Issue 1 – Saturday, March 28, 2015 FROM SNOW TO WHOA! · PDF fileIssue 1 –...

Issue 1 – Saturday, March 28, 2015

F R O M S N O WT O W H O A !

Winter-weary Halifaxturns its attentionto Ford Worlds

Canada’s Pat Simmons (left) and defending champion Thomas Ulsrud of Norway are making sure fans have a clear path to the Ford World Men’s Curling Championship.

Saturday, March 28, 2015Eye Opener - 2015 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship

Got the ‘write’ stuffThey don’t have

journalism degrees, Carter Rycroft or Nolan

Thiessen. No one on Team Canada has ever worked for a newspaper or for any other media outlet.

But they think they know a story when they see one.

And they expect to see one in their hotel room mirrors every morning here.

“My feeling is that this has the potential to be a very neat story for a long time to come,” said Rycroft of the 10 days ahead at the Ford World Curling Championships.

“If you think of all the factors that play into it, I think we have a chance to write a super sports story. From what Pat Simmons did at skip at the Brier, the change with John Morris moving down from skip, all the underlying stories from what happened to us at Worlds last year with the team breaking up and everything, it has all the makings of a very special story in Canadian sports,” he added.

“It’s crazy. It’s already an amazing story. I don’t think another Brier will likely ever have that story,” said Thiessen of what happened three weeks ago in Calgary.

Last year, Edmonton area curlers Rycroft and Thiessen won the Brier in Kamloops along with Moose Jaw third Pat Simmons and Calgary-based skip Kevin Koe. Then Koe dumped them, deciding

to replace them with Marc Kennedy and Ben Herbert from retired Kevin Martin’s team and Brent Laing from Glenn Howard’s fading foursome to create a better team to take forward to the next Olympic quadrennial.

One problem. Koe still had to go to Beijing with these three guys and try to play together one last time wearing the maple leaf for Canada at the World Curling Championship in Beijing.

They were a double dog disaster.

Indeed, they became the only Canadian team in history to play three playoff games at the Worlds and lose them all. It was only the third time in the past 30 years Canada didn’t come home with a medal.

“You know, the night after winning the Brier in Calgary and for the next few days, we started to talk about it. And it’s pretty cool, I think,” said Thiessen of the story they’ve authored and the ending they might now write.

“On the plane coming home from Beijing, you look at each other and never know if you’re going to get another one of those chances. It really sucked that we gave up another opportunity there in China so it’s pretty cool we get another chance to hopefully write a different ending.

“It’s definitely exciting and it really adds to it, I think, that we have such sour tastes

in our mouths the way we played in Beijing and being on the losing end of all those playoff games.”

Three weeks ago in Calgary, the trio — with John Morris replacing Koe, despite playing an abbreviated schedule and only qualifying for the playoffs in one event and finishing fifth in that — went and won the Brier again.

And as is the team history,

they did it the hard way.“I can’t believe that

just happened,” said lead Thiessen moments after Simmons drew the button on 11th end to win 6-5 over Olympic gold medal winner Brad Jacobs and make the two front-end curlers the 29th and 30th to win three Briers.

S e e J O N E SPage 4

Team Canada looking for victorious ending to story

DAVE KOMOSKY

«TERRYJONES

It took Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud nine tries before he finally won a world men’s curling champion-

ship, so naturally he’s not eager to surrender that title here this week. If he thought it was tough winning his first title, now comes the real diffi-cult challenge — trying to success-fully defend the title.

Ulsrud, third Torger Nergård, second Christoffer Svae and lead Håvard Vad Petersson won their first Ford World Men’s Curling Champi-onship last year in Beijing, China with an 8-3 win over Oskar Eriksson of Sweden.

To repeat as champions they will have to do something that has been accomplished only four times in the last 50 years of the men’s world championship — and all by Canadi-an teams. Ron Northcott in 1968-69, Don Duguid in 1970-71 and Ran-dy Ferbey in 2010-11 are the only teams to win back-to-back world

men’s titles.So why is it so difficult to defend

the title?“That’s probably only because

we haven’t been champions before,” the joking Ulsrud said with a hearty laugh as he sat in the stands of the Scotiabank Centre Friday, waiting for his team’s practice time.

