Brier Semi-Final

More comments about the Brier soon, including my visit there last weekend, but I just wanted to comment on the classy ending to the semifinal game. Jeff Stoughton just couldn't get things to work his way all game, and Glenn Howard's team played a good, consistent game. Thus, Manitoba was down 4 with the hammer in the 10th. Just before commercial break after the 9th, he commented "I think we have to play 10" although clearly it was a moot point. So what did they do?

When Howard called for Ontario lead Craig Savill to throw his rocks through the house, instead of throwing guards Stoughton called for the same shot. At first the crowd didn't seem to understand, but when Howard and Stoughton were standing side by side in the house, brooms down, with their teams throwing rock after rock through the house... they rose to their feet and gave a long, deafening round of applause and cheering for both teams. It was a very classy ending to a good afternoon of curling.

Stoughton and Howard have both impressed me with their class. Me, who generally follows men's curling simply because it IS curling. But Stoughton, so gracious in defeat, and Howard, gracious in victory... plus I found it very very classy that Howard's team brought along Steve Bice as their fifth man since he played for them in the provincial final when Brent Laing had to leave on account of his baby being born. Really great sportsmanship.

Not like John Morris, who I would argue is actually good for the sport, but a poor sport (breaking his broom in half on Thursday evening--in arguably the most exciting game of the week--elicited justified boos from the crowd). I was secretly very pleased that no Alberta teams made it to the playoffs: it's nice to see other provinces well-represented for a change.

My prediction for tomorrow's final: Howard wins. Gushue's team was red-hot Friday evening in the 1-2 game, but I would be shocked if they could play another pistol like that tomorrow. It'd be nice to see Howard win in his home province. Too bad it's so late in the day or I would go and watch live!