Lesser lights shine in early Brier draw
It’s not the way it generally works with a curtain call.
You don’t usually shoo them off the stage Wednesday, have them hang around a couple of days to lick their wounds and then bring them back Friday to see if anybody wants to watch them play again and determine just how bad they were.
I’ m not sure who was in the boardroom of Curling Canada when they invented this newfangled 16-team, two-pool format for the 89th Brier, but it must have gone something like this:
“Hey guys, we’re left with no draw on the Friday morning with this deal. How about we bring back Nunavut and those guys to play for 15th and 16th place, et cetera? Yeah, that’s the ticket.”
It was obviously an extension of the farce of this new format. But strangely, the way it worked out, it had its moments.
For New Brunswick skip James Grattan, a veteran of 12 Briers, maybe it felt disheartening Friday morning as he ushered his team into the van to head to the Brandt Centre to play for $500 of prize money to decide 11th and 12th place before a crowd of about 900 fans.
But that changed in the sixth end of his game against British Columbia.
“When you get to say you once had a seven-ender at the Brier, that’s pretty good. I don’t think there’s ever been an eight-ender and I don’t think many sevenenders.”
There hadn’t been one in 18 years at the Brier.
The seven came against Sean Geall’s B.C. team that was down to three men due to departures by team members returning to Kelowna for the birth of babies.
“I just decided to throw it hard and see what happened,” Grattan said of the seven-ender that turned into a 12-5 win.
Yet the moment of moments Friday morning wasn’t Grattan’s seven-ender. It was a steal of three by Dave St. Louis of Nunavut against Thomas Scoffin of the Yukon in the 15th-versus 16th game.
“We enjoyed just being in a close game and cracking three was great,” said St. Louis, who had made only one deuce in pool play, that one coming against Saskatchewan.
“Unfortunately it was a steal of three when he missed his last rock shot,” he said.
“Not fun. I’ve practised my whole life to make those shots,” said Scoffin, who came back to win it 7-6.
Then there was Eddie “Spuds” MacKenzie of Prince Edward Island — often referred to in the past as the “free space on the Brier bingo card” — showing up this day in the 13th-versus-14th game and picking up a win against Greg Smith of Newfoundland.
Smith, in this Brier because Brad Gushue and his defending Brier and world champions were playing as Team Canada, watched MacKenzie put up four on the first end and cruise to a 12-3 win.
Jamie Koe defeated Mike Fournier of Quebec 6-4 to win the 9th-10th place game.