Know your limit, but have some more
Oh, those wacky Canadian curlers, getting drunk at the Red Deer Curling Classic this past weekend and thrown out of the bonspiel.
Ryan Fry, who won a gold medal for Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and teammates Jamie Koe, Chris Schille and DJ Kidby, were sent home on Sunday.
According to the curling rink manager, “they went out to curl and they were extremely drunk and breaking brooms and swearing and just unacceptable behaviour that nobody wants to watch or hear or listen to and it was just, ‘enough was enough.’”
A couple of things about this: 1.) This happened in Red Deer; who wouldn’t want to get drunk in Red Deer, if only to forget that you’re actually in Red Deer?
2.) You know you have a big problem when you get kicked out of a curling tournament. Usually, beer and curling go together like beer and cribbage, or beer and golf, or beer and… well, I think you get the idea.
But that’s not completely true: unlike golf and cribbage, it’s dangerous to be drunk when you’re actually competing on the ice, where ‘tipsy’ can soon lead to ‘slipsy.’
I once saw a local radio announcer smack his head on the ice when he went arse-over-teakettle at the Bluenose Curling Club, and he wasn’t even drinking (as far as I know, but then again it was early in the afternoon).
Non-Sports Thought of the Week:
Last week in this space, I forgot to thank the Salt Springs 4-H club, who had previously dropped off a bunch of homemade baked goods and preserves here at The News office. Some of the items were red pepper jelly (someone stole the red pepper jelly), cookies, biscuits, chocolate squares and other things.
Once word got out that the lunch room was full of delicious treats, the place damn near got stampeded, and I had like, four biscuits and a couple of chocolate squares before everyone started mauling everything like a pack of rabid dogs.
True story.
Other Random Sports Thoughts:
■ The Monday Night Football game between the Los Angeles Rams and Kansas City Chiefs was one of the craziest NFL games you might ever see. Both offences were marching up and down the field, scoring at will in what would eventually be a 54-51 win for the Rams.
Those kinds of high-scoring football games are like eating coconut cream pie: it’s great every once in a while, but a steady diet of it will make you sick. Or at the very least, disinterested in having more.
■ Even though I’ve been watching the Canadian Football League since 1975 (yeah, I know) I just found this out, literally, five minutes ago, there used to be a team named the Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers, a member of the Ontario Rugby Football Union.
That’s right – the Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers, who won the Grey Cup in 1927 and again in 1930, but ceased to exist after the 1957 season.
The 2018 edition of the Grey Cup will feature the Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa Redblacks, after Calgary squeezed past the Winnipeg BlueBombers on Nov. 18, while Ottawa pounded the Hamilton Ti-Cats (sorry about that, Chief, I was rooting for your team, too).
The Grey Cup is being held in Edmonton on Nov. 25 and if it snows heavily, Ottawa will win 6-5, thanks to a late rouge after the kicker misses a short field goal. If it doesn’t snow, Calgary will win 37-13.