Seriously, though, Ulsrud goes into this event one of the heavy favourites, along with Canada, skipped by Pat Simmons, Sweden’s Niklas Edin and Ewan MacDon-ald of Scotland. Switzerland, which won the bronze last year, and Japan, which made the playoffs for the first time in 2014, are also expected to be involved come next weekend.

Momentum, said Canadian third Johnny Morris, who won Olympic gold in 2010 and the world title in 2008 with Kevin Martin, and confidence, said Ul-srud, will be two key factors in ultimate-ly determining this year’s champions. And you can add consistently strong play, said Simmons.

S e e R A R I T YPage 7

By JOHN KOROBANIKEye Opener Associate Editor

Back-to-back winners a rarity

Team Canada second Carter Rycroft feels his team has the makings of a beautiful story.

Thomas Ulsrud is looking to repeat as world champion.

Page 4 Saturday, March 28, 2015Eye Opener - 2015 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship

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“We were 2-3. We changed our skip. And we just won the Brier! I can’t believe that happened. We put a rock on the button on the 11th end to win the Brier. It’s every front-ender’s dream,” he said of Simmons taking over from Morris at skip in the only mid-Brier switch in skips in history and going 8-1 the rest of the way.

Flash forward to Thursday, where the team held two practices at CFB Halifax to prepare for Saturday’s opener against John Shuster of the U.S.A.

Rycroft can see a completely different script to how this one ends compared to the Worlds last year.

“From the venue to it being Canada and Halifax to the dynamics of our team at this moment, it’s entirely the opposite. We are on a team that’s on the way up compared to a team being on the way to being out or done or whatever you want to call it.

“I would say everything feels completely different than it felt like last year. It’s night and day different from

going into the World’s last year and going into this one.

“Forget the rest of the teams that are here. The favourites are probably the same teams as last year. I don’t think any of that has changed. We are what has changed. Just about everything involving us has changed.”

Rycroft was in a different space than Thiessen and Simmons. He’d let it be known he intended to take this year off.

“My goal was to win the world championship and be content. There might have been more on Nolan’s and Pat’s minds and on Kevin’s mind considering the circumstances,” said Rycroft.

“Part of you says, ‘Things change and it happens all the time in curling,’ and part of you says, ‘If a guy doesn’t want to curl with you anymore, a guy doesn’t want to curl with you anymore.’ What I found tough was the perception that ‘Well, those guys are done, they’re not good anymore and that’s why he’s changing his team to have a new super team’,” said Thiessen.

“We didn’t see ourselves like that and I think the Brier win kind of justifies our view of ourselves. We’re pretty good players, too. You can’t shake a stick at three Brier titles. I think that gave us a

little more motivation, maybe, to show the public that we weren’t cast-offs and afterthoughts. There’s some validation there for us.”

They’d been there before. They’d been world champions.

Four years earlier, in Cortina-d’Ampezzo, Italy, with Blake MacDonald at third, the team went 9-2 to finish second to Norway in the round robin but absolutely dominated in the playoffs, clobbering Norway 11-5 in the 1-2 game and 9-3 in the gold medal game. Koe, MacDonald and Rycroft all curled 95 per cent in the final.

This was a horror story.“The one in Italy was a really small

rink. It was 1,000 people in a 2,000-seat arena. But Beijing was a 17,000-seat arena and there were 75 people in the stands. It didn’t have the same feel that it will hopefully have here,” said Thiessen.

“In China, I think our team handled a lot of the culture change very well over there. There were a lot of things going against us and we just didn’t find a way to fight through it,” he added.

“We had all that stuff with the team coming to an end that came out before we went there. As much as you could think that you could be professional and

you can put that behind you, there was maybe more to it than you could accept,” said Rycroft.

“But having it in China had more to do with what happened than the team stuff, from my point of view. We were Northern Alberta boys going to a smog-filled city where I had a sore throat from 10 minutes after I landed there until I came home.

