. 2”. 

This title was bestowed to him by the fourth premier of Newfoundland, Thomas Rideout, who left public office in the early 1990s but is one of the approximately 500 volunteers at the Brier. Tom has assured Gary his new title, handwritten in sharpie on the back of his lanyard, comes with the blessing of his good friend Charlie. You may have heard of Charles, he’s a fine chap from across the pond who’s mother Liz recently passed away and left him with a lot of responsibility. 

Gary coached Nathan Young when he was a junior and is on a small list of fans who are cheering for another team from St. John’s to win this week. A hometown final between Gushue and Young seems highly unlikely, but Gary still wished it might happen and a torch could be passed or, at the very least, a new record for drink sales would be broken.  

10) A rite of passage for visitors to Newfoundland and Labrador is to be “Screeched In” thus becoming an honourary Newfoundlander. You may have heard of “kissing the cod” but that is just one small, somewhat smelly part of the hazing ritual that began over 50 years ago. 

The 2026 Brier is offering this ceremony, in the Brier Patch, to fans at no charge.

If the waitlist is full, you can head over to one of the many bars on George Street and pay for the privilege of smacking lips with the catch of the day. If the experience alone isn’t enough to compel you to join, the reward is a prestigious parchment to proudly mount on your wall at home.