1999 Brier
SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Curling
1999 BRIER
ON THE ROCKS
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
Big decision for Charette: Should he stay or should he go?
Charette told the Sun yesterday, after his Quebec team lost the Canadian championship to Jeff Stoughton of Manitoba, that his days with the Hemmings squad might come to an end at the end of this season.
"I'm getting older and they're younger than me," said the 43-year-old Charette. "Guy's one of the most popular curlers in the world now, and he could have anybody he wants play for him. There are a lot of good, young shooters in Quebec now."
Hemmings, Charette and their teammates Guy Thibaudeau and Dale Ness dropped a 9-5 decision to Stoughton yesterday at the Skyreach Centre in Edmonton. It's the second straight year that the Quebec team has lost the Brier final. Last year, Hemmings lost to Wayne Middaugh.
Charette, named Brier all-star vice, will join Hemmings at next week's World Curling Tour Championship tournament in Winnipeg. Hemmings, 36, a greenhouse operator from St-Aime, Que., guided his rink to the Brier final with clutch shot-making.
His willingness to engage fans, whether judging belly-button contests in the Brierpatch -- the rowdy temporary bar set up for the event -- signing autographs or kissing women and little girls in the crowd made him the hit of the Brier.
Yesterday the 13,709 fans chanted Guy! Guy! throughout the afternoon and made it clear they were behind him with thunderous ovations when he did make a shot.
"The fans are good, they're talking about running the Brier in 2005, I don't know how old I'd be but I'd like a chance to come back in here," said Hemmings.
-- With files from CP