Saturday, December 13, 2008

Alberta steal $1,500 1st prize at Richmond International Cashspiel

Alberta proved that their round robin record was no fluke by stealing in the 8th and again in an extra end to post a 7-6 victory over Canada II's Jim Armstrong in the $5,000 Richmond International Cashspiel this afternoon.

Alberta      1  0  0  1  1  0  2  1  1   =  7
Canada II    0  1  2  0  0  3  0  0  0   =  6

Here's a report from an  anonymous spectator:

Armstrong loses!!!!   Alberta, with a couple of fortunate breaks in the early going, stole the 8th and extra end to beat Armstrong.

On the 8th, Armstrong made a 20 foot runback to spill one of two off the button to salvage a tie. On the extra, Armstrong had a hit and roll off his own rock on the side of the four foot. He needed a two foot roll, but only got about a foot, leaving Alberta with the steal.  Very entertaining....

Great Britain failed to recover from the disappointment of their semi-final loss, bowing to Richmond 10-6 in the 3 v 4 game, Vince Miele throwing 4th rocks.

In the consolation games Canada I beat Manitoba 10-2, and Scotland beat Victoria 7-5.

Final standings
1 Alberta      $1,500
2 Canada II   $1,000
3 Richmond    $750
4 Great Britain $400

Photographs from the event will be available at the Richmond Centre for Disability's website.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shows what can happen on any given day, guess there is still more work to be done in the pre-paralympic games.

Does this mean his Team Canada spot is up for grabs now!!!!LOL!!

I think not but it may have given Coach Rea just enough to keep a few of his friends still in the mix. Not say who but he has been know to work in the GARDEN!

FUNNY! my word verifcation say Coacho - wow - does that not tells us something about the problem with the Team Canada program.

As good as Armstrong is and will be it still does not fix all the problems!

Anonymous said...

Armstrong fixes the biggest hole in the program.....He lost a game....so what????

I saw the outright flukes that Canada 2 endured today. I am sure Armstrong is not used to that tupe of play.

Anyone dare on betting against Armstrong?

I would love to cover any and all bets.

Armstrong, Neighbour and Forrest are a given, in my opinion. Next up, obviously lands on the necessity (or lack thereof) of a second female. Assuming the status quo, there are FOUR guys for one spot, with two of them present Team Canada members. Give Armstrong his choice of the last spot, and let them work together for the next eight weeks.

No one will know better than Armstrong who the last choice should be.

Entertaining game today, with quite a crowd watching, but Armstrong got lucked out.

Anonymous said...

Interesting choice of words,'lucked out'. I was able to see most of the Canda games and recall some fortuitous breaks on their behalf as well. Without sweepers and as many rocks in play as there tends to be in wheelchair curling I will venture to say that the shot of choice is the one with the most positive outcomes.
Whoever is chosen to represent our country at the worlds and olympics should receive unwavering support from all of us. But based on the level of competition this week I would be hard pressed to say that our national team members are that much better than other 'club' teams. I would love to see our representative be the team that wins our National Championship as opposed to a pool of hand picked athletes. But that is not the case today, but maybe in the cards down the road.

. said...

I think the poster above makes a very interesting point. While you can argue that coach selection may put together the four best athletes, the artificiality of the process does little to ensure that it is the best team. Does coach selection produce a sufficiently better team to overcome all the disadvantages of refusing to treat wheelchair curlers like able-bodied curlers?

I know that some claim there are insufficient participants to allow a Team Canada by any other method. I say let the free market decide. If nothing else it would give a huge boost to grassroots recruitment.

Anonymous said...

Then any problem to having "Team Canada" being challenged?

I believe that this would end all arguments, and if Armstrong has his choice of team members, he will represent Canada until he tires of it.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely not! In fact, allow Team canada to compete at Nationals as the Scotties does. If they still want to send them to the worlds if they do not win Nationals then that is the decision of the governing body. I do however believe that there are provincial teams as strong as the national pool and to give them the chance would be the right thing to do. Hand picking a team does not guarantee results, remember 1988 Olymics in Calgary.

Anonymous said...

Not quite sure I understand your position. I believe that "hand-picked" Team Canada should win their right to represent Canada, by either competing at the Nationals, or say, a best of five playoff with the National winners.

That wuld minimize the one game "accident" of an unqualified team upsetting the show....best of five, and there cannot been any argument about the winning team.

Anonymous said...

My point is simple, allow the best team nationally to represent us on the world stage. I do not believe that a hand picked sqaud is necessarily the best but MAY be. I would like the CCA to include the Team Canda they choose from the pool of 8 to compete at the Canadian Championships in Nova Scotia. Should they prevail then they are our representative but if not, send the team that wins Nationals.

. said...

At the point that Own The Podium and other funds came pouring into the high performance program, it became politically unfeasible to continue to have Team Canada compete at the Nationals. There was already disquiet over who and how individuals were chosen for the program, and there was no way that the national team was going to be allowed the opportunity to lose.

Similarly, at a time when Team Canada was entirely BC based, it was decided that no more than two members would be allowed to compete on any one BC team in the playdowns to become Team BC 2009.

Though I disagree that the present practice is in the best long term interests of the sport, I understand that at the national level decisions are driven by funders. Gerry Peckham has devised a way to spend the funding in accordance with their wishes. I think he sincerely believes that his plan will produce Canada's best chance at a gold medal and Jim Armstrong's invitation to participate was a shrewd move that will give Canada a huge edge at skip. Whether the game is mature enough that that edge is definitive is another question.

Anonymous said...

I witnessed the level of curling at the Richmond event all week, and to say that Canada II got "out lucked" is a disservice to the efforts put forth by Team Alberta. If you think Canada II is truly the best team, then why did they finish with 2 losses in round robin play?

You could tell the Alberta team was playing loose all week and it showed in round robin play and in the semi-final and final games. They showed very positive team chemistry and looked to be having the most fun out there.

It was a tremendous bonspiel and many athletes on several teams raised their level of play to meet the challenge. Don’t discount that.

I think the program in Canada is the strongest in the world and the results at this tournament and other international tournaments this year prove that effort.

I would like to see the Canadian program grow, allowing others from across the country the same opportunity as the national pool players. I am not opposed with a selection camp format, but I would like to see the pool of potential players expanded so that others have opportunity to shine.

I think the goal is the same - develop Canadian wheelchair players, so that we can dominate internationally in a sport many Canadian wheelchair players enjoy.

Let’s not forget that regardless of who is playing for Canada, they are still Canadians.

Anonymous said...

ou are right, except in Canada 2 not being 'lucked out". Tey had a steal of 3 set up on the 4th end, and Ann (third for Alberte) hit the wrong rock, across the face of another, and skinnied into the side four foot with no chance to access. At that point alone, the score would have been Canada 6 (or 7) and Alberta 1 (the 1 was on the first end, when Jack hit the wrong rock, and took out Canadafor shot (Canada laying 3 at the time).

However, I agree, AFTER 2010, let Team Canada be challenged by the National winner in some type of best of 3 or 5 playoff.

Anonymous said...

Armstrong actually only lost one GAME...the other was the horrid and unpopular "draw to the button" for a win.

And the previous poster was correct. The two "flukes" that changed the outcome are listed, and but for those, it would have been another lopsided Armstrong win.