Canadaʼs Kevin

Martin (left) and

Thomas Ulsrud of

Norway are

leading the pack

with 5-0 records

and on a collision

course tonight at

at the Fords

Worlds.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 2

Draw to the Button CompetitionParticipating curling clubs in the Maritimes

have held competitions to determine their rep-resentative at the “Draw to the Button Compe-tition. Qualifying round on Friday, April 10th at 1p.m. at Curling Beausejour Inc. The finalistswill compete during the fifth-end break at Fri-day night’s 7:30 p.m. playoff game.

Autograph Session – Proudly sponsored byHansen Signs

Former world champions and the 12 partici-pating teams will be available for autographs inThe Patch each day until Thursday, April 9. OnSaturday, April 11th, 10 of the 12 teams will be onhand. Bring your cameras for a lasting memento.

Schedule:Tuesday, April 7 — 6-7 p.m. SUI / USA / SCO

/ GERWednesday, April 8 — 6-7 p.m. CAN / CHN /

FRA / JPN

Pin Trading and Map of the World Pin Draw– Proudly sponsored by Lounsbury GroupVisit the Pin Trader booths in the Patch.

Show us where you’re from! Find the worldmap located in the Keith’s Patch and stick apin on your home town, get an entry from the

Information Booth, and enter the draw to win awonderful prize. The draw will be made duringthe page playoff game (draw 18) on Fridayevening, April 10.

Up Close and Personal – Proudly sponsoredby InColor, Aliant and Coca-Cola

Come and meet teams, media and interna-tional personalities in the relaxed setting of theKeith’s Patch. Participate in live, informativeinterview with former world champions, TeamCanada, TSN media and other special guests.Asking questions of these guests involves au-dience participation, so join us for what prom-ises to be an informative and fun event.

Tuesday, April 76-7 p.m.

Up Close and PersonalPeja Lindholm, Sweden • 1997, 2001, 04

World ChampionRandy Ferby, Canada • 1989, 2002, 03, 05

World ChampionDavid Smith, Scotland • 1991 World Cham-

pionWednesday, April 8

6–6:30 p.m.Up Close and Personal

Team Canada

The EYE OPENEREDITOR Larry Wood

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave KomoskyINFO-CURL QUOTIDIEN: Normand Leger

PHOTOGRAPHER: Mike Burns Jr.PUBLISHED BY: The Times&Transcript

Look out for fireworks tonight at theColiseum!

The Canadians and Norwegians,ploughing an undefeated collision furrow atthe Ford World men’s curling championship,

will go head-on at 7:30p.m.

The prospect of this bat-tle of the undefeated, ofcourse, hinges on Switzer-land’s Ralph Stoeckli, whocould toss a mean monkeywrench into the proceed-ings earlier today by spoil-ing the winning record ofeither leader. The Swiss,struggling at 2-and-3, face

Canada at 10 a.m. and Norway at 3 p.m.today.

Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud survived a pairof tight fits on Monday to extend his winning

streak. The Norsemen scored a 10th-enddeuce to nudge John Shuster’s Minnesotans7-5 in the morning round, then shadedChina’s winless Fengchun Wang of Harbin7-6 in the afternoon.

By contrast, Kevin Martin’s Canucksblitzed Jiri Snitil’s Czechs 10-4 in the after-noon and then kept their composure in a 6-4late-shift assignment against Germany’sAndy Kapp.

Discussing the merits of each other, Martinnoted that Ulsrud would rather draw than hit“so, obviously, we’ll be trying to make himhit”.

“Yeah,” replied Ulsrud, an habitual quip-ster with a penchant of hearty guffaws. “I’drather draw than hit but I have another prob-lem when I go to play Martin because he’s agreat hitter and a great drawer. But I’ve fig-ure out what may be his weakness. I’m goingto make him guard!”

Yup. Chuckle. Guffaw.Scotland’s David Murdoch, meanwhile,

remained a game off the leading pace at 4-and-1 heading into his pair today. The Scots

thumped Kelle Kiiskinen of Finland 7-2 andJapan’s Yusuke Morozumi 7-5.

“Hans (icemaker Wuthrich) has done anamazing job of turning a sauna into a curlingrink,” said Murdoch. “The ice is fantastic.We’re making all our tough shots now andbeing consistent with our draws and thatgives us confidence in the ice.

