See attached Word Document.
After over 40 years of curling I have a lot of interesting and comical stories to tell. Like the story of Eugene at our curling club who would take several minutes to figure out a shot, and then go into the hack and miss the broom by several feet , but some how manage to wick off a rock in the front and end up on the button. He then would exclaim to all ” Just like I planned it”. He did that so often that to this day when a shot like that happens in our club we call it “A Eugene shot”. Or the time 2 players on my team got into a donnybrook with each other at a bonspiel over a burnt rock. Alcohol was involved. (Enough said. That is a story for another time). But the most memorable was the time our team won the first prize (a fly-in fishing trip to Northern Quebec) in the Temiskaming Sportsman spiel . That game is etched into my mind and I don’t think I will ever forget it.
I was a bit of a reluctant skip on the team. Even though I normally played lead, I had the most experience curling on our team and therefore was voted into the skip position. We were curling well though and we found ourselves playing in the semi-finals of the A event on Sunday morning. However, during the semi-final game things seemed to fall apart for me. We found ourselves down 6-0 after 4 ends, mainly due to fact that I had not made any of my shots. I was struggling and the rest of my team was going down with me. The Vice asked if we should just pack it in and head to bar, but I decided to play one more end and see if we could get our two points. Just so we would not be skunked. So we played the 5th end and I managed to make both my shots and we scored 2 points. Let’s play one more end I said since we have to take the rocks back any way. We managed to steal one in the 6th. One more end was the decision and we manged to steal another point. My team was making all their shots and I was just putting down guards or drawing in. Now we are in the 8th and final end with the score 6-4. We needed to steal two for a tie. The rest my team was flawless in shot making and I seemed to have my weight down at last, so we said lets play the last end. It came down to my last two shots. We had one rock in the 4 foot and one rock in the outside 8 foot at the tee line. The other team had no rocks in the house. There were two centre line guards guarding the rock in the 4 foot so I decided to draw another one in with my first and put it in the top 8 foot, but not completely buried behind the guards They came down with a hack weight take out and moved my rock to the back 12 foot and rolled out into the open near the back of the rings. With my last shot I took out their rock at the back of the rings and rolled out. We still had 3 rocks in the rings. There was no chance for a double, but all they would have to do would be to hit and stick on our stone in the 8 foot and it would be game over. Even if they rolled out they would still have a tie and the hammer in the extra end. The spot where the rock in the 8 foot was had proved earlier in the game to be in tricky spot since there was a bit of run there, so they decided to draw up to rock in the 4 foot and use it for backing. They would be giving us one more point, but would still win the game. They threw their last rock and it over curled on them and hit the front guard and did not make it to into the rings at all. We stole 3 pts and won the game. Our team was pumped. In the next game that afternoon the other team never stood a chance. Our confidence level was at its peak and we were making all our shots. We won the fly-in fishing trip.
So from now on when we are down early in the first half of the game and thinking of quitting, I always say let’s just play one more end, and see what happens.
Our love for curling began when my son, Jesse, joined the local youth curling club in Grand Falls-Windsor, NL in 2008. As we cheered him on, we were “swept” up in the excitement of the sport. The team spirit, close knit community, and overall fun of the game is what brought us together. On August 15, 2023, Jesse passed away unexpectedly at the early age of 27. Though he was not involved in curling then, it was part of his childhood, creating many lasting memories, such as attending our first big curling event together at the 2017 Brier in St. John’s, NL. It makes our hearts so happy to see our home of Newfoundland and Labrador being proudly represented around the world by such outstanding players.
Within recent years me and my husband have recruited new curling fans! We shared our passion for the sport with my sister and her husband. It didn’t take long before they were hooked too. We get together to watch just about every game and when we can’t get together, we are messaging each other throughout the game:
“Did you see that shot?!”
“They got it!”
“Whooo hooo!”
