1999 Brier
SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Curling
1999 BRIER
ON THE ROCKS
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
Peech premiere wasn't all pits
Oops. Check that. Apparently you can.
Orest Peech made history this week.
Not good history, like Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon or that wonderful man who invented the TV remote.
Nope, Peech made bad history. He and his Yukon/N.W.T. (No Win Team) rink became the first foursome to ever go 0-11 at the Brier.
And until Canada adds another province and it becomes a 12-game round robin, or until somebody finds a way to leave this tournament with fewer than zero wins, it's a record that will never be broken.
But give the man credit, he didn't go down without a thrilling fight. He took Manitoba's rink to the brink in the morning draw (a 6-4 loss) and a few hours later came one stone away from what would have been the most shocking upset of the entire Brier.
"It would have been nice to win this one, no doubt about it,'' sighed the friendly rookie from Whitehorse, who found a moral victory in his extra-end loss to Russ Howard.
"It feels good. This kind of made the Brier for me.''
It was classic drama. All the other games had been completed. It was just Howard and Peech left on centre stage.
The two-time world champion needed a victory to stay alive in the tournament against a motley crew in need of a victory to avoid becoming the first 0-11 rink in Brier history.
A Skyreach crowd of 13,450 cheered for their underdog like little kids cheer for Old Yeller. They brought the house down when he scored two in the second and they groaned in disbelief when he sailed his last shot a foot wide in the seventh so Howard could steal two.
"There isn't a person in the house cheering for Russ right now,'' said Saskatchewan skip Gerald Shymko as he settled in to watch the wonderful theatre.
Peech's final shot, an extra-end draw to the four-foot for the win, sailed through the house.
Zero-for-the-Brier. Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?
"We don't feel so good about the record, but this was a great experience,'' he said. "Just coming to the Brier was a dream.
"Just being here for the first time, being part of the opening ceremonies. When you love the game as much as we do it's just an overwhelming feeling.''
Howard tipped his hat to his gritty opponent.
"You have to commend Orest for his fortitude. I don't know if I would have been trying so hard if I was 0-10, but that's what makes curling great.''
And that's what made the lovable loser so popular. Howard, a nice guy in his own right, felt like the whole world was against him.
"We talked about it before the game. We knew everybody would be cheering for Orest,'' he said. "If you're up by four or five you can laugh it off, but when you're down by two it's not so funny. You hear everything.''
Don't think the Yukon/NWT boys didn't hear it, too, or didn't appreciate it - all week long.
"It's difficult to describe,'' said Peech. "It became so emotional. The feeling of support from the city was incredible. I think that's what keeps me smiling. Because of them the whole experience wasn't a total disaster.''
He and his rinkmates came here with high expectations. Higher, at least, than 0-11.
"We tried to improve on the previous year's record,'' said the 46-year-old father of four. "Six and five was definitely our goal, but that slipped away early.''
Very early. By Monday night the team had already posted losses of 11-3, 10-4, 9-4, 10-6 and 7-4 and had only gone the full 10-end distance once.
He almost felt like digging a tunnel out of his hotel room and escaping back to Whitehorse under a cover of darkness. He wasn't having any fun at all.
"I just about said, 'I don't want to be here any more,' '' he smiled yesterday. "We got beat, we didn't throw very well or anything. The confidence level was going downhill. It just about devastated us.
"But the coach kind of perked us up a bit. We're feeling fine now. Our confidence has started to come up. We know we can curl a good game. We're having fun. We're focusing on experiencing the experience.''
The Yukon/N.W.T. entry is a perennial punching bag - 110 games under .500 (83-193) since being added to the Brier field in 1975.
That's part of the problem.
"We've got 20 or 25 men's rinks up there and maybe four or five that are capable of giving us a game,'' said second Brian Wasnea. "The four or five of us just keep banging our heads together.''
So they plan on expanding their horizons, if not their wallets.
"We're committed to staying together another year and we plan to travel next year. We're going to go to other provinces, play the cashspiels,'' said Peech, who's lining up a team sponsor.
"That's the only way to get better, playing the high-intensity cashspiels against the tough players.''
They'll be sad to leave, especially without their one victory.
"We still feel pretty good about the way we played,'' he said. "But to win one, and to win it against Russ Howard, would have felt great."