“This is what we were looking for, fourwins in our first five games. We know we’rebetter finishers than starters so the fact we’re4-and-1 means we’re doing something right.

“The last few big events we’ve always losta couple early. But we need to make sure wehave some wins on the board with Norwayand Canada coming up on the last two nightsof the round robin.”

On that score, Stoeckli has that same toughassignment today.

“We’re in deep do-do,” said the Swissskip. “We’ve lost a couple of games by lastrock that we were supposed to win. I had acouple of chances to tack up scores tonightand I never made them. That way you don’tdeserve to win.”

And now . . .“All we can do is stay positive and do our

best. Every team is beatable and once we canput our percentages up we can beat all ofthem. That’s the only way we can look at it.

“But it isn’t the easiest way to get yourself-confidence, playing Canada. I don’t feelvery comfortable with draw weight andthat’s bad when you’re the skip. I just don’thave the touch out there.”

France’s Thomas Dufour clicked with thehammer in the 10th to ditch the Swiss 6-5Monday night after Stoeckli stopped Den-mark 9-6 in the morning.

“We’ve had had three games like that andtwo easy ones,” said Ulsrud following hiswin-streak extension. “We haven’t been toosharp. But they don’t give any grapes forhow you look out there. It’s as long as youwin. And this keeps us alert. When you’re 5-and-0 you’re starting to feel good. Maybewe’re saving our best shots for Tuesdaynight.

Big guns go eye-to-eyeBy LARRY WOOD

Eye Opener Editor

Martin, Ulsrud poised for classic showdown

PLEASE SEE WORLDS P11

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 3

SEESCORES,Page 13

The German

tandem of

Andreas Kempf

(left) and

Andreas Lang

bear down on

their brushes in

a game Monday

against Canada.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 4

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 5

The Wood file

A36-year-old ski guide from Cha-monix in the French Alps, ThomasDufour is the latest in a sparse line of

mountain men bent on directing a spotlighton the sport of curling in France.

He has an excellent chance of being themost successful, too, in that he’s skipped twostraight six-game winners at the world men’scurling championship and the averageFrench win output over 28 world appear-ances is roughly 2.6.

To boot, only one French skipin history — Pierre Boan ofMegeve in 1973 at Regina — haswon seven matches at a Worldsrenewal and nobody else has wonsix . . . or five, for that matter.

Representing a nation with aspotty record in producing com-petitive entries, Dufour put hiscurrent batting order togetherthree years ago and has beenanything but a laughing stockever since. In fact, his Frenchteam has a lock on a berth in the2010 Olympic tournament.

“We have come from nowhere,” he says.“Like, no ice and no stones to speak of inFrance any more. So we are very proud to goto the Olympics but it’s not the only goal.Yes, we want to have a chance for a medal inVancouver. But we want to go further. Wewant the curling to improve in France.”

Until Dufour and his mates — Tony Angi-boust, Richard and Jan Ducroz — camealong, there never was much threat of im-provement ever transpiring.

“We hope if we make some results peoplewill get more interested in curling,” he says.

“In France, the Olympics is very big butthe world curling championship and the Eu-ropean curling championship, they are noth-

ing.”Dufour argues that France isn’t really con-

sidered a winter sports nation.“In the Alps you can find good skiers and

good ski teams and the French hockey teamis not too bad.”

But after that? Nothing.“We won’t get far with this project on our

own, though,” says Dufour. “We need sup-port and we need to generate interest. We

hope this will develop if we can getan Olympic result.

“I’m pretty sure something canhappen from this, we can get morepeople involved. There are playersand teams who can have long careersin curling. We want people to go tothe ice rink and ask, ‘How can I playcurling, what can I do, where can Ifind a club?’ I think there are peoplewho will want to play and they haveto be given the opportunity, with thehelp of the sports authorities.”

Dufour and his cohorts certainlylead the French league in commitment.

Two years ago, they travelled toMontreal and spent the Christmas holidaysand some time thereafter training for theteam’s first Worlds as a unit.

“We really wanted to perform well,” Du-four recalled at the 2007 show in Edmonton.

“We’ve been giving a lot of time for curl-ing. We are just sick and fed up with losinggames too easy. We want to have fun on theice and play good games. If we lose and weplay well and we are close — OK, we lose.But we decided there’ll be no more shakinghands every time after six ends. We are tiredof that. We either try to improve or we juststop curling.”