This past November we took our team spirit out of the living room and into the stadium! We cheered from the stands, instead of our couch, at the Kioti Grand Slam in St. John’s, NL. It was an experience we will never forget. The four of us wore our Team Gushue sweatshirts and although it did not bring them much luck, we still had an awesome time. Talking to other fans, learning more about the sport and getting familiar with other teams brought a new appreciation. The players of curling are unlike any other athletes. Upon meeting many of them at the after party, we were overjoyed to see how welcoming and down-to-earth everyone was. We really felt like we were a part of the community and that our cheering does not go unnoticed. This encouraged us to try our own hand at curling. When our local Fire Department posted an advertisement for a Curling FunSpiel, for Feb. 7-8, 2025, as a fundraiser for Muscular Dystrophy, we couldn’t think of a better time to give it a go! We made up a team name, “A Bit Rocky” which holds true considering we lost all three of our games, but we had a wonderful time! We went into the fundraiser a little hesitant, as we knew
we would be one of the few teams who have never played before but once again, the support from the community continued to make us feel at home. We received many helpful tips and advice from more experienced players who were happy to share their knowledge. We are now considering taking adult curling classes as the sport has brought so much light into our lives.
In the picture, attached, you will see us wearing our Team Gushue sweatshirts at the curling fundraiser, but most importantly you will see Jesse’s broom which I used so he could be with us. I am sure he was looking down and having a big laugh for himself, but most importantly he would be proud of us for never giving up, for not taking life too seriously and for getting out there and having fun! It is never too late, and you are never too old to try something new!
Note: I have also attached a couple pictures of my son, Jesse, when he was curling.
I am a Winnipeg born kid who worked a 30 year career with the Calgary Fire Department. After retirement i moved back to my home town and birth place. I was happy to move back closer to family but i knew i was leaving behind my curling community in Calgary including competing in the Alberta Firefighters Curling Championships and that left a big whole in my life. Upon arriving back in Winnipeg i caught wind that the Winnipeg Fire service had a league and my years of service qualified me yo play in there league and the Manitoba Firefighter Curling Championships. My father was a Winnipeg Fire Captain but he was a line of duty death 4 years before my arrival back. I was nervous walking in that first day but soon discovered that my fellow Firefighters in Winnipeg welcomed me with open arms and some even shared stories of working with my Father. It was heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time. Soon after my arrival i developed a bond with a Winnipeg Fire Captain Mike who I discovered was a bit of a carbon copy of me. Both about the same age and both worked hard to support our Firefighter Provincial Championships. We also shared the same record of competing in the Championship for over 3 decades and never prevailing as a winner. In 2019 we entered the event and after two games we already had a loss after two games. We then played the next 6 games in just over 30 hours. We did not lose another game and as our opponents last rock rolled out of the rings two very exhausted aging Fire Captains ( Retired) achieved there unlikely dream come true, drought ending Provincial Championship. I will never forget coming to a dead stop then turning around in a slow motion 360 degree motion. It seemed to take forever as it had begun to sink in, my eyes met Mikes eyes and it was a million words exchanged with one look. We Represented the Province at the Canadian Championship with mixed results but that one moment that ended over 30 years of effort and heartbreak was swept away. If my story wins i will take that team and the most important people to us , our wives to the Brier and wear our Manitoba team Jackets with pride as we cheer on the curlers. Thank you curlers, and i hope you found our journey interesting and inspirational. Its never to late !!
Curling and the cottage. My dad’s two favourite things. Over 15 years ago, in a tiny cottage on a tiny lake, dad and his curling crew from Dixie Curling Club got together and made something magical. What started as one fun day out on a small section of ice has turned into a full blown annual weekend bonspiel. Each year Dad gets more and more technical. The pebbler, the hack, the house, the scoreboard, the trophy. It’s all there, on an outdoor rink that houses years of unforgettable memories. The fun is carried on throughout the weekend with food, music and drinks keeping us warm in a tiny old cottage. The event has become so popular that a second bonspiel weekend had to be added for family! It’s the event that everyone looks forward to and is a heart warming story about the love of the game.
The Improbable Eight Ender
I looked at Carole setting up in the hack: “don’t be short” was all I could muster – “we have backing”.
