What a great weekend of curling. I'll post final thoughts later tonight, but in the meantime, you can enjoy a transcript from our live blog of the final game, complete with pictures:
In the biggest upset of the week, Team Dickson, winless to this point, wins over Wayne Middaugh in an extra end! Team Howard won over Team Lobel, and that makes draw #11 very interesting. 7 teams have a shot a the playoffs, but only if Team Dickson can keep their momentum rolling and beat Lobel tonight.
Four out of five sheets tonight are playing for something
Sheet A: Rajala (3-6) v. Todd (2-7). This one is just for honour. Sheet B: Dickson (1-8) v. Lobel (5-4). The big one. A Lobel loss brings tie-breakers into play. Sheet C: Shane (3-6) v. Middaugh (4-5). Wayne needs a win to keep his playoff hopes alive. Sheet D: Turcotte (4-5) v. Corner (7-2). Turcotte needs a win to stay at 5 losess, and Corner wants to win to try and get into the Page 1-2 game. Sheet E: Harris (7-2) v. Howard (9-0). Harris needs to win to get into the Page 1-2 game, he lost to Corner during the Round Robin.
The Dickson upset against Middaugh might have been predictable. Here are the win-loss stats by sheet this week:
Sheet
Yellow
Blue
A
5
5
B
6
4
C
7
4
D
7
3
E
8
2
Yellow always had last rock to start this week, so you'd expect a slight bias towards yellow wins, but Sheet E seems little strong. Will this help Team Harris tonight? The best way to find out is to come to the Waterloo Recreation Complex at 7pm tonight! Tickets are still available at the door.
What an incredible night! Just about 2,000 fans on the day, and the bulding was buzzing. Many fans ended up coming in late for the first end, since they had to park further away than they expected. If you're coming for the weekend, consider arriving early, getting a good parking spot and spending some time in Hauser House.
Middaugh gave Howard a real run for it last night, forcing Howard to throw a draw to full button with his last stone in end #10. This is the first time in two years that Howard has had to throw his last rock at the Tankard. Some were saying it's the first time in two years across zones, regionals, Tankard, Brier, and Worlds that Howard has had to complete the 10th end...can anyone confirm?
Sponsor Rogers Television has video highlights of last night's action.
Team Howard has clinched a spot in the 1-2 page game. Team Harris can still take the #1 spot, but needs a Howard loss at 2pm today, and then beat Howard himself at 7pm. Team Corner also has a chance at the 1-2 game, and has the luxury of a bye today: just one game against Turcotte.
Four teams with 5 losses are still in the running, but they need some help. Middaugh needs to lose once, either against Dickson or Shane, and Lobel needs to lose twice, against Howard and Dickson. Team Dickson has had a rough week, but they have a chance to play spoiler today, and will have most of the field cheering them on. Team Dickson has also shown that they know how to be aggressive...at one point yesterday against Turcotte, the two teams had 8 rocks combined in the four foot, and two others in the rings.
What does this mean? Well, depending on the 2pm draw, it looks like all 5 sheets will have a meaningful game at 7pm tonight. Simply incredible for that to happen in the last draw. Don't miss it.
After 7 draws, the question this year is the same as the question last year: Can anyone stop Howard? At least he isn't getting 9 points a game anymore, yesterday both Shane and Corner managed to hold him to 'only' 8 with 8-3 , and 8-2 wins.
Shane even managed a steal in the 8th end before shaking hands, thanks to this great hit and roll with last rock. (Sorry, the videos are a little fuzzier today, opening them in full screen mode will work best).
Howard missed his draw after that, perhaps thanks to the fervent wishes of a biased home town crowd. Curling fans would never secretly hope for a miss, would they?
In the late draw, Todd and Lobel went back and forth, with Lobel needing to make this hit through a port to take the end and the win.
So Howard is 6-0, 3 teams are at two losses, and just two teams with three losses. At this point, it looks like 4 losses is a pretty safe bet to make at least a tie breaker...and 5 losses isn't out of the question. Thursday's two rounds are going to be very important for a lot of teams.
Day two is complete. Local favourite Shane stumbled against the two Brantford teams in a pair of games that were much closer than the scores appeared.
Wayne Middaugh barely missed a thin triple to tie his game against Lobel in the 10th. You can see the video here:
Team Howard keeps rolling along, winning their third consecutive game with a 9-3 score.
So one undefeated team, three with one loss, and 5 with two losses. The volunteers are betting heavily that we'll end up with a bunch of 4 loss teams playing off at midnight on Friday.
What an exciting first day. The Man, Glenn Howard, won both his games, and Our Man, local Daryl Shane, also came out undefeated.
Our gatekeepers counted over 400 people for the first draw...not bad for a Monday afternoon, and over 600 for the evening draw. Plus over 2,700 unique visitors to our website. Looks like a great week is shaping up.
Shot of the day goes to Steve Lobel. In the 11 end, tied at 7, Peter Corner had some offence going with 3 rocks in the rings. Not a problem for Team Lobel, a smooth triple and stick, and suddenly Corner is facing four rocks, and doesn't have the hammer.
