It's over

We lost, we are coming home.

The gals just couldn't put it together today against a rink skipped by Nancy Inglis, (I guessed wrong about our probable opponent last post). It seems that Joan McCusker, the chirpy, cheerful gal with frizzy hair of CBC curling announcing fame and front end player for the Jan Betker rink of Regina, has about 32 sisters and of those, I am pretty sure at least 8 of them were skipping rinks at this event. Every other time I asked Pat Reid who someone was out on the ice she just said, "she's Joan McCusker's sister", and that ended that.

Anyway, Nancy and her team bested our gals and it is time to leave all of these wonderful people and head home. The Nootana folks really know how to run a club, and a spiel. I am going to miss Saskatoon, we had a great time.

Later

This is curling.....

.... and some games you just get your ass handed to you by a really good team playing at the top of their game. Our gals had such a game this afternoon against Stephanie Lawton and go at it again at 4:30 against either Rona Martin or Cathy King.

You can only see up from here. "C" qualifier is at 7:30 tonight so we may be late, leave a light in the window for us will you?

Later

It's Lawton

The winner of last nights contest for the right to play our gals this afternoon was the Stephanie Lawton team from right here in Saskatoon. Stephanie and her team mates represented Sask. at the 2005 Scott and have a berth in the upcoming Trials in Halifax so we will be seeing them again in just a few weeks.

We are going to have to go early and get seats, Sherry Anderson is playing Jan Betker, Rona Martin from Scotland is playing Cathy King with the winner getting a chance to play the winner of our game, lots of action, hard on the neck, this event is like the STOH without the beer tent.

Later

A Little Short.

Our team came up just a little bit short this evening against the Cathy Trowell team of Regina who played extremely well against us. We were down 1 coming home without and Cathy had to throw her last rock which provides some kind of twisted satisfaction anyway.

Tomorrow at noon against the winner of a game between S. Lawton and S. Gilmour which is playing out right now.

A continuous parade of really nice people keep talking to us like we were old friends and it is very warm and friendly here at the Nutana. Which by the way, is NOT pronounced as if it had anything to do with acorns, peanuts or cashews as I have been calling it all week. It is pronounced NOOOTANA or NEWTANA for some obscure reason. I feel like a dummy.

More on the dish hunt, there is none to tell, however, Carrie Murdoff is a dish and a doll as well. Sherry has the nicest friends, we should all be so lucky.

Mrs. Webguy and I would look at real estate prices out here but folks were talking about 50 below weather so we may pass. Good news, this may be a great spot for anyone who is losing sleep over the Global Warming scare to escape the coming heat crisis.

Later

Another win and other news.

Team Middaugh curled exceptionally well this morning to win an 8-4, 9 end victory over a very tough Jolene McIvor rink. It was an excellent game and great to watch. Now the Team advances to the A2 qualifier against the always hard to beat Regina rink of Cathy Trowell. This game is at 4:30 and should be a barn burner.

The Team members are test driving the newest innovation from the fertile mind of Andre' Ferland and his team at Performance Brush, the "P 6 SIGNATURE: Red Carbon with Ultra-Grip coating 1 1/8”", a snazzy red handle which is actually lighter then the original, almost lighter then air, Performance Brush.

Dean Gemmell, former Brier competitor, now hosts The Curling Show, an internet Podcast, and does a great job of interviewing curlers we would all like to know more about, past and present champions and future stars of the game we love. His latest interview is with our very own Sherry Middaugh and you can download that at the link attached to this post.

FYI: A podcast is a geek name for a downloadable audio file in the MP3 format which can be listened to on any computer or copied to a portable audio player like the iPod. It is easy to listen to, just follow the link to the Yellow Brick Road.

One other note of interest, (to me anyway) it seems as if half the population of Saskatchewan either went to school with Sherry, or is a cousin of some kind and they are all here. Marvelous folks every one.

The other half of Saskatchewan can be found behind whatever sheet Sherry Anderson is playing on at any time of day or night.

Later

Squeak

Our ladies toughed out a win against a determined Patty Hersikorn rink this evening, coming home 1 up with it took Sherry to her last rock to seal the deal. Gals are curling well and playing with confidence, a pleasure to watch these games.

9:00 AM Saturday morning against the rink entered as Michelle Englot's team and now playing as the Jolene McIvor team. Jolene is Michelle's third/vice/mate and took over as Michelle had to bow out.

Jolene is doing a great job and will be a tough competitor. Can't wait.

Great Start

Our gals had a great start against a sharp opponent in Candace Chisolm this morning. An extremely well played 4th end which could have gone either way resulted in a whopping 5 for our side and after a few more ends the gals shook hands a little bit early and racked up a 7-3 win.

Our Team goes on to play Patty Hersikorn of Saskatoon at 5:30 this afternoon. The Nutana is a very nice 8 sheet club with an extremely active membership of happy, helpful folks. It is a pleasure to be here to watch this competition.

I finally got to meet a frequent email correspondent, Carrie Murdoff of Saskatoon, a long time good friend and former baseball team mate of Sherry's who often acts as a volunteer driver at these events. Unfortunately, this did not result in any local dish as Carrie invoked the old, "what happens on the road, stays on the road" defence and clammed up. So other then a first hand observation that the Nutana has good coffee the gossip well is a dry hole.

Maybe by tomorrow I will have some news.

Here we go!

The Team arrives in Saskatoon Thursday night for a 10 AM start Friday morning at the Nutana curling club. First opponent is Candace Chisolm from Maryfield SK.. There are 8 games scheduled for 10:00 AM so it should be hard on the neck trying to keep it all in focus.