The four newbies, Carole (skip), Chuck (vice), Joahnne (second) and Doug (lead) clamoured onto sheet B for an evening of mixed curling at the vibrant Blind River Curling Club. Their combined curling experience was less than many single members but they loved the opportunity to learn and play this great social winter game.
Carole wishfully called for the proverbial guard but Doug’s rock slid into the house right onto the button to our delight. Great shot Doug! Our opponents (red), also newbies, missed their takeout, and Doug’s second guard attempt was again heavy, freezing onto his first. Both our second’s guard attempts were also long, sliding into the four foot, while our opponents failed to dislodge any of the four blue stones.
When the vice’s first guard attempt also froze in the gaggle of blue covering the four foot, Kristy, observing from the adjacent sheet yelled, “three more and you get a t-shirt”. We looked at each other quizzically, unaware of her meaning. She explained that if we got our eight rocks in the house, we would get a t-shirt from the Northern Ontario Curling Association.
The skip earnestly shouted to us: “Do you want to guard or come in and try to get a t-shirt?”. We replied in unison, ”Guard” ! As fate would replay, the vice’s second guard attempt was also long, freezing into the sea of blue like a winter pile up. Meanwhile, our opponent’s multiple takeout attempts bounced off the 240 pounds of blue granite like little red electrons.
The skip, true to her fundamentals, threw a guard for her first stone, difficult as it was to guard six rocks covering the four foot. Her rock instead nestled into the blue mass like the previous six. Kristy, now quite attentive to our game, and with an air of, ‘what don’t you get’ yelled to Carole, “if you make this – it’s an 8- Ender.”
It was then that I noticed the interest in our game from both adjacent sheets. I glanced over my shoulder at the usually quiet gallery on Monday mixed and noted a small crowd gathering, including Rick the bartender and Cathy, our administrator extraordinaire. A sense of excitement was palatable; if Carole’s final rock was in the paint, we would score an eight ender – an apparently rare feat.
Carole, in her second year as skip and apparently unbowed by the sudden pressure, was cleaning the rock carefully – it would be a wrong time for a pick, and told herself her familiar mantra “Trust the broom” as she slid gracefully out of the hack. The sweepers, aware of the possible feat and the backing, jumped on the stone immediately, sweeping desperately with anxious glances at the approaching house. The previous seven guards had been long – could the final draw come up short in a twist of irony?
Carole’s stone slid into the blue mass as if guided by some gravitational force coming to rest in the eight foot – not a red rock in sight. We hope that we respectfully thanked our opponents for the game before we jumped in each other’s arms, got our picture taken and received congratulations from club members.
Turns out there had only been 3 previous 8-Enders in the club’s history dating back to 1956 – Less than one every twenty years. That’s like one per generation. There has never been an Eight Ender in the Olympics, Tournament of Hearts or the Brier. The Canadian Curling Association estimates the probability at 1/120,000. With a shooting percentage of 13% we had defied the 0,000008 probability of achieving this feat. However, improbable, we have joined the legacy of some of our Club’s greatest skips – Glen, Marshall and Ben – and our NOCA certificate is displayed with theirs.
Our “Readers Digest” condensed version of one of the best Tim Hortons Briers we attended!
It all began in March 2013 while Laurie and May were attending the Tim Hortons Brier in Edmonton. It was announced the 2014 Tim Hortons Brier would be held in Kamloops, B.C. During the two hour drive back to Crossfield/Airdrie we discussed how much fun it would be to do a road trip to B.C. and that’s how it all started…..
Laurie and Cal live in Crossfield, so the plan was for them to pick May and Don up in Airdrie on Thursday, March 6th at 4:00 a.m., which allowed plenty of time to get to the afternoon draw. However, Cal forgot about a previous commitment; therefore, only the three of us left and drove to Kamloops with Cal flying to Kamloops on Saturday.