“The ice conditions are hard to describe to people. For the first half of the week, we had water that wouldn’t freeze because it had petroleum products in it. It was unbelievable.

“Any stories you may have heard of them having to go and import a bunch of water, that’s all true. They were in big trouble. Whatever they used as containers to bring the water in had been used to contain petroleum products before and when you went to freeze it, the petroleum would rise to the top and parts of it would freeze and other parts of it wouldn’t.

“I can remember them going down the ice with a scraper and it was literally waves of water. It was bad.

“The ice makers did their best, but it’s a country that isn’t real good at making fast decisions and changing things because that’s the way they work. You

have to have seven meetings to turn a light on. So that was the start of it,” said the second, who won an Olympic silver medal with Kevin Martin in Salt Lake City in 2002.

“The ice wasn’t great even late in the week, but by the end of the week we should have had that figured out,” said Thiessen.

You could make the case that the situation affected Koe more than the three guys he was dumping.

“I can’t speak for him. He won’t say too much. But he definitely looked a little mentally worn out with everything,” said Thiessen.

“The news getting out before we got on the plane and having to do denials and stuff probably affected him a little bit. We were hoping it would be a swan song thing and it definitely didn’t work out that way.”

Now they’re writing one of the all time great curling stories ever. Who knows how they’ll write the ending?

Terry Jones is a sports columnist with the Edmonton Sun and will be sharing his opinions on the Ford World Curling Championship with Eye Opener readers this week.

JonesFROM PAGE 2

After John Morris moved to third during the Tim Hortons Brier in Calgary and Pat Simmons took over as skip, Team Canada powered its way to the top.


THANK YOU TO OUR FRIENDS

THE FAB FOURThe Eye Opener predicts the playoff-bound teams

2 3 41

Pat SimmonsGlencoe Curling Club

Calgary

The Canadians did it the hard way in making it on to the world stage, stumbling out of the gate at the Tim Hortons Brier, shuffling the lineup in mid-week and then roaring back to life to win it all under third-turned-skip Pat Simmons. This team knows adversity and how to deal with it. If Simmons can repeat the performance he had in Calgary, they’re the winners.

Niklas EdinKarlstad Curlingklubb

Karlstad

The 2013 world men’s champ is back for another crack at the title after winning a bronze for his country at the Olympics last year, and he’s always tough. Edin will have a whole new lineup, and a good one, this time around after the breakup of his old team last year, but the Swedes look as stong as ever. Edin has won three medals at the worlds. Look for him to win a fourth.

Ewan MacDonaldVarious curling clubs

MacDonald has plenty of experience, and had plenty of success, at the world championship, but mostly throwing third or second stones. MacDonald skipped the Scottish lads last year in Beijing and stumbled home with a woebegone 3-8 record. That won’t sit well with him and he will want to make up for that with a stellar performance in Halifax.

Thomas UlsrudSnarøen Curling Club

Oslo

Mr. Fancy Pants is back at the world championship for a remarkable 11th appearance, and fifth in a row. The defending champion will be one of the favourites in a good field. But it’s tough to win back-to-back championships. Only four teams have won back-to-back titles in the history of the event, and they’re all from Canada.

Alt for Norge

ORWAN Y

“There are a lot of teams that will beat you if you’re not playing really well,” said Simmons, who took over as skip of Team Canada midway through the Tim Hortons Brier, when the team had struggled to a 2-3 record. He went on to lead them on an 8-1 run to win the Brier and a berth in this year’s worlds.

“There are the more experienced teams like Ulsrud and Edin … Niklas just played real-ly well at the last slam so you know they’re going to be coming in playing well. Then there are teams like Ja-pan and China... Japan has real good chance after making the playoffs last year.”

Simmons, who made a last-rock draw to the button to beat Brad Ja-cobs and win the Brier, is comfort-able back in the role of skip and feels confident in his team.

