1999 Brier
SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Curling
1999 BRIER
ON THE ROCKS
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
Now that's a brew crew!
Northern Ontario rink having an ale of a time
- Northern Ontario's Scott Patterson on how his team was viewed coming to Edmonton.
Bum rap, retorts Patterson.
"Not our team,'' he shrugged matter-of-factly yesterday of 1998 Labatt Brier kingpin Middaugh's pre-championship assessment of his squad. "We're one-beer guys.''
And bet your biffy that was a smooth-tasting ale, too, after knocking Quebec's Guy Hemmings from the ranks of the unbeaten with an 8-7 triumph in the early draw at Skyreach Centre.
Well, there goes another curling myth destroyed in today's holier-than-thou society.
After all, here's a national event sponsored by a brewery, and all along the consensus has been if team members liberally quaffed libations while progressing through the ranks, it was one less aspect they had to learn upon reaching the pinnacle.
I mean, the Brier Patch isn't exactly considered off-limits in the manner of, say, the hotel bar is to players where a visiting NHL team bunks.
"Ah, we were in there once, but we haven't frequented it as much as we did in Red Deer,'' admitted Patterson, whose North Bay outfit of Phil Loevenmark, John McClelland and elder statesman Wayne Lowe, 52, were a respectable 7-4 in central Alberta five years ago, but missed the playoffs.
"The morning draws here are pretty early (8:30, to accommodate eastern television) and the competition is really intense.''
So there, Mr. Middaugh, these chaps do compete sans hangovers. Hold the seltzer.
An outsider is left to wonder if the defending champion from Toronto the Good had his head where the sun doesn't shine when he issued the accusation of alcohol abuse.
"He might have,'' scowled Patterson - no bosum buddy of Middaugh, yet he is an acquaintance through curling.
"But having a beer is part of the game, isn't it?''
Patterson certainly hopes so.
After all, as the territory manager for Labatt, he feeds his wife and daughter by peddling the product.
"Best job in the world,'' bubbled the 29-year-old. "I'm probably the only skip ever to work for Labatt (to compete in the Brier).''
Patterson's entire rink is also in the bar/restaurant trade and, oddly enough, all work at the same establishment - East Side Mario's in North Bay, one of about 120 eastern franchise shops akin to Joey Tomato's in this neck of the woods.
Perhaps that's from whence Middaugh's assumption stems.
"Could be,'' winked Patterson.
Lowe owns East Side Mario's, 30-year-old Loevenmark tends bar and McClelland, 28, is the general manager - a position formerly held by Patterson before he joined the brewery ranks.
"That was something when all four of us were there,'' grinned Patterson. "I go in once in a while to check the beer (sales) and we talk about curling a lot.''
Is his product sold exclusively on the premises?
"No, that's a national deal, so I don't have a whole lot to say about that.''
Patterson, who won the Ontario schoolboys' championship in 1987, took quite the precarious route to the Brier back in Timmins.
After finishing in a five-way tie for third at 4-4, he won tiebreakers over Dave MacInnes (6-5) and Jason Repay (6-4). Next he faced first-place finisher Tim Phillips, taking the semifinal match 7-6. In the final, he stole one in the 11th end to upstage Bill Adams 4-3.
The margin for error was indeed scant.
"In all, we had to win five in a row and they all came down to the last end,'' puffed Patterson, who was forced to hit and stay for the first three playoff triumphs.
Nerve-racking conclusion
When it came down to Adams' silent takeout with the hammer in the finale, Patterson admitted his teammates couldn't watch the nerve-racking conclusion. But he copped a peek.
"I was the only one who did. The other guys were hiding,'' smiled Patterson, who went through a smiliar scenario when he advanced to Red Deer in '95. "Yeah, the first time we had to win in the 11th end, too.''
He also caught a break yesterday when Hemmings was nailed for a hog-line violation in the first end, setting the stage for the upset.
"Up until then we haven't had any breaks,'' he chuckled.
Pretty good reason to pop a top, wouldn't you say?
But remember, just the one - Wayne Middaugh might be watching. From afar in Toronto, that is.