Oh yes, and . . .“We also would like to be at the Worlds

every year — and we haven’t been there sooften.”

Matter of fact, the French had been aroundthe scene only five times since 1993. Back inthe youth stages of the Worlds, France wasrepresented at every men’s gathering from1966 through 1982. They even staged an AirCanada Silver Broom world championship atMegeve in 1971. But the promotion failed toput a dent in the apathetic French outlook to-ward the sport.

And that apathy continued until Dufourand his gang, products of a fair junior pro-gram, showed up at Montreal. A couple ofyears earlier, Quebec’s Guy Hemmings of-fered to head up a teaching program inFrance and was politely rejected by authori-

ties, without much thanks.“I was playing a club game at Lachine one

night, my phone rang, I answered it and theytold me three of them had come to town basi-cally to play against Montreal competitionand they needed a coach,” recalled DanRafael, who has since become China na-tional-team coach.

“I said, ‘OK, fine, you called the right guybecause I know everybody in the gamearound here’. So I fixed up some games forthem, they played at different clubs, in a lotof tournaments, 64 games in all. Plus practicewhich, for them, was three to four hours aday.”

EDITOR Larry WoodASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave KomoskyINFO-CURL QUOTIDIEN: Normand LegerPHOTOGRAPHER Mike Burns Jr.PUBLISHED BY: The Times&Transcript

PLEASE SEE WOOD P11

6 Tuesday, April 7 2009

LARRYWOOD

Frenchmen committedto improving their game,curling’s profile back home

French skip Thomas Dufour hasalready qualified for the Olympics.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 7

SKIPBorn: Sonthofen,Bavaria.Age: 41Residence: Unterthingau.Family: Wife Ute,daughter Lena (8),son Benjamin (6),daughter Anne (5).Employment: GMfrozen food store.Won: Two Germanjunior titles, 11German men’stitles, silvermedal at 2007Worlds, threeGerman Olympictrials wins, twogold medals atEuros.

Andy KappTHE COUNTRY

Population: 83,160,331Area: 357,021 km sqLocation: Bordered to the north by theNorth Sea, Denmark, and the BalticSea; to the east by Poland and theCzech Republic; to the south by Austriaand Switzerland; and to the west byFrance, Luxembourg, Belgium, and theNetherlands. Status: Germany is a member of theUnited Nations, NATO, G8 and OECD. Itis a major economic power with theworld's third largest economy by nomi-nal GDP and the fifth largest in pur-chasing power parity. The country isrecognized as a scientific and techno-logical leader in several fields.Motto: “Unity and justice and free-dom”.Capital City: BerlinPrincipal Products and Industries: Ofthe world’s 500 largest stock marketlisted companies measured by rev-

enue, the Fortune Global 500, 37 com-panies are headquartered in Germany.

GERMANY AT THE WORLDS2008 — Andy Kapp, Fussen (5-6)2007 — Andy Kapp, Fussen (10-6)2006 — Sebastian Stock, Oberstdorf (4-7)2005 — Andy Kapp, Fussen (8-5)2004 — Sebastian Stock, Oberstdorf (7-4)Last championship: None.

DID YOU KNOWn Germany’s first global curlingappearance was in the 1967 ScotchCup world men’s championship atPerth, Scotland.

FACTS

Profile: GermanyHOME CLUB: FUSSEN CURLING CLUB (FUSSEN)

Holger Hohne

SECONDBorn: Fussen.Age: 38.Residence: Fussen.Family: Wife,Sabine; daughterMia (8), son Linus (4).Employment:Optometrist.First major suc-cess: 1992 Euros, gold medal.Won: 1992 and 1997 Euros, bronze at1994, 1995 and 2005 Worlds, silver in 1997and 2007 Worlds.

Andreas Lang

THIRDBorn:Schwenningen.Age: 29.Residence:Schwangau.Family: Single.Employment: Salesengineer.Years curling: 13.First major success: 1999 German juniorchampion.Won: Silver medal at 2007 Worlds,bronze medal at 2008 Euros.

Andreas Kempf

LEADBorn: Waiblingen.Age: 41,Residence:Grafenberg.Family: PartnerSusanne Bader.Employment:Financial manager,Doblinger Group.First major success: 1998 German men’schampion.Won: Bronze in 2005 Worlds, silver in2007 Worlds.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 8

SKIPBorn: Chisholm, Minn.Age: 26Residence: Chisholm,Minn.Family: Fiancee SaraMarshall.Employment:Assistant manager,Duluth Curling Club.First major suc-cess: 2003 U.S.men’s champion.Won: Gold medalat 2007 WorldUniversityGames, bronzemedal at 2006Olympic Games,2010 USOlympic trials.