“We’re as prepared as we could be, I think. It was a quick turn-around, which was a good thing for us, I think. We had a little bit of time to rest and catch up on some sleep after the Brier and then get practising. I think we’re as ready as we want to be.”

Such might not be the case for Ul-srud and his team who have played a lighter schedule this winter.

“It looks good in practice. The problem is we haven’t played as much this year,” said the 43-year-

old. “Needed to have a quiet sea-son for a couple of guys. If they wanted to stay married, they had to slow down a bit this year. So I’m excited to see how we do.

“All the guys are prepared and excited to get out and start play-ing, but then again, there could be some rust at the beginning so we just have to wait and see. Hopeful-ly we’ll manage to get it started.”

Ulsrud opens against China, the U.S. and Russia. Only China, at

6-5, had a win-ning record last year.

“On paper, we have a pretty decent chance,” Ulsrud said of his early sched-ule. “We have a couple of game under our belts before we play Canada, so that will be good.”

After taking so long to final-ly win a world title, Ulsrud and

his team don’t want to give it up, but know they’ll need a lot of ex-cellent play on their part, some key shots from everyone and a little bit of luck along the way.

“Basically you have to have a week where everything comes together,” said Ulsrud. “We had that last year in Beijing and we’re trying to recreate that. It’s small things; all the players have to have the right feel for the ice. There’s going to be a lot of close games and instead of wrecking on a guard you just sneak by, stuff like that. Curling is no different from other sports, it’s all about confidence. As soon as you start winning a couple of games you gain confidence and hopefully it just keeps on going.”

RarityFROM PAGE 3

“If they wanted to stay married, they had to slow down a bit this year. So I’m excited to see how we do.

— Thomas Ulsrud

Everyone knows curling fans absolutely love to party. And the Patch is the place to be for all the fun, in between and following draws, at the Scotiabank Centre. It’s just a short indoor walk away, in the World Trade and Convention Centre.

We’ve got a tasty selection of food and beverages, and an amazing lineup of live entertainment. The party starts early and keeps roaring until the late hours of the night!

The celebration gets underway this evening when The Stanfields take the stage for one of their feel-good performances. This no-frills, working-class band has been taking the East Coast by storm since 2008. Their mission is to send the fans home with a smile on their face… and that’s precisely what they do with their rhythm-fueled, hard rock and traditional roots sounds.

LIVE ENTERTAINMENTFollowing Evening Draws

Tomorrow Satori Monday Minute to Win It Game Tuesday College Night – Battle of the Bands Wednesday Sunday Punch Thursday Shane Chisholm Band Friday Shameless Saturday Afternoon The Aviators Evening Asia & NuGruv Sunday Afternoon The Aviators

The

inParty’s On

Halifax!

Today TheStanfields

Up Close & Personal Interviews

The Up Close and Personal interviews have become a fan favourite at Season of Champions events. The athletes, and special guests, will sit down in the Patch to answer questions from the crowd. It’s a great opportunity to see the personal side of the biggest names in the game.

Today 6:00 pm Team Dacey - 2004 World Bronze Medallists from Halifax

Monday, 6 pm Team Scotland Tuesday, 6 pm Team Jennifer Jones - 2014 Olympic Gold Medallists and 2015 World Silver Medallists Wednesday, 6 pm Team Sweden Thursday, 6 pm Team Canada

Be a hot shot in the

Patch!The best curlers in the game

will be competing on the ice at the Scotiabank Centre. Meanwhile, in the Patch, the fans will be competing in a championship of their own.

Get in on the Cool Shots competition and you could walk away with some really cool cash. Sign up for free to play the tabletop version of the roaring game!

Team Autograph Sessions

Twelve of the top teams in the world are competing in Halifax. And they’ll all be on hand to sign autographs and pose for photos with the fans in the Patch. Take home a lifetime memory of the Ford World Men’s Curling Championship!

