Fun watching world teams practice

Six degrees of separation? In the curling world, there’s at least two and a half—between myself, some friends and some of the world teams getting ready for Moose Jaw.

Most of the world championship competitors have touched down in Regina, Sask. The vans were in town to pick the teams up and make the short trek to Moose Jaw—home of the famous Snowbirds and the infamous rum runner Al Capone and his Canadian Connection. Moose Jaw was nicknamed Little Chicago back in the day.

The city is also home to the largest moose in the world, as they added a few centimetres to the challenge from a moose in Norway a couple of years back.

Moose Jaw has character, to put it mildly. It’s a great city to host this world curling championship.

Yesterday I made the five-minute drive from my home in Riderville to watch the Swedes, Koreans, Norwegians and Chinese throw practice rocks at the Highland Curling Club. Almost all of the 13 teams are practising there through Thursday—the Germans were in Vancouver and the Austrians in Toronto—before official venue practice ice starts on Friday.

The worlds officially kick off on Saturday, Mar. 29.

Moose Jaw boasts a real nice newish curling centre but it’s currently being turned into the world’s version of the Brier patch as I write this. So, Regina and the Highland are the place to for this week’s practicing, and its beautiful Grand Slam-style ice.

Memories of watching Norway in 1983 flooded my mind as I watched Eigil Ramsfjell’s son, Magnus, play an exhibition game against the Koreans skipped by Hyojun Kim. It was a six-end marathon of sorts as the teams took their time tweaking and talking strategy and ice. It was fun to watch.

Team Norway also had some fun on their social media feeds (below).

Magnus’ throws reminded me of his father when he won the world bronze medal in Regina. Eigil, a two-time world champion, always had the draw weight touch. Magnus hit the pot at least three times in the exhibition to score a few and take the match.

For the record I will be cheering mostly for Team Canada, but I have a definite soft spot for Norway.

Back in 1983 I had tickets for the Regina worlds, won by Eddie Werenich and his Dream Team. I was working towards a degree at the University of Regina at the time. Eigil impressed us all that week. Like Magnus, the four-foot never seemed to escape his touch.

My dad asked me what I thought of that world championship. I told him that Norwegian team is gonna win a couple of titles. He humored me, but Eigil won the next year at Duluth, MN (one of six worlds to end on the same date, Apr. 8) and he got his second crown a few years after—plus the non-sanctioned 1988 Olympic gold in Calgary.

My dad eventually said I should become a scout.

The Austrians are back for only the third time since they debuted at Regina ’83. Skipped by Mathias Genner this time around, they’re looking to improve on their nation’s one-win total in their two appearances.

Let’s just say they struggled in ’83 but were crowd favourites. If I recall correctly the team shooting average over the event was only 54%, still a record low! So, two of their three worlds started on touchdown at the YQR/Regina airport.

Maybe Saskatchewan will be a breakthrough this time around. One out of three might be the charm, although the odds are against them.

Back to 1983. How many of you remember the scrappy U.S. team from Colorado Springs and the Broadmoor Curling Club? They were skipped by Don Cooper, an Edmonton native who finished one game out of the playoffs and they were the only team to beat The Wrench that week—and they did it in six ends.

Curling is a small world as three decades later, my home curling club for three years resembled—for three years—that Colorado Springs club. Cooper’s third man Jerry van Brunt was a regular in our open league. Jerry still throws a great rock, now playing with his daughter, Lauren, and friends.

Shameless plug: we knocked off Mr. van Brunt in winning the club championship, and won little Chicago-Style pizzas as a reward.

We often talked about their incredible run in Regina. His nephew Brandon Carlo, also quite proficient on the ice, was recently traded by the Boston Bruins and is now a Toronto Maple Leaf.

It was fun to watch the international teams practicing. I swear the Chinese team threw at least 100 rocks each. The Swedes, defending champions, just seemed to be working out kinks from last weekend at the World Curling Tour event in Swift Current, Sask. where they were knocked off in the quarters after a 4-0 run.

The Koreans and Norwegians had a decent battle apart from Magnus imitating his father’s touch to the button. They kept score, but I don’t think anyone cared—kind of like the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues for MLB.

But what I really enjoyed was watching four recreational curlers two sheets over from Niklas Edin’s world and Olympic champions. Maybe curling isn’t the only sport to have the two extremes—world-class professionals and what looked like newbies—in the same rink, but it was curling culture at its core… unique, and more than a game in many ways.

As I left with my sidekick and teammate Francis Walsh—a four-time Newfoundland Masters champion who fell in love with a Sasky woman—you could see teams ordering the Highland’s famous smash burgers (by The Paddy Wagon) and sitting down beside the locals.

As I said, unique—and more than a just a game.

The Highland might just have the best arena burgers in Saskatchewan. No one has recently disputed this argument. The food is so good the kitchen stays open through the summer. The only other curling club on the prairies that may offer anything to rival the smash burger is the two-sheeter in Cremona, Alta. just north of Calgary.

I like to think Niklas Edin and team will remember the smash burger and the outstanding curling ice at the Highland once they’re back in Karlstad after a long week in Moose Jaw, their final event of the season.