John ShusterTHE COUNTRY

Population: 306,154,706Area: 9,826,630 km sqLocation: The country is situated most-ly in central North America betweenthe Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bor-dered by Canada to the north andMexico to the south. The state ofAlaska is in the northwest of the conti-nent. The state of Hawaii is an archi-pelago in the mid-Pacific. Status: The U.S. is one of the world'smost ethnically diverse and multicultur-al nations, the product of large-scaleimmigration from many countries. TheU.S. economy is the largest nationaleconomy in the world.Motto: “God's help, the love of the peo-ple, Denmark's strength.”Capital City: WashingtonPrincipal Products and Industries: Theeconomy is fueled by abundant naturalresources, a well-developed infra-structure, and high productivity. It isthe largest importer of goods and thirdlargest exporter, though exports per

capita are relatively low. The leadingexport commodity is electrical machin-ery, while vehicles constitute the lead-ing import. Chemical products repre-sent the leading manufacturing field.

THE U.S. AT THE WORLDS2008 — Craig Brown, Madison, Wis. (5-6)2007 — Todd Birr, Mankato, Minn. (8-5)2006 — Pete Fenson, Bemidji, Minn. (7-5)2005 — Pete Fenson, Bemidji, Minn. (8-4)2004 — Jason Larway, Seattle, Wash. (2-7)Last championship — 1978: BobbyNichols of Superior, Wis.

DID YOU KNOWn The U.S.’s first global curlingappearance was in the three-team1961 Scotch Cup world men’s curlingchampionship in Scotland.

FACTS

Profile: U.S.A.HOME CLUB: DULUTH CURLING CLUB (DULUTH)

Jason Smith

THIRDBorn: Robbinsdale,Minn.Age: 25.Residence: Duluth,Minn.Family: Single.Employment:Bartender, DuluthCurling Club.Years curling: 10First major success: 2005 U.S. juniorchampion.Won: 2010 US Olympic trials.

Jeff Isaacson

SECONDBorn: Virginia,Minn.Age: 25.Residence: Gilbert,Minn.Family: Single.Employment:School teacher.Years curling: 11First major success: 2005 U.S. juniorchampion.Won: Gold medal at 2007 WorldUniversity Games, 2010 US Olympic tri-als.

John Benton

LEADBorn: Afton, Minn.Age: 39Residence: SaintMichael, Minn.Family: Wife,Carrie.Employment:Senior engineer,Fairview HealthServices.First major success: 2009 U.S. men’schampionship.Won: 2009 U.S. men’s title, 2010 USOlympic trials.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 9

Info-curl quotidien

Le curling a traversé bien des périodesdepuis son invention et c’est grâce auxmodifications des règlements, aux nou-

velles techniques et stratégies et aux conditionsde la glace qu’il est devenu un sport bien plusintéressant pour les spectateurs.

Les frères et cousins Richardson ont rem-porté le premier championnat mondial de curl-ing en 1959 pour le Canada et 50 ans plus tard,ils sont présents à Moncton pour savourer leurcélébrité et également pour promouvoir ce sportqui leur a permis de placer le nom de Richard-son à l’avant plan dans les médias. Les quatremembres de l’équipe championne étaient Ernie,Garnett (Sam), Wes et Arnold Richardson.

« C’est fantastique de voir le curling au-jourd’hui, a dit Wes Richardson. Le Canada aeu de très bonnes équipes et nous sommes icipour appuyer notre formation canadienne à cechampionnat. C’est tout un honneur pour nousd’être à Moncton et les invités de la Fédérationmondiale de curling. Nous sommes encore tous

là 50 ans après et nous avons té-moigné bien des changements.Les conditions de la glace sontexcellentes aujourd’hui parcequ’on fait la glace pour le curlingalors que dans notre temps, onjouait sur toute sorte de surface,même extérieure. Le calibre dejeu est excellent et s’est amélioréde beaucoup. »

L’équipe Richardson a toujours joué avecdes balais alors qu’aujourd’hui, tous jouentavec une brosse. « J’ai toujours cru que le balaiétait bien mieux que la brosse, mais après avoirsurveillé quelques parties ici, je crois que labrosse est mieux aujourd’hui. »

Âgé de 79 ans, Wes, qui habite Hawaï,souligne que le jeu est bien plus intéressantpour les spectateurs aujourd’hui en raison desmodifications dans les règlements. Il ajouteque le curling est joué dans un nombre consid-érable de pays aujourd’hui et que la grande

majorité des équipes sont très compétitives.Selon Wes, le curling lui a permis de sedévelopper comme personne et il est flatté devoir que 50 ans plus tard, les gens se rappellentencore de leur formation.

