Best wishes for 2009
Mississauga, ON (December 23/08)
from Jim, Bob & Chris
New card from Capital One!
Mississauga, ON (November 10/08)
Capital One is stepping up its efforts at leveraging its association with the sport of curling.
Today, curlers can go online to read about and sign up for its Curling Platinum MasterCard.
Not only are the standard enticements offered ... no hassles, no annual fee, no hidden redemption fees, no travel restrictions, a sign up bonus, but there are curling specific rewards available.
Information is at: www.capitalone.ca/curlingcard.
And right on the heels of this announcement, Capital One is endeavouring to add cache to its Grand Slam series. It has created the Capital One Cups, which are the overall titles that Grand Slam series curlers will be vying for.
Each of the eight Grand Slam events, four for men and four for women, award points based on standings --- with the season-ending Players' Championships having double the points.
The top three teams per gender when all is added up share in a newly-created $170,000 prize pool.
Kudos to Capital One for adding drama and an overall compelling reason to track its Grand Slam property. Could make for some interesting chatter at the water cooler!
November 7th is the deadline. That's tomorrow!
Mississauga, ON (November 6/08)
Last minute alert! The initial deadline [aka Phase I Request Period] to get into the lottery for tickets to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games is tomorrow, Friday, November 7th ... midnight (Pacific Time).
The urgency message on the Vancouver 2110 website reads ...
"Interest and new accounts have been increasing every day, and clearly Canadians are enthusiastic about attending the Games. Our data shows that they are taking some time to complete their requests and are building their ticket requests over several days as they consider their options with friends and family," said Caley Denton, vice-president, ticketing and consumer marketing. "So with only one day remaining, our message is simple: this is your best chance to get Olympic tickets, so give yourself enough time and don’t wait until the last minute."
Judge yourself accordingly.
M'ovember is coming!!
Mississauga, ON (October 29/08)
Scott Taylor of BalancePlus Sliders, a dedicated supporter of Prostate Cancer Research, has asked all curlers, competitive and recreational, to remember that next month is M'ovember month.
As was done last year, tour players are being asked to grow a moustache to draw attention to this very worthy cause.
Prostate cancer is the number one cancer threat to Canadian men. It will afflict one in seven men during their lifetime. That means that in 2008 approximately 24,700 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Wow!!
Here's what Scott may look like by November 30th.
And here's where you can learn more about this disease:
http://www.prostatecancer.ca/
Premiere screening -- Oct 19th
Mississauga, ON (October 6/08)
In our October '08 issue, SWEEP! has a story about the creation of a curling cult film, entitled 'Deadspiel', a Corcoran/Molloy collaboration.
This 7-minute short film was one of only sixteen Canadian-made films from more than 700 entrants selected for screening during the prestigious Toronto After Dark Film Festival.
'Deadspiel' has its premiere screening on Sunday, October 19th at 6:30 pm prior to the full-length Kevin Tenney feature 'Brain Dead' at The Bloor Cinema, home of this 8-night horror, sci-fi, action and cult film extravaganza.
At the printer!!!
Mississauga, ON (September 29/08)
SWEEP! is now in its 10th anniversary season ... with its 62nd issue featuring Jennifer Jones into the capable hands of its printer.
This October 2008 edition is scheduled to enter the mail system on Friday, October 3rd. So depending on where they live across Canada and around the world, SWEEP! should start showing up in subscribers' mail late next week or into the week thereafter.
SWEEP! will also be appearing on selected newsstands in about two weeks time.
No more tape-delayed coverage!!!
Mississauga, ON (August 14/08)
Today, TSN has announced that it is launching TSN2 on August 29th. From curling's perspective, this move has a positive impact. It means that hockey nor NASCAR nor golf is going to bump curling to tape-delay. The live broadcast of that Scotties or Timmies draw and feature match will be seen on the other TSN channel.
This is great news particularly in the light of the fact that TSN is now the exclusive broadcaster of the Season of Champions for the next six years ... unless an event final is moved to the full CTV national network.
To date, only satellite subscribers had the luxury of receiving those heretofore bumped games live ... on what was known as the TSN alternate feed.
Henceforth, all cable subscribers will have live feed access. But it is up to the cable companies, not TSN, whether or not there will be a charge for the new channel. Yes curlers, it may not be 'free'. But if there is a small charge, don't go launching a boycott of TSN. How the new channel [and its HD twin] is marketed is out of TSN's hands. Word is that announcements in this regard are forthcoming as soon as details are finalized.
