Building bridges with brooms

I've been following the first women's invitation curling event being held in Yichun, China, the Yichun Ladies International Cup. Molly Bonner from the USA's Patti Lank team has been recording her experiences in the Curling News blog, here, and this makes for an interesting read. (Click on the December 2011 link in the blog archive, to bring up all the posts).

Teams from USA (Lank), Sweden (Anna Hasselborg), Denmark (Madeleine Dupont), Switzerland (Silvana Tirinzoni) and Canada (Shannon Kleibrink) have been competing with three Chinese teams. The results are online here.

Have a look at this short video on CTV (it follows the advert). The curling rink in a warehouse certainly looks impressive.

And just to follow up from the weekend, in Canada, the Tom Brewster rink won two but lost three, so did not qualify for the playoffs at the BDO Canadian Open Grand Slam event in Kingston, Ontario. Mike McEwen's team, who came out of the Brewster section, see here, finished top in that.

BDO Canadian Open

Good to see Scott Andrews and Tom Brewster getting in some practice for their alternative careers as the BDO Canadian Open gets underway in Kingston, Ontario. Click here, or on the image above.

Do they have their World Curling Media Association credentials I wonder?

Seriously, it's not every day that there is a chance to see something of the venue, and the behind the scenes activities, at these big Canadian events. Go here to see the volunteers enjoying themselves.

Team Brewster has its first game in the competition today. You can find results via this website.

The Ice Man of Scotland

When Tom Brewster and his team lost out to David Murdoch in the European Qualifying Competition, another opportunity became available for them. They were able to accept an invitation to compete in the BDO Canadian Open, one of the Grand Slam events, in the K-Rock Centre, in Kingston, Ontario.

Eighteen teams are involved in this, in three sections, with eight qualifying for playoffs. Play begins this evening (Wednesday) although Tom, Greg Drummond, Scott Andrews and Michael Goodfellow don't play until Thursday morning. The draw and results will be here.

Apparently all the players have agreed to try out a new five stone free guard zone rule. It will be interesting to read what the best players in the world think of this innovation.

Team Brewster is one of two foreign teams in the mix. The other is that of Niklas Edin, silver medallists from Moscow. Both are in the same section.

I picked up on this article in the Kingston Whig Standard. Aside from the purple prose in referring to Tom as 'the ice man of Scotland', I note that there is to be 'a pub crawl following Wednesday's first draw. Transportation will be available for fans and the curlers to the designated pubs.'

I've heard of 'designated drivers', but 'designated pubs' is a first!

Top photo of Tom Brewster is from the European Qualifying Competition and is © Tom Brydone.