Mitch Calvert
The provincial men’s curling playdowns will be held in Fort Frances on Feb. 10-14 but the field of 16 already is beginning to take shape.
The Brad Jacobs rink (Sault Ste. Marie) won the KIA Curling Classic (East) Superspiel earlier this month in his hometown, beating Al Belec 7-4 to qualify for the provincials.
Jacobs is joined by Bryan Burgess (Thunder Bay), who captured the Courtesy Freight Northern Ontario (West) Superspiel back on Nov. 17, beating hard-luck runner-up Belec 9-8 in the final.
“Bryan Burgess is an established curler who has been to the Brier before, and having big-name players like that come to town should pique the community’s interest,” organizing committee chairperson Ron MacKinnon said of Burgess, who represented Northern Ontario at the 2001 Brier as part of Al Hackner’s rink.
“We’re also the crash test dummies for this new system,” he noted. “It’s a 16-team format and triple-knockout, and I think it will go good because you have a chance of having more of those big-name players.
“And there are just a lot more chances for teams to qualify than just one weekend and you’re done,” MacKinnon added.
Now that the two Superspiel winners have been decided, regional playdowns will be taking place this weekend (Dec. 19-21) for more qualifying opportunities.
Two Fort Frances-based rinks, Lorne Jackson and Anthony Smaha, will be vying for the one qualifying berth up for grabs in Keewatin (Region 1).
The other five regions in Northern Ontario will have playdowns of their own, so six more teams in all will have booked their tickets to Fort Frances after this weekend.
There will be yet another opportunity for rinks to get in through the “back door,” with the top two finishers advancing from each of the three inter-regional playdowns slated for Jan. 22-25 (the Region 1/2 showdown will be held in Atikokan).
The final provincial berths will be given to the two next-highest ranking teams in the inter-regions with the highest percentage of participating rinks.
The provincial winner will represent Northern Ontario at the Tim Hortons Brier on March 7-15.
“This format pulls more from each region, so there is a good chance a local team could be [in the provincials]. You just never know,” MacKinnon remarked.
Tickets and merchandise for the event can be purchased through Fort Frances Curling Club manager Rick Grenda (274-6667).
A window seat for the duration of the tournament costs $150. Weekly passes cost $50 plus GST, with day passes also to be available.
Tuesday through Friday morning will consist of round-robin play, with Friday evening and Saturday featuring the Page playoff system involving the top four rinks.
MacKinnon said much of the committee putting together the men’s provincial playdowns also organized the women’s provincials here back in 2006—and said it was a no-brainer to take on a similar event again.
“We had a really good group together and put on a really successful event [in 2006], and we had a lot of fun doing it,” MacKinnon enthused. “So when it came up that our region was eligible to host the men’s [playdowns], everyone was right on board again.”
