On the curling tour in warm September.

It’s not easy running a curling bonspiel.

Recruiting sponsors, coordinating team entries, preparing the ice, managing the draw and attracting fans are just a few of the many duties involved. It becomes more difficult when summer temperatures extend into September and most Canadians are gathering at parks, backyards and golf courses, basking in the final warm rays of the year ahead of the cold winds and snowfalls soon to descend.

Earlier this year, a friend shared a drink in celebration of my 50th birthday and also shared some sombre advice for those of us reaching our later years. “It’s important to enjoy the time we have because at our age” he said, “we have maybe 20 good summers left”. So why then am I spending part of this one in a curling rink? The Alberta Curling Series (ACS) was not to be deterred by the heat and ran their third event of this early season at the Leduc Recreation Centre. The initial events were men’s and women’s tournaments held simultaneously on the August 26-28 weekend. These were smaller purse events which provided an early season warm-up for local teams along with competition for travellers such as Eun-Ji Gim of Korea and John Epping from Ontario. Gim won that event and, two weeks later, carried their strong play to the Saville Shootout where they bowed out to eventual winner Jennifer Jones in the semifinals.

While the women battled in Edmonton, the ACS gathered 24 men’s teams to compete in Leduc at their first major event, sponsored by Global Machine & Supply. Rather than head to the links on a sunny Friday afternoon, I chose to drive 40+ minutes—both ways—to Leduc to watch curling. Imagine my surprise when I found out every single game (61 in total for the event) was being live streamed on YouTube by “Curling Stadium.” The Curling Stadium business model sells itself to curling facilities, not necessarily broadcasters or event managers. The system sees cameras installed on every sheet in the facility, and makes it possible to broadcast (okay, stream) every game on every sheet. The Alberta Curling Series partnered with Curling Stadium to stream all 16 events played inside the Leduc Curling Club this season. But it’s not just for the high-performance competitors … recreational league games inside the facility are also being streamed to the club’s YouTube channel.

It was still worth the trip to visit with my old junior coach, Tom Clasper. Tom is coaching Team Wiebe and he and the squad travelled from Winnipeg for the inaugural Curling Canada championship of the season, the U-25 NextGen Classic. They had scheduled to stick around for the Leduc ’spiel and after meeting for an after-game drink the week before, I was interested to see the squad in action—and observe Tom’s techniques from behind the glass.

On Friday afternoon a small bar was set up on the main floor to serve spirits (from local proprietor Right Hand Distillery) to those who couldn’t make the trek to the main bar upstairs. The Ghost Brum rum was quite good, and sharpened Tom’s and my attention on the game against another youthful team skipped by Kyler Kleibrink. Team Wiebe—with Ryan Wiebe at skip, Ty Dilello at third and twins Sean and Adam Flatt at front end—came away with the victory and Tom and I headed over to Rural Routes Brewing for a pint and some unique and delicious dill pickle and jalepeno-brined wings.

Apologies, this thing is starting to become a travel guide for Leduc vacation tours. Let’s get on to the curling. The evening draw pitted our heroes against a mostly young team from Japan skipped by Riku Yanagisawa. Canadian coach Bob Ursel has been working with the Japanese program for five years but this is his first time with this team. They simply love to throw rocks and they make a lot of shots. A tight battle resulted in a 2-1 loss for the Wiebe squad and a drop to the B-side heading into Saturday.

I spotted youthful American skip Korey Dropkin and his squad on a neighbouring sheet. There were two additional young U.S. squads in Leduc, too, skipped by Scott Dunham and Riley Fenson. Curling Stadium allowed me to follow the Wiebe games through the weekend, including a Saturday night showdown against provincial rival and 2020 World Junior champ Jacques Gauthier (sorry, just checked my notes and Gauthier is now playing out of British Columbia. It’s going to take some time to follow all the team changes this season.) A key steal of one in the sixth end helped Weibe to a 5-2 victory and a spot in the quarterfinals.

There was quite the contrast in skipping styles, with Ryan often quietly placing his broom in one spot, leaving fans and coach Tom to speculate on the call, while Jacques frantically taps his brush dozens of times over the choice of one shot. My mother Lou was not impressed with Gauthier’s broom techniques and, much like a 90s curling fan outraged by the gum-chewing of one Colleen Jones, vowed to not watch him again. I had to inform her, given his age and pedigree, it was possible we’d be watching Jacques tap-tap-tap away for decades to come.

Despite the online coverage, I returned to Leduc on Sunday to catch the evening quarterfinals. Not enough fans took advantage of what was a great idea (the serving of drinks downstairs) and at some point the (mini) bar closed down. This required me to hide the Sugar Beet Brum in in a plastic cup in order to evade the authorities and transport our beverages from downstairs to the main floor. 

Some of the newly-formed teams comprised of Slam players were still in contention here. John Epping with a new squad, Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller (with Benoit Schwarz throwing last stones), and the Tanner Horgan squad with Darren Moulding, brother Jacob Horgan and Colin Hodgson.

Reid Carruthers was also there, with Derek Samagalski and Connor Njegovan at front end as well as—stretching his uniform dimensions to the limit—new third Jason “Guns” Gunnlaugson. 

Noticeably absent from Sunday was the new Mike McEwen squad (Ryan Fry, Jonathan Beuk and Brent Laing) who failed to reach a qualifying game. They did have some early season success, mind you, by reaching the semifinals of the Curling Stadium Martensville International where they lost to eventual winner Schwaller. Team Wiebe was pitted against another Swiss team, skipped by Philipp Hösli. Regular skip Marco—Philipp’s brother–was out with injury and the team “Gushued” their way to qualifying, forgoing an alternate and competing with three players. The Swiss made everything, but the Wiebe squad also played well and overcame a first end steal of two, winning the match 5 to 4. A fascinating watch was the first end between Team Carruthers and the young Yanigasawa from Japan. If you missed it, be sure to check it out on Curling Stadium. It’s a great example of how young teams (and some veteran teams) often lack experience in understanding rock placement and when to bail from a problem.

Monday came and there was another long drive to Leduc (what was possessing me?) to watch Team Wiebe finally falter in their semifinal match against Carruthers. In the other semi, Epping missed his final draw against Schwaller, who then went on to win their second tournament in Canada this season. In the end it was a great showing by the young team from Winnipeg who placed third at the Manitoba Tankard last season.

This weekend sees the ladies roll into the Leduc facility, while the men are in Okotoks. That field includes the debut of the new teams Koe and Bottcher.

There’s more to come on in my next article, which will include a look at the state of Canadian men’s curling to determine if the future is bright, dark or a little hazy.