I will stay in touch and deliver the dish all weekend.

Andrea comes through.

You can always count on Andrea, always, to come through with the right stuff at the right time. Well, maybe some might consider this slow, but I prefer to think of Andrea as thorough.

Today I received from Andrea a picture of the trophy presentation at Oslo taken with the much better camera belonging to Cathy King. Andrea's has this little wind up thingy and you need to put a nickle in it to take a colour picture, a Brownie or something like that I think.

Anyway, hope you like the photo, I will add it to the website in a few weeks.

On to Saskatoon! Our gals begin play on Friday, the 28th in the AM.

My bad

I suppose I jinxed the Team by weighing in from the Left Coast at the wrong time but I was excited and happy for them to be in the final again at one of their fave spiels in London. Sorry about that.

Congratulations are in order for Debbie McCormick and her team mates who bested our gals by a score of 10-7 in what looked at times like an, "No, No, After you" affair. Must have been a treat to watch, sorry I missed it.

6 & 1 will win you a lot of tourneys but you gotta win that last one. It was a great outing for Team Middaugh however and all part of the warm up plan leading up to the big event in Halifax Dec. 5.

I think next up is Saskatoon for the Parktown Classic at the Nutana CC. I hope to be there in person and give you all a blow by blow of all the action.

Until then, thank you ladies for a great weekend of entertainment.

Wow

Our gals make a return appearance to centre court this afternoon to defend their status as champions of the SWOLCC against worthy opponent, former World Champion, Olympian and and all around good person Debbie McCormick. The last time these two met with money on the line it was a barnburner of a game in St. Thomas for a bucket full of greenbacks in any currency.

I would expect the same kind of game this afternoon based on the play this weekend from both teams. Coming off of a narrow win over Anne Merklinger, the seeming "Queen of the Steal", our gals should be wound up and ready to unload.

Debbie had a down to the wire matchup with Jenn Hanna and should be equally inspired.

Wish I was there.

Stay Tuned

I should go away more often

It looks like our gals are doing just fine in London this weekend. 3&0, they now play good friend Jenn Hanna for a spot in the playoffs.

We will keep in touch.

Road Trip!!

Just a heads up that Webguy is fulfilling a lifelong dream of spending 4 weeks cooped up in a small vehicle with Mrs. Webguy. <;-) While not exactly team news, it will explain why I will miss the SWOLC in London so reports will be sparse. We will, however, be able to report live from the Parktown Classic in Saskatoon starting Oct. 28, which I consider a huge bonus to our trip.

We will be in touch.

Webby

EVENT WINNERS AGAIN!

Our gals pulled it off and defeated the Alison Goring rink to capture the Fourth Event trophy which I think is crossed swizzle stix on a bagel. It was a great competition which provided a lot of opportunity to throw rocks in a competitive situation as well as catch up with old friends and trade lies about how everyone's summer went and who(m) was curling with who(m) this year.

There is no dish like curling dish.

Thank you ladies for a lot of entertainment this weekend and good luck in London.


PS: Webby apologises for the tardiness of this report. Blogger Dashboard, which is where you create these entries, has been down for maintainance for long periods of time over the last 5 days. I know it is a free blogging service and one shouldn't complain but we may have to abandon this blog site, and the archives, for a more reliable, paid service in the near future. Suggestions and comments are welcome.

Curling on TeeVee!!

A reminder that curling returns to Television tonite, (Sunday) at 8:00 PM EST on Sportsnet. The Randy Ferbey Briar winners play 3/4 of the Jennifer Jones Scott winners in what is known in Soccerland as a "Friendly". The Jones rink is joined by new Manitoba resident and team member Georgina Wheatcroft.

This is all part of some deal with a new entity called "CurlTV" who have as their VP one Dave Nedohin and partners such as Rogers sportnet, Asham and some other smart folks who know a good TV thingy when they see it. Check the link attached to this post. It looks like they started taking subscriptions today, (Oct.1) for $5.65 a month you can get your fill of curling events over your Interweb connection. There will also be a weekly show on Sportsnet all about the latest curling dish.

As I write this a preview of the service is being netcast with a junior battle of the sexes from Brandon. Worth a look.

It should be noted that no CCA, CBC or TSN officials were harmed or involved in the production of this blog entry or the effort to bring curling to the fans without all the BS. Now that's nice.

Curling Strategery or...

...how to pick your spots. Our gals plan revealed itself slowly over the last few days but it can now be said that the goal is in reach and winning the prestigious Fourth Event is now a 50/50 proposition.

After defeating the Delaine Payton rink handily in 6 ends Saturday afternoon, our ladies now face former Canadian Champion and always tough competitor Alison Goring at 2:30 PM for the trophy.

Come early to get a seat or wait there and I will tell you all about it tonight.

The end is in sight

Our team has set their sights firmly on the trophy for the fourth event and play their first game in that event at 4:30 today.

The Crissy Cadorin rink, who played a great game against our ladies this morning, will continue on in the third event for now.

It is slippery in the mud and playing from the back of the pack is never easy but it does build character. The character bank should be quite full by the end of this competition. Spirits are high however and time on the ice, playing tight games against good opponents is very valuable at this time of year. It is after all, only Oct. 1.

We will be in touch.

On the other hand...

One & one can look better then one & two which is where our gals find themselves after coming in second in a contest with Karen Bell in Friday nights draw. This could be one of those character building competitions, where you learn lots by coming from behind.

Back at it, down in the mud, Saturday morning at 11:30.

We will be in touch.