Tomorrow 12:30 pm Teams Italy and Switzerland Monday, 12:30 pm Teams USA and China Tuesday, 12:30 pm Teams Russia and Sweden Wednesday, 12:30 pm Teams Canada and Norway Thursday, 12:30 pm Teams Scotland, Czech Republic, Japan and Finland Saturday, 6 pm All Teams (excluding semifinalists) Sweet

Tweets!Tweet us your selfies of all the fun at the Ford World Men’s Curling Championship. Whether it’s in the Scotiabank Centre or the Patch, send your photos to #curlingselfie. Prizes will be awarded for the best shots during the week.

#curlingselfie

@CurlingCanada & #FWMCC

facebook.com/curlingcanada


For more ideas, visit destinationhalifax.com

Hit the broom, then hit the town.

Just steps from your hotel, you can savour the best Maritime

cuisine, from expertly prepared lobster at award-winning

restaurants to fresh local produce from our farmer’s market.

No matter what you do, we guarantee an unforgettable

East Coast experience.

NOVA SCOTIA CANADA

DHFX-0486-R-2015 Men's Curling Championship_halfpage.indd 1 2015-01-20 4:22 PM

Glencoe Club(Calgary)

Skip — Pat SimmonsThird — John MorrisSecond — Carter RycroftLead — Nolan ThiessenAlt. — Tom SallowsCoach — Earle Morris

CanadaHarbin Curling Club

(Harbin, Heilongjiang)Skip — Jialiang ZangThird — Dejia ZouSecond — Dexin BaLead — Jinbo WangAlt. — Rongrui ZhangCoach — Hongchen Li

ChinaCK Brno(Brno)

Skip — Jirí Snitil Third — Lukas KlímaSecond — Martin SnitilLead — Jindrich KíiitzbergerAlt. — Samuel MokrisCoach — Brian Gray

Czech Rep.

Kisakallio Curling Club(Lohja)

Skip — Aku KausteThird — Kasper HakuntiSecond — Pauli JäämiesLead — Janne PitkoAlt. — Leo MäkeläCoach — Tomi Rantamäki

FinlandASD Trentino Curling Club

(Cembra)Skip — Joel Retornaz (3rd stones)Third — Amos Mosaner (skip stones)Second — Daniele FerrazzaLead — Andrea PilzerAlt. — Sebastiano ArmanCoach — Gianandrea Gallinatto

ItalyKaruizawa Curling Club

(Karuizawa)Skip — Yusuke MorozumiThird — Tsuyoshi YamaguchiSecond — Tetsuro ShimizuLead — Kosuke MorozumiAlt. — Yuta MatsumuraCoach — Hatomi Nagaoka

Japan

THE TEAMS . . .1. Boy Meets Curl was:a) An episode of The Simpsonsb) A made-for-TV curling movie starring Will Ferrell and Jim Carreyc) The first album released by Miley Cyrusd) A show starring Justin Bieber during the 2014 Continental Cup in Las Vegas

2. True or False: Team Europe alternate David Murdoch of Scotland is from Lockerbie and was an eyewitness to the Pan Am Flight 103 disaster in 1988 in which 259 passengers and 11 townfolk were killed.

3. Hans Wuthrich is:a) The first Swiss skip to win the world championship.b) A renowned icemaker from Gimli, Man.c) A well-known Swiss fashion designer who provides the Norwegian men with their crazy outfits.d) A Swiss watchmaker and official timekeeper for all major curling events, including the Olympics.

4. A curling crowd is best known for:a) Grey hair.b) Wearing funny hats.

c) Trading pins.d) Drinking beer.e) All of the above.

CURLING QUIZ

ANSWErS

1. Boy Meets Curl was the 12th episode in the 21st season of The Simpsons. Marge and Homer join forces with Agnes and Seymour Skinner on a mixed team to compete in the 2010 Winter Olympics.2. True. David Murdoch was a 10-year-old boy on his way home when Pan Am Flight 103 dropped from the sky, approximately 300 yards from the car in which he was sitting.3. Hans Wuthrich came to Canada as a Swiss exchange student in 1976. The Gimli, Man., resident has since become the pre-eminent icemaker in curling. He was responsible for the ice at both the Vancouver and Sochi Olympic Games in 2010 and 2014, respectively.4. Curling fans like to trade pins that they stick on their funny hats that cover their grey hair while drinking beer. In other words, all of the above is the correct answer.