Arnold Richardson a fait remarquer que laformation devait se rendre aux Jeuxolympiques de 1964 alors que le curling de-vait être un sport de démonstration. «  Mal-heureusement, on n’a pu y aller parce qu’ilsn’ont pas pu trouver personne pour faire de laglace pour le curling et le tout a été annulé, a

dit Arnold. Il y a eu plusieurs changementsdans la fabrication de la glace et à l’avantagedu sport au fil des années. Les pierres sontégalement plus développées et l’ajout de dé-tecteurs électroniques pour la ligne de jeu ontéliminé l’erreur humaine. Je suis contentd’avoir pu assister aux parties du 50e an-niversaire. Je dois dire que j’ai pris ma re-traite du curling compétitif en 1968 et je n’aipas lancé de pierre depuis 1978. Je n’ai pasl’intention de reprendre à jouer,» a-t-il ter-miné en riant.

10 Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Les spectateurs au Colisée deMoncton auront certainement re-marqué le banc des médias qui setrouve à l’extrémité de la glace.Cette structure imposante a été con-struite par des bénévoles et les 11personnes responsables de sa con-struction ont mis cinq jours à lamonter et environ cinq semainespour construire ses différentes com-posantes.

Le responsable de la construction,Glen Morrison, est bien fier du pro-jet fini et spécialement de ses ouvri-ers qui ont réalisé une œuvre tout ensurmontant un nombre intéressantde défis.

Le coût des matériaux a été d’en-viron 7 500 $ avec l’achat de 75feuilles de contreplaqué, 10 000 viset plusieurs montants de 2 X 4 en

plus de poutres de 2 X 6 et 2 X 8. Ila fallu 550 heures/personnes pour saconstruction sur et hors site.

« Nous avions des charpentiers,des rénovateurs et des gens qui ai-ment travailler le bois, a dit Morri-son. Je dois les remercier pour leurtravail sans arrêt. Nous avions cer-tains défis; cette structure étaitcomme construire une maison à cinqniveaux sur une colline. Il fallaitégalement trouver un moyen de sup-porter la structure dans le passage de14 pieds de large sous la structure,construire des marches dans des en-droits étroits et serrés et fairecourber la structure pour qu’elles’installe bien au-dessus des sièges.Nous avons eu à faire bien des cal-culs et des plans parce que nousavons construit certains éléments à

l’avance. »Morrison a souligné que, entre

autres, Brian Henderson a grande-ment aidé lors de la construction etque l’un des ouvriers, Peter Tren-holm, avait pu bénéficier du banclors des cérémonies d’ouvertureparce qu’il est membre des SussexAve Fiddlers, un groupe de musi-ciens qui s’est manifesté lors duspectacle. Les outils spécialisés util-isés lors de la construction étaient lapropriété de Brian Powers et legroupe a pu prendre avantage desconnaissances de Scott Gillis, unfabricant d’escaliers.

Le prochain défi viendra di-manche prochain alors que le bancsera démonté dans une journée afinde préparer le Colisée pour lehockey. « Je crois qu’il sera possible

de le faire, il y a très peu de clousdans la structure, ce sont tous desvis. On verra bien lundi prochain,

mais d’habitudes, c’est plus facile àenlever que d’installer », a concluMorrison.

Lʼéquipe Richardson a remporté le premier championnat mondial de curling en 1959. Degauche à droite: Lillian, Arnold, Arlene et Wes Richardson.

Le banc des médias a exigé 550 heures /personnes de travailbénévole et est étalé sur 5 étages à lʼextrémité du Colisée.

Un banc des médias construit par des bénévoles

ParNormandLéger

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 11

WoodFrom Page 6

Dufour and his mates rented an apartment inMontreal and played and practised regularly at theLongue-Pointe and Boucherville curling clubs.

