Longtime sportswriter Terry Jones left no stone unturned in his deep dive on Alberta curling.
"World Capital of Curling," a massive 364-page coffee table book published by the Northern Alberta Curling Championship Society, explores the deep curling roots in Edmonton and throughout the province in great detail.
Jones tells the story of Cliff Manahan — dubbed Northern Alberta's "first big name of the game" — who worked on his skills at Edmonton's Royal Curling Club before winning 65 titles from 1927-50, including Alberta's first Brier victory in 1933.
Legends like Matt Baldwin, Hazel Jamison, Hector (The Friendly Giant) Gervais, Kevin Martin, Pat Ryan, the Ferbey Four team and others are also featured prominently.
The book includes a wide variety of vintage photos and all kinds of interesting tidbits from Jones, who has covered dozens of national, world and provincial championships over his career.
The Postmedia columnist, who's among the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame's class of 2019, has been a fixture on the Edmonton sports scene for over five decades.
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Team Fleury and Team Dunstone have filled out the field for the upcoming Canada Cup in Leduc, Alta.
Tracy Fleury's team from East St. Paul, Man., and Matt Dunstone's Regina-based team were the top-ranked squads on the national ranking system that hadn't already qualified for the Nov. 27-Dec. 1 competition at the Sobeys Arena at the Leduc Recreation Centre.
Fleury's team includes vice-skip Selena Njegovan, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish. Dunstone's lineup includes vice-skip Braeden Moskowy, second Catlin Schneider and lead Dustin Kidby.
Both teams won titles at the Masters in North Bay, Ont., the season-opening event on the Grand Slam circuit.
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Moose Jaw, Sask., will serve as host of the 2021 Canadian wheelchair curling championship.
The competition is set for March 21-27, 2021 at the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre.
Saskatchewan's Darwin Bender was victorious at Regina in 2016 when the province previously hosted the competition.
The 2020 event is set for April 25-30 in Boucherville, Que.
Moose Jaw, which hosted the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in 2015, will host the 2020 edition of the Canadian women's curling championship from Feb. 15-23 at Mosaic Place.
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England (1-5) was at the bottom of the standings at the European Curling Championships on Tuesday, its lone victory coming in controversial fashion.
In a decision that has drawn criticism from around the curling world, England was awarded a victory over Norway last Sunday due to forfeit.
With the game well in hand, the Norwegian side skipped by Thomas Ulrsud brought on alternate Magnus Nedregotten to throw a few stones. The team fifth apparently used his own broom before being told by an umpire that he should be using his teammate's brush.
Play continued and Norway wrapped up the win before being told after the game that England would get the victory instead.
Critics felt the decision went against the spirit of curling. In a brief post on its website, the World Curling Federation said Norway contravened Rule C3 (g) relating to the use of a brush by a substitute.
The rule reads: "If an alternate player comes into a game, that player must use the brush head of the player being replaced. Penalty: If a new brush head is brought into the game, the team will forfeit the game."
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Around The Rings, a weekly curling notebook, is published every Tuesday.
Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2019.
Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
