1999 Brier
SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Curling
1999 BRIER
ON THE ROCKS
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
Crowd-pleasin' playin' the reason
One minute they're in Meadow Lake duelling for the coveted Wheat Pool Tankard - with maybe 900 farmers in the stands - the next thing they know they're on centre stage at their first-ever Brier, curling in front of 10,000 fans and a national TV audience.
They could have wilted under the pressure. They could have gone starry-eyed and lost focus. They could have panicked at their 0-2 start in the big show and never recovered.
They did none of the above.
Instead, the rookies went 7-2 down the stretch and eliminated two-time world champ Russ Howard in the opening game of the playoffs.
The Fonz at his best was never as cool as these guys.
"The biggest thing is communication when the crowd gets going, but I actually thought it would be a little louder, more chanting, more bells and whistles, so it's really not that bad,'' said 23-year-old lead/agriculture student Neil Cursons.
"There's just a lot more bodies out there staring at you. It can definitely be a distraction, and if you can't block it out it can definitely affect your game.''
That hasn't been a problem with the Green Machine.
"When you're focused on the game you don't really hear it or think about it,'' said Gerry Adam, a 35-year-old third/plumber from Yorkton. "I'm not saying it was easy to handle, but I think we've done it fairly well for being a new team.
"I don't know how we did it, it's just the way we are; we don't let a lot of things worry us. We just go out and curl.''
And now, two wins away from curling's ultimate prize, they aren't about to let the heebie-jeebies set in now. They're having too much fun.
"This whole week has been unreal, it's what you dream about since you're 12 years old, and it finally comes true,'' said Adam. "And all of a sudden you're in the Brier semifinal. It's awesome.''
But not too awesome.
"Everyone is pretty grounded on this team, nobody has a big head or a big ego,'' said Cursons. "We still haven't won anything. It's a good accomplishment for us, if it all ended now, to say we're No. 3 in the country. It's something to be proud of.
"But we'll keep working hard and try to win the whole thing.''
* The end of Howard's Brier quest felt more like an endurance test. He played the late draw Thursday night, going 11 ends with Yukon/N.W.T. to qualify for a tiebreaker. Then he's up at 6:30 a.m. Yesterday he starts the tiebreaker against Nova Scotia at 8:30 a.m. Ninety minutes after that game he's in the playoff game against Shymko.
"You go back to the room (Thursday night), order pizza and then it's after midnight,'' said Howard. "It makes for a short night. But we put ourselves in that position.''
* With income tax and RRSP season in full swing, it wasn't easy for Manitoba second Garry Van Den Berghe, an accountant, to take a week off work for the Brier.
He has special permission from the Canadian Curling Association to fly back home as soon as Manitoba is out of it, but it looks like he's here for the long haul.
"It's hard to take this much time off at this time of year,'' he said. "It's bread-and-butter time for an accountant, and I'm not making a lot of that here.''
* Think Guy Hemmings felt sorry for Orest Peech after pasting him 13-1 Wednesday night? Think again.
"I owed him one,'' joked Hemmings. "He beat me in the last Canadian mixed I played. He beat me badly, had no mercy on me. It was about three years ago, in the second to last game to keep me out of the playoffs. I told him I'd never forget it. After this one I told him I'm really happy I beat him 13-1 and I was trying to make it 20-1. I was waiting for this moment.''
He's kidding.
* Van Den Berghe is one of only three left handed players at the Brier. Dale Hess of Quebec and Glenn Turpin of Newfound are the others.. During a break in the action, the Skyreach crowd got all over the Brier Bear for coming up short on a draw. A 61-year-old guy in a bear suit can't hit the house and they boo him? Tough room... Whoever booked Buddy Whazizname and the Other Fellas to play the Brier Patch Thursday should be fired. They were absolutely horrible, cleared out the place like gas leak.