“We spent a lot of money on this,” admittedDufour back then.

Rafael admitted he was hyped by the Frenchcommitment and “poured all my experience —30 years worth — into it”.

“It’s not lack of ice, it’s not lack of talent but alack of experience,” he said. “But you’re kid-ding yourself if you think these guys don’t knowthe game. They are a super-aggressive team.They love playing that way. They only play anopen game if they’re running out of time.”

You won’t hear Dufour saying much abouttactics. He prefers a modicum of self-depreca-tion. All the better to set you up for the big fall,m’dear.

“We are a brand new team,” he said in Ed-monton. “I don’t have a lot of experience. Wedon’t play so well sometimes. We never knowwhat to expect. It’s always a surprise the way weplay. Normally we have this complex that whenyou get on the ice we are too nervous becausewe think we don’t belong.”

No longer. That was 2007. This is now.“All the guys on the team are pretty good ski

racers but not good enough for the World Cupsor the French ski team,” Dufour recalls of theold days when he and his buddies got into thesport.

“We had some friends who were playing curl-

ing and we got on the ice and played with them.We liked the game, we liked the team effort. Wewere used to individual sports like skiing but notteam sports. So when we got into curling andthe team aspect we found it very interesting.

The team checked in with current Canadiancoach Andre Ferland at Trois-Rivieres in Janu-ary and returned in March to prepare for thisweek’s Coliseum stint.

And the preparation for the Olympics will re-quire even more time.

“We want as many tournaments and practicesas we can get, wherever we can find some ice,possibly in Switzerland — we go there often,”says Dufour.

“And we will probably spend some weekspractising and playing in Canada in the autumnor early winter. It’s in the planning stage rightnow.

“Time is a big question for us. The federationis going to help us a lot with funding. But there’san irony here. Always, in the years before, I wasasking my guys to take days off for curling andnow they have arranged days off for next yearand I may be the guy with the problem.”

In the summer season Dufour works in secu-rity at a tourist resort — Les Gorges de Diosax— a 3.5 km-long canyon featuring endless wa-terfalls, precipitous cliffs, spectacular sceneryand walking tours.

“The season runs through October,” he says,“but, it’s the Olympics, and you know I’m goingto find a way.”

Hopefully, he and his mates will find a way,too, where curling in concerned in their homecountry.

All together now, Vive Le France!

WorldsFrom Page 3

Martin might have close out Kapp in theeighth end with a three-count looming untilthe German skip executed a raise slash doublewith his last rock to stay within two points.

“What a shot he makes there,” said Mar-tin. “We had some rocks problems the firstfour ends but we figured that out. Ten toughends doesn’t hurt.”

In fact, it was the first complete game ofthe week for the Canadians.

“I’m relaxed, I’m comfortable,” said Mar-tin. “The big thing on a week like this isstaying relaxed, staying calm and gettingenough rest so you’ve conserved some en-ergy for the end.”

Among those concerned with a finishingnumber is Denmark’s Ulrik Schmidt, whoneeds a few more wins to assure his nationof an Olympic Games berth next Februaryin Vancouver.

Denmark climbed into a traffic jam Mon-day at 2-and-3 along with Germany, Japanand the Swiss.

And the Danes remained in the hunt with aclutch 7-3 conquest of France in the afternoon.

“I wouldn’t say qualifying for theOlympics has much to do with the fund oursport will get,” Schmidt said. “But it’s so im-

portant for curling in Denmark because weget such fantastic television coverage duringthe Olympics. We get all our games tele-vised and between Olympics they shownone on national TV.

“So, for promoting the sport it’s tremen-dous for us.”

Denmark is not a winter sports nation. “I think there’ll only be curlers — the

women’s team already has qualified — andI think there’s two other athletes, a couple ofsnowboarders or something like that, so thatmeans the Winter Olympics in Denmark iscurling,” said Schmidt.

There has been another payoff to all this, too.“We have three curling rinks today and

prior to Nagano we had one sheet of ice,”said Schmidt. “Those rinks would not havecome without the Olympics, I’m sure. Wehave another, a fourth rink coming up. It’sreally popular. Membership is not huge butthere are a lot of pay-and-play curlers andthe clubs are running well.”

So how many wins will Denmark need toreach safe ground?

“I’m not good at math,” said Schmidt.“We have to win our next game, that’s all Iknow.”

