The mullets are gone, but the sport remains

Mike Wood?

Not that Mike Wood, surely?

Imagine my surprise to see that a B.C. player at this week’s Canadian Seniors was involved in my first-ever “pro” curling journalism gig, more than 35 years ago.

When we first met, Mike Wood was skipping Canada’s young men’s team at the 1989 World Juniors, played in late March at Unionville, Ont.

Perry Lefko was the Toronto Sun’s curling sportswriter at the time, and he surprised the 22-year-old me by asking if I’d pinch-hit for him and the Sun by covering most of the World Juniors (Lefko would cover the finals).

My assignment would be to file daily stories on both the Canadian men’s and women’s teams, the latter skipped by Alberta’s LaDawn Funk.

Of course, I said yes. It would mark my first pro byline (besides the Ontario Curling Report) and, as a bonus, the Sun chain of newspapers was known for strong sports coverage.

I was given a Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 (“Trash 80”), a portable computer that plugged into a phone or fax line to file copy. So cool.

Now, all these years later, Mike Wood is still competing on ice, throwing third stones for British Columbia at the Seniors in Moncton. 

Naturally, I had to ask Al Cameron of Curling Canada if I could speak to Wood.

And he called! 

Would he remember me? 

Would he remember that we both had mullets?

Heck, would he remember Markham at all?

Naturally, Wood remembered lots of games, scenarios and scores—it figures he would be my opposite (as a player) and have a high degree of skip’s recall.

And he did remember me, later in our conversation.

I mentioned two specific memories to Wood; the first being his incredibly bizarre game against Scotland where the visitors walked off the ice in the sixth end, trailing by just one point.

“The Canadians were left confused and confounded,” I wrote at the time. “The Scots simply left.”

“I mean, 4-3 with four ends left is no reason to quit,” Wood told me at the time. “We were sitting there with our mouths open.

“They played a hell of a game.

“I don’t know what happened. I’m in awe.”

Wood was amazed at the timing of this story being mentioned all these years later.

“This is ironic,” said Wood, “Because we just had a possibility of stealing one on Quebec, and (Quebec skip Robert Desjardins) was down four… and he just turned, and shook our hands,” said Wood.

Indeed… it’s the first conversation we’ve had in more than three decades and a similar thing had just happened to him in Moncton, minutes earlier. 

Quebec didn’t like the situation, quit in the seventh end and Wood’s B.C. foursome—skipped by Neil Dangerfield—had logged an 8-4 win.

“It brought me right back to (1989),” continued Wood. “And I said to (Desjardins) ‘I’ll tell you a story later’ and that’s the story I’m gonna tell him.”

“But I do remember that (in Markham) because we were in absolute shock.

“I think (Scotland) got in some shit for it.”

Wood and teammates Mike Bradley, Todd Troyer and Greg Hawkes also won a wild 5-4 semifinal over a fellow who would become a good friend of mine in the future, Markus Eggler of Switzerland.

That one went 12 ends, with Eggler—an eventual world champion and Olympic medallist—missing shots for the win in both extra ends.

The gold medal eventually went to Sweden’s Peter (not yet Peja) Lindholm, who defeated the Victoria CC team 7-2 in the final.

Canada’s Funk foursome took the women’s gold, with a 10-3 pounding of Norway’s Trine Helgebostad.

After saying goodbye to Wood, and for no particular reason, I found myself thinking of my curling life in 10-year increments, from 1989 onwards.

Ten years later, I had scaled a curling mountain by competing against Lindholm at the Olympic Winter Games.

Twenty years after Markham, I was working for World Curling—in Moncton—and watching Kevin Martin deliberate his first stone of the 10th end of the final against Scotland’s David Murdoch.

“He’s gonna throw it through,” I exclaimed to no one (my colleague Keith Wendorf heard me). A few minutes later, Martin did just that, and ended up losing an infamous game.

Thirty years after that World Juniors, I sold The Curling News—which I’d owned for 16 years—to W. Graeme Roustan, the owner/publisher of The Hockey News.

And today I’m talking to Mike Wood once more, as he battles at another national championship.

How about that.

Wood is only the third B.C. curler to win provincial junior, senior and men’s titles, with his Brier appearance coming in 2007.

Team B.C. is into the Canadian Seniors championship pool with a 6-3 won/loss record and faces Alberta in tonight’s final round robin match.

The men’s and women’s championships wrap up Saturday, with three playoff draws at 8:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. local time.