The other bonus of this second channel, is that TSN is planning to do replays for time zones that the live broadcast may be, for example, too early in the morning. With the inevitable EST emphasis for live broadcast times, this means that western markets will be able to view a replay at a more reasonable time.
All in all, this is fantastic as curling's viewing audience heads into a season of over 200 hours of live curling action. Remember TSN is bringing back all of those morning draws that went by the wayside four years ago.
Brazil wants in!
Mississauga, ON (August 13/08)
The Brazilian Ice Sports Federation has made it known officially that it wants a shot at a berth in the 2009 Ford World Men's Curling Championship to be held in April of 2009 in Moncton, New Brunswick. It had only five days remaining before the ability to challenge had reached its expiration date for 2009.
Five Brazilian males, who are said to be students at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec's Eastern Townships, are to be the players partaking in this challenge event on Brazil's behalf. Nothing is known about them, except that their training will take place at the Lennoxville Curling Club.
Mmmm. Sounds a bit like the Jamaican bobsled story! And who knows, it too could become the storyline for a movie.
It is newsworthy as this is a first ... the first time an Americas curling federation has posed a challenge at the men's or women's level. Heretofore, Canada and the USA have had as a matter of course the two berths designated for the Americas.
The challenge will be a best-of-five games event and will be hosted at a US site. January of 2009 is to be the target time, mandated by WFC rules.
As yet, the USCA has not announced what team will represent the USA, nor their chosen site. One would assume that they are in the midst of assessing the ramifications.
USCA COO Rick Patzke says the right things in the press release ... that the USA "welcomes the first-ever challenge from a South American team and looks forward to hosting Brazil."
That said, the USCA cannot be thrilled with the circumstances that this challenge imposes. US men's teams are fighting for berths in early January for the 2009 US Nationals/2010 Olympic Team Trials, and those first six successful teams are then prepping for the Denver, Colorado event to be held Feb 21-28th.
Fair or unfair, some team, likely one of them, is going to have to face off against the Brazilians. How to choose a team is a question the USCA has to address? Is it an advantage or disadvantage for that one team versus the others to engage in this competition?
Wouldn't it be better for the USCA if the challenge could be moved into early March ... so their champion could be the one to participate. But WFC rules would have to massaged for that to happen.
From this perch, there is no easy solution for the USCA if the challenge has to be in January. Just what were those Brazilians thinking?
The Dominion steps up again!
Mississauga, ON (August 5/08)
For more than a half dozen years, a company with heretofore one of the longest corporate names in Canada has targeted the sport of curling. This company, The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, sells insurance --- for homes, for vehicles and for businesses. And under the latter, it has developed an insurance program specifically designed for curling clubs.
Every year, it seems, this company is becoming more and more involved with our sport. Its CEO and President, George Cooke, took up the sport at about 12-years-old. He still plays, at the Donalda Club in Toronto.
This company has become the CCA's official insurer, as well as that of the Season of Champions and the OCA. It has taken a leading role in raising money for the Sandra Schmirler Fund, is now the title sponsor of several curling championships and recently announced its assumption of title sponsor of Toronto Curling Association's Junior Bonspiel ... an event held annually during the Christmas holiday period.
It also sponsors curling teams.
Well, The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company just announced [last Friday] that it has stepped up again. Since April past, it has been working at getting the buy-in of every provincial curling association and the CCA for a national club curler championship event. BC and Nova Scotia have these now provincially for both men and women.
All parties have come to agreement and a fully sanctioned two-gender championship is into the organizing stage and this endeavour is to be fully funded by The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company. The first national championships are slated to take place at the St George's Golf & Country Club in Toronto in November of next year. Information packages are to be distributed soon to curling clubs from coast to coast.
Pictured above, Leigh Armstrong, a three-time Ontario Junior Champion, has been hired by The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company to co-ordinate this initiative. Armstrong currently delivers second stones for the Ontario-based Julie Reddick team ... ranked 19th on the Order of Merit for women's curling teams.
As a final note, The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company is also in the process of rebranding itself. Soon, thank goodness, the company will be known simply as 'The Dominion' ... a lot easier to both say and type.
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