Laurie arrived as planned with a loaded car and barely enough room for May, Don and all their stuff. After carefully getting everything and everyone packed in, we were off. It was a calm pleasant drive to Canmore and then it started to snow. Big, white fluffy snow and it kept getting thicker the closer we were to Banff. Thankfully we had a vehicle in front of us and could just make out their taillights. We followed this vehicle until they put the signal light on to turn right and we thought what’s going on as we were not turning anywhere, we were headed to Golden. The snow was so thick and hard to see we had actually followed this vehicle up the ramp to go to Banff. After a good laugh, we proceeded across the road and down the other side. We were in a downright blizzard but still Laurie managed to keep a steady speed and us on the road, albeit a couple of times I do believe we may have hit a snowbank or two. We eventually made it to Golden, stopped for gas and the lady at the counter said she didn’t think we would be going anywhere soon as they were doing avalanche control, and the highway was currently closed. After a relatively short wait we were on our way to Revelstoke. It was a slow drive due to traffic, weather and snow removal happening. At one point we were stopped but we were not worried as we had enough food and booze to open up a roadside stand. Once we finally made it to Revelstoke, we were again stopped as more Avalanche control was being completed. Along with a mass of other people, we sat and waited at McDonalds. When word came that we could now leave, it was like the Indy 500…..start your engines and GO! Thankfully we made it through in the 30 minutes it was opened as the highway was then closed for the entire weekend.
We finally arrived in Kamloops late in the afternoon, which was well beyond our intended arrival time. We did not make it in time for the afternoon draw but after checking in and getting our luggage into our hotel room, we were off to the evening draw. As always, the atmosphere and curling were awesome. Too tired for the Brier Patch tonight so we headed home for some much-needed rest.
On Friday, March 7th we were up early to be at the morning draw. We had tickets for seats, which were on the sidelines. We typically look for unoccupied seats to check out the view from different angles. We found some at the away end; however, it was at the home end, we met a group of people and one of the ladies had earrings on that were wooden curling rocks. Our feat was to try finding the store as she could not remember the name. Between the first and second draw for the day, we had some time, so we set off to find the earrings. We went into many stores; however, it was in one store, Jeff Stoughton’s wife and friends were shopping. Don wondered over and it was then he got into his salesman role. The girls were deciding whether to buy them or not, but Don kept insisting they would be sorry if they didn’t. In the end they all bought boots, and the clerk offered Don a sales position. We eventually found the store selling the earrings and are now proud owners.
Saturday was the big day……Laurie mentioned people would come dressed up to the Brier, so she had a plan. We were up early, went for a continental breakfast and during this time May, who had not washed her hair because she would be wearing something on her head all day, decided that it wouldn’t end well. So back to the room we went, Laurie and Don sitting and chatting while May washed her hair. It was while she was blow drying, her hair a huge flame came out of the hair blower causing her to throw it in the sink. The smell of singed hair was awful, so we opened the door and windows to get the smell out. Housekeeping was called, and a new hair blower was provided. May’s been known as “Sparky” ever since.
Finally, we were dressed and ready to go. A cab was called; and the look on the drivers face when 2 nuns and a guy got in was priceless. We arrived at the arena to the astonishing looks of many people. An announcement was made that Jacob’s team, who won the Olympics, were there to sign autographs. Laurie and May quickly got in line along with all the other fans. It was when one woman came by, walked in front of us and said, you are not nuns as they do not wear makeup. Then May looked and saw Laurie had eyeliner on. I’m like what? She said I can’t leave home without it! Anyhow, we stayed in line, got our autographs and pictures taken with Jacob’s team. Then we were off to find our seats and settle in for the first draw. It was at the 7th end break during the second draw of the Manitoba versus Quebec game Stu came to interview us. The very first thing in Stu’s interview he said I see you nuns are drinking beer and we were embarrassed as we were told and sold the Brier Holy Water and corrected Stu. The entertainer at the 5th end break and the Brier Patch was none other than Trevor Panczak. We saw Trevor and Stu watching the game before the 5th end break as the media was taking photos of the two of them. We agreed that both had a great sense of humor. A few ends later we saw Trevor sitting on his own watching the game. Sister Laurie and Sister May sauntered over to meet Trevor and have our photo taken with him. We asked the lady a few rows back to come take our picture. We seated ourselves on either side of Trevor, however we neglected to tell our photographer that we were going to kiss Trevor on his cheeks. She was not very quick and missed several opportunities to catch the famous moment. Later while at the Brier Patch the Sociables complimented us on our 7th end break interview. They had a hard time deciding if we were really nuns or not. We had people lining up for confession and sharing of the Brier Holy Water……… Peace be with You!