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• Indoor pool, fitness centre & full-service spa

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• 5-minute walk to Scotiabank Centre

B O O K YO U R G ETAWAY TO DAY

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O R CA L L 1 . 8 0 0 . 9 4 3 . 6 7 6 0

H A L I F A X M A R R I O T T H A R B O U R F R O N T H O T E L1 9 1 9 U P P E R W A T E R S T . , H A L I F A X , N S PROUD SPONSOR OF THE

FORD WORLD MEN’S CURLING CHAMPIONSHIP

Snarøen Curling Club(Oslo)

Skip — Thomas UlsrudThird — Torger NergårdSecond — Christoffer SvaeLead — Hårvard Vad PeterssonAlt. — Markus SnovehoibergCoach — Pal Trulsen

NorwayVarious clubs

Skip — Evgeny ArkhipovThird — Alexander KozyrevSecond — Artur RazhabovLead — Anton KalalbAlt. — Alexey StukalskiyCoach — Vasiliy Gudin

RussiaVarious clubs

Skip — Ewan MacDonald

Third — Duncan Fernie

Second — Ruairidh Greenwood

Lead — Euan Byers

Alt. — David Murdoch

Coach — David Reid

ScotlandCC Bern(Bern)

Skip — Marc PfisterThird — Enrico PfisterSecond — Reto KellerLead — Raphael MärkiAlt. — Sven MichelCoach — Pius Matter

SwitzerlandKarlstads Curlingklubb

(Karlstad)Skip — Niklas EdinThird — Oskar ErikssonSecond — Kristian LindströmLead — Christoffer SundgrenAlt. — Henrik LeekCoach — Fredrik Lindberg

SwedenDuluth Curling Club

Madison Curling ClubSkip — John ShusterThird — Tyler GeorgeSecond — Matt HamiltonLead — John LandsteinerAlt. — Craig BrownCoach — Pete Fenson

U.S.A.


Thank you to all the volunteers

1-800-RESPOND

Days 1, 4, 7

OfficialFord World Men s̀Curling pins areavailableat theSouvenir Store!

ROCK SOLID COVERAGERead Herald Sports for complete daily coverage of the 2015 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship

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WORLDDRAW

2:30 p.m. 1 Russia vs. Japan Cze. vs. Sui Scotland vs Italy Sweden vs. Finland7:30 p.m. 2 Norway vs. China Japan vs. Scotland Finland vs. Cze USA vs Canada

9:30 a.m. 3 Italy vs. Sweden Russia vs. Sui 2:30 p.m. 4 Finland vs. Scotland Canada vs. China Norway vs. USA Cze. vs. Japan7:30 p.m. 5 Sui vs. USA Norway vs. Russia Canada vs Sweden Italy vs. China

9:30 a.m. 6 Cze vs. Canada USA vs. Finland China vs. Japan Norway vs. Scotland2:30 p.m. 7 Japan vs. Finland Sui vs. Italy Cze. vs. Scotland Russia vs. Sweden7:30 p.m. 8 USA vs. Italy Russia vs. Canada Sweden vs. Norway China vs. Sui

9:30 a.m. 9 Scotland vs. Russia Cze vs. Sweden Sui vs. Finland Japan vs. Italy2:30 p.m. 10 China vs. Cze Finland vs. Norway Japan vs. Canada Scotland vs. USA7:30 p.m. 11 Sui vs. Sweden China vs. USA Italy vs. Russia Canada vs. Norway

9:30 a.m. 12 Italy vs. Norway Canada vs. Sui USA vs. Sweden China vs. Russia2:30 p.m. 13 Russia vs. Finland Sweden vs. Japan Scotland vs. Sui Italy vs. Cze7:30 p.m. 14 Canada vs. Scotland Norway vs. Cze Finland vs. China USA vs. Japan

9:30 a.m. 15 Cze vs. USA Scotland vs. China Norway vs. Japan Finland vs. Canada2:30 p.m. 16 Sweden vs. China USA vs. Russia Canada vs. Italy Sui vs. Norway7:30 p.m. 17 Japan vs. Sui Italy vs. Finland Russia vs. Cze Sweden vs. Scotland

TIME DRAW A B C D

TODAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUES

WED

THURS

POSSIBLE TIEBREAKERS:(If necessary)

DATE TIMEOne draw April 3 9:30 a.m.Two draws April 3 9:30 a.m. April 3 2:30 p.m.

