1999 Brier
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SLAM! Curling
1999 BRIER
ON THE ROCKS
INTERACTIVE
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Ice problems delay Brier
EDMONTON (CP) -- Ice maker Hans Wuthrich and his team along with Skyreach Centre workers made the play of the day at the 1999 Labatt Brier on Wednesday.An overnight technical problem with the ice-making plant caused the curling sheets to soften, leaving Wuthrich and his crew scrambling to restore the ice.
When Wuthrich arrived for work at 5 a.m. local time he was informed of the problem by Northlands Park, operators of the building.
"I looked out at the ice and it was a little shiny," said Wuthrich.
"Then I saw some rocks sitting in water, but I just had to let it freeze."
The plant was shut down for more than four hours, allowing the temperature of the ice to rise about four degrees.
The start of Wednesday's morning games were delayed by 45 minutes.
"It was due to a refrigeration problem at the Skyreach Centre," said Warren Hansen, director of event management for the Canadian Curling Association.
"It was very unfortunate, but I think we've recovered.
"The curling sheets are sitting on top of an existing ice surface. If we had been on a cement floor we'd have had real problems."
None of the players from the morning draw reported any problems with the ice.
"The ice was pretty well identical," said Manitoba skip Jeff Stoughton after losing to Gerald Shymko of Saskatchewan.
"The ice makers did a great job."
Hansen said the Brier has never lost its ice since it became the Labatt Brier in 1980, although there had been problems back into the 1960s and early 1970s.
Al Skoreyko, general manager of Northlands Park, said an alarm went off at 1:30 a.m. alerting crews to a problem. It then took four hours to find out why the system kept shutting down.
He said crews will now be monitoring the computer system that controls the plant for the remainder of the Canadian men's curling championship which ends Sunday.
"We're not relying on the modern technology, we're going to be monitoring the monitoring system with humans."