France finished Monday at 3-and-2 along-side John Shuster’s Americans who took ad-vantage of a wide-open last-rock gas fromChina’s Riu Lui to escape with an extra-endsteal and a 9-8 win. China remained winless.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 12

Règles générales

Les billets 50/50 seront vendus au coût de1,00 $ chacun.

Des billets 50/50 seront vendus pour tousles tirages, y compris durant les sérieséliminatoires, au complexe Colisée-Agrenade Moncton.

Des billets 50/50 peuvent être vendusdans la section « Rendez-vous ».

Un montant équivalant à 50 % des ventesbrutes de billets sera attribué.

Tous les gagnants doivent avoir au moins18 ans pour pouvoir réclamer un prix.

Les prix seront remis aux gagnants sousla forme d’un chèque. Les chèques serontémis le premier jour ouvrable du tournoi.

Les profits seront distribués aux clubs decurling de la région de Moncton aux fins dedéveloppement des programmes une foisque tous les coûts d’impression et lesautres coûts associés au tirage 50/50 au-ront été déterminés.

Les bénévoles qui vendent des billets50/50 durant un tirage ne seront pas au-torisés à acheter des billets.

Les ventes de billets 50/50 com-menceront 30 minutes avant le début de

chaque tirage et vers la fin du sixième bout. Le billet 50/50 gagnant sera tiré par un

spectateur choisi au hasard, et le tirageaura lieu en présence d’au moins deuxmembres du comité organisateur.

Le numéro du billet 50/50 gagnant serainscrit sur le tableau d’affichage principal àproximité du comptoir de billets 50/50, demême que dans la zone « Rendez-vous », leplus tôt possible après chaque tirage.

Le numéro du billet gagnant de chaquetirage sera également annoncé à l’inter-phone à la fin de chaque bout.

Tous les prix du tirage 50/50 doivent êtreréclamés au comptoir de billets 50/50 situédans le hall principal du complexe. Chaquefois qu’un prix sera réclamé, les bénévolesdu comptoir d’information aviseront les or-ganisateurs du comité 50/50, qui prendrontles dispositions nécessaires pour lepaiement.

Les prix pourront être réclamés au plustard 15 minutes avant le début de la partiepour la médaille d’or, le 12 avril 2009.

Tous les prix non réclamés seront re-groupés en un prix combiné, dont le gag-nant sera déterminé par le tirage au sortd’un deuxième billet parmi tous les billetsvendus le dimanche 12 avril 2009.

Le gagnant de ce deuxième tirage 50/50le dimanche 12 avril 2009 recevra le prixcombiné admissible.

W LCanada (Martin) 5 0Norway (Ulsrud) 5 0Scotland (Murdoch) 4 1USA (Shuster) 3 2France (Dufour) 3 2Denmark (Schmidt) 2 3Germany (Kapp) 2 3Japan (Morozumi) 2 3SUI (Stoeckli) 2 3Czech Rep. (Snitil) 1 4Finland (Kiiskinen) 1 4China (Wang) 0 5

MONDAYDRAW 610 a.m.

Germany (Kapp) 020 301 020 01 — 9Czech Rep. (Snitil) 202 010 200 10 — 8 S P % S P %GER 88 278 79 CZE 88 260 74

USA (Shuster) 010 100 201 0 — 5Norway (Ulsrud) 100 002 020 2 — 7 S P % S P %USA 80 228 71 NOR 78 230 74

Scotland (Murdoch) 020 111 02x x — 7Finland (Kiiskinen) 101 000 00x x — 2 S P % S P %SCO 63 226 90 FIN 63 206 82

SUI (Stoeckli) 002 020 301 1 — 9Denmark (Schmidt) 110 202 000 0 — 6 S P % S P %SUI 88 238 74 DEN 79 233 74

DRAW 73 p.m.

Norway (Ulsrud) 002 102 020 0 — 7China (Wang) 010 010 201 1 — 6 S P % S P %NOR 79 272 86 CHN 80 262 82

Czech Rep. (Snitil) 010 201 0xx x — 4Canada (Martin) 204 020 2xx x — 10 S P % S P %CZE 56 159 71 CAN 56 189 84

Denmark (Schmidt) 002 010 103 x — 7France (Dufour) 100 001 010 x — 3 S P % S P %DEN 72 223 77 FRA 71 204 72

Finland (Kiiskinen) 202 020 010 0 — 7Japan (Morozumi) 020 102 102 2 — 10 S P % S P %FIN 80 240 75 JPN 80 258 81

DRAW 87:30 p.m.