PLAYOFFS: DATE TIMEPAGE PLAYOFF April 3 7:30 p.m.PAGE PLAYOFF April 4 2:30 p.m.SEMIFINAL April 4 7:30 p.m.BrONZE April 5 10 a.m.GOLD April 5 4 p.m.

2015

PAGE PLAYOFF SYSTEM

1

2

3

4

1 vs. 2 Final

3 vs. 4 Semifinal

This has been the winter from hell for Nova Scotians (without the heat, of course) and it has created havoc throughout the province. Snow storm after snow storm has enveloped city and country, and made scheduling and transportation a nightmare for many.

You can add Neil Huston to that list. The event manager of the Ford World Curling Champi-onship, which opens at the Sco-tiabank Centre today, has had it up to here with the snow, and is glad the event is ready to kick off.

But he admits it’s been a strug-gle.

“Two storms hit here and I got to experience the big one,” says Houston. “It was quite impres-sive to see because if you were out and about downtown, there were no lights on, no businesses, no buses — no nothing going on. Just to get to the arena, which is usually a 20-minute walk from the Westin for me, took about 45 minutes. And you had to walk

down the middle of the streets.“But the city has done an amaz-

ing job. A week ago there was still no parking downtown.”

Houston, who lives in Vancou-ver but organizes specific major curling events, says some things ultimately were delayed because of the storms.

“We had a lot of shipments com-ing in and it was tough getting into the loading docks because the snow-banks were so deep. They had to shovel just to get an opening. Some stuff was late getting here and we’re still waiting for some shipments, so everything is backlogged. It’s made the last couple of days to set up a bit more of a rush. But we’ll have every-thing ready on time.”

There could be a silver lining to all that snow on the ground.

Houston thinks it may help ticket sales.

“You know what,” he says, “a lot of people for many days couldn’t get out. They might be a little stir crazy and want to get out and see something live.”

Just the thing for stir-crazy fans

Neil Houston hopes to see a silver lining to Halifax’s weather woes.

Proud partner of the 2015 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship.

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shores of the great Atlantic. All you have to do is take yourself there.

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Steele Ford is proud to bethe Offi cial Vehicle Sponsor

for the 2015 Ford World Men’sCurling Championship.

Are you a Pond Hopper? If you have crossed an ocean (Atlantic or Pacific) to attend a World Curling Championship (men’s or women’s), then you meet the one and only requirement for becoming a member of the Pond Hopper Club. The next step is to register, and once that is done you are a Pond Hopper for life! Pond Hopper registration takes place today through Monday (March 28-March 30) at the Halifax Metro Centre. There are no registration fees or dues.

Later, come celebrate the 44th Annual Pond Hopper Awards Dinner and Dance at the World Trade & Convention Centre

(Summit Suite) on Thursday, April 2. The party includes a sit-down dinner, awards program, and the music of the Gordon Tucker Band for your listening and dancing pleasure.

Party tickets are available at the Pond Hopper registration desk through Monday, March 30. You must be a member or a guest of a member to attend.

Pond Hopper registration schedule at Halifax Metro Centre:

Today, March 28 — 11 a.m., 2 p.m and 7 p.m

Sunday, March 29 — 9 a.m, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Monday, March 30 — 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

It’s time to register for Pond Hoppers

Issue 1 – Saturday, March 28, 2015 FROM SNOW TO WHOA! · PDF fileIssue 1 –...

Documents

Transcript of Issue 1 – Saturday, March 28, 2015 FROM SNOW TO WHOA! · PDF fileIssue 1 –...