On Sunday we ran into Jeff and his team, and he thanked Don for helping his wife buy her boots. Jeff recognized Don from the great description his wife provided.
The final between Kevin Koe and John Morris was exciting. Our boys from Alberta won the tankard that year. So happy we could be there to cheer them on.
Another awesome Brier comes to an end. We truly had the most fun ever, met some incredible people and look forward to attending many more Briers.
It was mentioned earlier the highway was closed for the weekend…… we were forced to take the ring road through Jasper to get home.
We are currently planning, preparing and finalizing our Montana Brier 2025 adventures to Kelowna, which is only three weeks away.
This story can be verified by Stu Brown, Trevor Panczak, Jeff Stoughton and his lovely wife and the Sociables.
This is how Sister Laurie and Sister May became famous
Two Nuns drinking the Brier Holy Water at the 2014 Kamloops Brier
Good Friends & Good Times
You could say Curling 🥌 is in our blood. We have a group of women that get together and travel to many curling events. We cheer on our favorite teams while
enjoying all the good food, entertainment and drinks! 🍹 Like a sponge, we take it all in! We dress up everyday and love meeting new curling fans. We are already planning on heading to Moose Jaw for the Men’s Worlds. “Watch for us”!!
This is a story of the Prescott Curling Club (PCC), providing an opportunity for International students (grade 9-12) to experience curling. It was the fall of 2022, after the pandemic, and a coeducational private school (Fulford Academy) was looking for curling ice time. As part of their curriculum, all students must be exposed to a Canadian winter sport. Curling was the sport of choice due to access and limited equipment requirements. The PCC had the ice availability and time to support their needs.
December 2022, a group of International and Canadian students arrived at the club. Most had never been on ice, let alone curling ice. The PCC provided all the required equipment to experience the sport. Practice time was 1 hour each week, and quickly weeded out the potential curlers from non-curlers. By January 2023, the students were kicking out of the hacks and delivering draw weight. At this time there were no other curling teams in LGSSAA (Leeds and Grenville Secondary School Athletics Association), therefore the Fulford team automatically advanced to EOSSAA (Eastern Ontario Secondary School Athletics Association), being held in Kingston Ontario. By this time, the PCC club members were aware of this Fulford International team and provided the students with everything they needed to succeed.
In November of 2023, the same Fulford girls from the previous years’ team arrived at the club to commence, practice 1 day a week. At this time, the LGSSAA league had expanded to 4 schools and 5 teams; Gananoque, Fulford, and 2 Kemptville teams. The PCC had ice availability, was central, and became the practice club for all teams and league games.
As an additional experience, the PCC wanted to demonstrate to the International students how people of all ages could play competitively. The senior players from the PCC created a female and male team to play against the Fulford students. The senior team members were 70-90 years of age and both senior teams were successful. (see picture 20231211_164329.jpeg)
The Fulford students, boys and girls team competed for LGSSAA championship. The boy’s team was eliminated, but the Fulford girls advanced to EOSSAA, winning the best 2 out of 3, full 8 end games in one day. The team consisted of: a skip from Iran, 3 girls from Hong Kong, and 1 Canadian. (See Image0.jpeg). EOSSAA was held in Cornwall.
In 2024 -25 the Kemptville girls revenged there previous years’ loss Fulford, and to advance onto EOSSAA. When the competition ended both teams remained on the ice and practiced, as the Fulford students wanted to learn from the more experienced Kemptville players. This underscores what curling is, and creates long lasting friendships.
My story is in my file upload Revival of the Gress Cup