Japan (Morozumi) 102 000 100 1 — 5Scotland (Murdoch) 020 300 020 0 — 7 S P % S P %JPN 79 258 82 SCO 78 269 86

France (Dufour) 002 100 200 1 — 6SUI (Stoeckli) 100 011 020 0 — 5 S P % S P %FRA 80 246 77 SUI 80 250 78

Canada (Martin) 201 011 010 x — 6Germany (Kapp) 010 200 100 x — 4 S P % S P %CAN 80 286 89 GER 79 238 75

China (Wang) 110 200 211 00 — 8USA (Shuster) 004 020 000 21 — 9 S P % S P %CHN 88 277 79 USA 88 264 75

STANDINGS

LINESCORES

TODAY Draw 910 a.m.A — CAN vs. SUIB — CHN vs. SCOC — JPN vs. USAD — FRA vs. GERDraw 103 p.m.A — USA vs. DENB — GER vs. FINC — SUI vs. NORD — SCO vs. CZEDraw117:30 p.m.A — FIN vs. FRAB — CZE vs. CHNC — DEN vs. JPND — NOR vs. CANWEDNESDAYDraw 1210 a.m.A — CZE vs. JPNB — NOR vs. FRAC — FIN vs. CAND — DEN vs. CHNDraw 133 p.m.A — CHN vs. GERB — CAN vs. USAC — FRA vs. SCOD — JPN vs. SUIDraw 147:30 p.m.A — SCO vs. NORB — SUI vs. CZEC — GER vs. DEND — USA vs. FIN

SHOOTING PERCENTAGES (CUMULATIVE)

CAN SCO FIN CZE SUI NOR JPN GER CHN FRA DEN USA Skip 83 76 65 70 74 83 68 71 65 65 76 72Third 86 86 77 70 67 77 80 78 74 81 72 78Second 86 85 75 75 79 78 78 81 79 78 79 79Lead 88 82 84 82 85 85 80 88 86 79 74 78TEAM 86 82 76 74 76 79 76 79 77 76 75 76

DRAWSCHEDULE

Scotlandʼs Ewan MacDonald (left)and Euan Byers share a laugh.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 13

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 14

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 15

He’s not out of the woods yet but head icemaker HansWuthrich is breathing a little easier these days aftera harrowing first day of competition at the Ford

world men’s curling championship at the Coliseum.Wuthrich faced a critical situation Saturday as warm tem-

peratures in the building turned the four sheets of ice intofrosty highways. The frost buildup created such hazardousconditions that even some routine shots turned into an adven-ture for most teams.

But by Monday morning all was right with Wuthrich’s icyworld again.

“This morning they (conditions) were actually perfect,”said Wuthrich, generally agreed to be one of the best icemak-ers in the world. The reason is the temperature outside stayedcool overnight (4 degrees C). The night before it hardlycooled off at all, so we had a real problem. We couldn’t cooloff the building whatsoever.”

Wuthrich says the heat started to build Friday night whena full audience sat in on a lengthy opening ceremonies. Andwith little in the way to cool off the building, the situation

was ripe for disaster, especially with warm outside temper-atures.

“That was the worst, ever, for me,” said Wuthrich, whohas been making ice for Canadian and world champi-onships for the past 15 years. “My brine temperature, sup-ply temperature was minus 1.6 Fahrenheit to keep the icefrozen. That’s the coldest I’ve had it in my entire icemakingcareer.”

But turning the brine down that low created a whole newheadache.

“When you have to keep the ice that cold,” he says, “youare always worried that something could happen to the ma-chinery. Something could bust and then we’d really have aheck of a problem.”

All of which created a couple of sleepless nights for theman from Gimli, Man.

Right now conditions are holding, but a new threat is ap-pearing on the horizon in the way of increased temperaturesand humidity. The forecast for the Moncton area calls for tem-peratures between 13 and 15 degrees C and rain.

“That’s not too good,” says Wuthrich. “But we’ll keep ourfingers crossed. Mother Nature’s not always right. If theweather cooperates, we’ll have no problems. Otherwise, itwon’t be good, at all.”

Icemaker needs to be a cool customer

Hans Wuthrich has a handle on conditions, for now.

By DAVE KOMOSKYEye Opener Associate Editor

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 16