To be hosted by Thames Centre & the Ingersoll district curling club
By Mark Schadenberg
DORCHESTER – The Flight Exec Centre will be a busy and exciting venue
next February (Feb 2-8) for the Ontario men’s curling championships, The
Tankard.
You could say it will be an eight-ring circus with four sheets of top-calibre curling.
The winner of the annual Tankard (Last eight years has been the Glenn
Howard foursome) is invited to the The Brier to represent Ontario.
However, as I am someone who has attended six Tankards over the years
as a broadcaster for Rogers TV, the eight-day Ontario bonspiel, which features
a full round robin and playoffs (Page format), can be a true winner for the
hosting committee by attracting thousands to a community and raising
significant dollars for a curling club.
Ingersoll has just one arena (Ingersoll District Memorial Centre), so
it can’t host an event of this size, but since about 30 per cent of the
Ingersoll district curling club (www.ingersollcurlingclub.ca;
on Chisholm Drive) members are from the Dorchester / Thames Centre area, moving
west along Hamilton Road to Dorchester is a smart logical idea.
I will post a link to the Rogers TV story I hosted as I and
videographer John Payne made the trek to Dorchester for a press conference on
Wednesday, Jan 22. The organizing committee will include two long-time
Ingersoll (Oxford County) curlers Dave Swatridge and Bob Armstrong, and together they announced
that 130 volunteers have already registered to assist in The Tankard. The
committee figures they will require another 70 volunteers, bu6t of course they
have about 10 months to recruit the extra bodies.
The provincials will be nicknamed The Clash On The Thames for
promotional purposes and the press conference attracted many dignitaries,
including two MPs (Dave MacKenzie of Oxford attended), two (MPPs (I chatted
with Ernie Hardeman of Oxford), two mayors (Ted Comiskey of Ingersoll spoke
behind the podium and we know it is an election year in municipalities),
accomplished provincial-level curler Jake Higgs (pictured below), who has competed in eight
Tankards attended, plus may officials from the Ontario Curling Association (www.ontcurl.com).
The 2014 event will be in Smith Falls.
As a part-time Rogers broadcaster, I have worked everything from
hosting to play-by-play at provincials in Woodstock (twice), Owen Sound,
Guelph, Whitby and Mississauga.
With as many as 11 teams competing in a full round robin and just four
making the playoffs, every game is pivotal. For curling fans, the noteworthy
tidbit to remember is that four games are taking place simultaneously so there
is always something to focus on. Teams advance to provincials from regional
playdowns and then a last-chance qualifier weekend called the challenge round.
The 2014 field (www. http://smithsfalls.ca/smithsfallstankard2014.cfm)
includes defending champ Glenn Howard (pictured below), the already-mentioned Jake Higgs of
Strathroy, plus a previous champ in Bryan Cochrane of the Ottawa area, along
with Rob Rumfeldt, Rob Lobel, Mark Bice, John Epping, Jake Walker, Shannon
Beddows, and Aylmer’s Rob VanYmeren.
Could this be the year that an Epping or Higgs dethrones Glenn Howard
(www.teamglennhoward.com)? I’m expecting that the Dorchester organizing
committee will be cheering on Glenn Howard (With Wayne Middaugh, Craig Savill
and Brent Laing currently) as they would love the 2012 world champions to
headline the field. Howard, who played with older brother Russ when his career
began, has won a total of four world titles, four national Briers and 15
Ontario championships.
LINKS:
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales Representative
Senior
Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal
LePage Triland Realty
757 Dundas
St, Woodstock
www.wesellwoodstock.com
(519) 537-1553,
cell or text
Email:
mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter:
markroyallepage
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