Quebec Tankard, Victoriaville - QC
The title says it all: Team Ménard triumphed at the Tankard, Quebec’s men curling championship, which was held January 21st-27th in Victoriaville.
The team played a great and tough match against Trois-Rivères’ Philippe Lemay and his team, ending 6-5 for us. These gentlemen deserve our congratulations for a great week but most of all, our outmost respect for the way they handled themselves after the game.
After a slow start to the championship (a defeat to Steeve Gagnon from Rosemère), the whole team pulled up their socks and reeled of 10 straight wins, including 2 playoffs games.
We cannot go on without mentioning the help of Robert "the coach", who found as usual the best thing to say at the best moment to make sure we were mentally sharp and task oriented. Also, a very special thank you to Michel ‘’Iron Mike’’ Lacombe, sparing for Bob who was away at work for a couple of days.
Finally, we have to thank our sponsors. In our mind, you are part of our team and you help us get better everyday with your support: Performance Brush, IamGold Corporation, Performance Curling Wear (PCW), Fournier Industries and SDV Logistics. We are determined to represent your companies very well and we intend to keep on doing so at the Tim Hortons Brier, being held in Edmonton from March 2nd to 10th, representing Quebec.
Once again, thank you!
Jean-Michel, Martin, Éric, Philippe et Robert
Canadian Open of Curling - Kelowna, BC
After a long plane trip on Wednesday December 12th, We get to beautiful Kelowna, BC in the evening, ready to play in the Canadian Open, the Grand Slam’ second event of the season.
First up is Robert Rumfeldt from Ontario. We start slowly, which gives the opponent an edge. Playing the 7th, we are 1 down without hammer. We then play a very good 7th end. Combine this with 2 key missed shots from them and we steal 2 and take a very fragile lead going into the last end. This end will end up being what we call in our team a ‘’Bingo’’, with lots of rocks in play, hence lots of angles and shots possibilities. We cannot block them all and leave Rumfeldt with a raise triple take-out for the win... he makes it perfectly.
With no resting time, we get right back on the ice against Manitoba’s William Lyburn. We take a quick 4 points in the first frame and honestly, the rest of the game is really about managing the scoreboard, which we do correctly, even though JM has to draw the 4 foot to avoid having to go in extra end. First win!
We had a tough task ahead of us on Friday, playing against Jacobs, Howard and Stoughton. We lose 2 tight games against Jacobs and Stoughton. We think we deserved better against Stoughton. We get a beating from Howard. We end the spiel with a 1-4 record. Disappointing.
In all honesty, these results forced every member of the team to look at themselves in the mirror real hard. We know we are capable of so much more. We had a good discussion on what needs to be done differently and we are confident that the best is yet to come. Trust us, the best is yet to come! :)
Jean-Michel, Martin, Éric, Philippe et Robert
Challenge Casino de Charlevoix - Clermont, QC
With no weekend break, we are on our way to beautiful Charlevoix, a spiel that has manage to attract more and more renown teams over the years. The likes of Niklas Edin, Steve Laycock, Pascal Hess, Sven Michel, Peter DeCruz. An international spiel!
First up is Ottawa’s Howard Rajala. The opposing skip plays 100% on his draws, but not as well on his take-outs to say the least. Obviously, this gives us a lot of opportunities: we make the most of them and they wave the white flag after 6 ends.
Switzerland’s Peter DeCruz is next. This is a very young and very talented team. They are already considered the second best team in their country. The last brick thrower, Benoit Schwarz, is a very cool customer under pressure. He however misses a relatively easy draw against 3 stones. This huge steal swings the momentum our way; we firmly grasp it and play a very clean rest of game, never giving them anything to create some sort of offensive. We are in the ‘’A’’ final against Martin Ferland and we have 3 consecutive chances to make it to the playoffs.
Against Ferly, a tight game is played, although we feel we have the slight edge. A disastrous 7th end sees them steal 2 points. They make some beauty peels and double take out to keep it clean, forcing us to 1 in the 8th. They do the same in the extra end, drawing an open 8 foot for the win. We go down in the ‘’B’’ final against Mark Dacey.
A very bizarre game is played with a lot of rocks in play. The game lasted forever; 3 hours to play 8 ends. JM had a very makeable soft weight take out to take 2 and win; however the 4 foot path had become fudgy and the rock ran over it a couple of meters after our skipper released the rock. It goes sideways and we don’t have a sniff at making the shot. Another loss sees us having to play our ‘’last chance’’ game to qualify for the playoffs.
We play another Nova Scotia team, skipped by the very amusing Paul Flemming. We play a much more convincing game, so much that the last stone thrower on the other side, Ian Fitzner-Leblanc, has to make peaches to keep the score close. He misses one too many in the 8th, and we finally qualify.
Switzerland’s Pascal Hess is standing between us and the semi-final. The turning point is in the 5th end: Jean-Michel throws a missile that just misses the guard (rumor is that there was no more light between the rocks for a moment), making an incredibly tough double and leaving the other team a draw through a tough port. They wreck the guard; we steal 2, gain control of the match. The opponents won’t go without a fight, but we resist well and win.
Semi-final at 8am??? on Sunday, once again against DeCruz. A 4-ender is possible in the first end on very frosty ice conditions. Schwarz goes in the hack having to make a tough freeze to kill the end. Very calmly, he puts it in the best possible spot, having to pass in an unknown portion of the ice. W-O-W. They steal one and the rest of the game is very much like the end of the first end. Close but no cigar. We always hit the wrong side of the inch, miss shots by a quarter of an
inch. The opponents literally put their hands around our necks and choke us as hard as they can; we put our knee down, having offered a lacklustre performance. Very disappointing. We however won some valuable CTRS points with our semi-final results.
Fun facts:
-Fun times during the post-games gathering. Seems like the Charlevoix surroundings put every at ease and we had lots of fun with all our opponents after the matches. Good old curling camaraderie is always welcome!
-As fun as the region is, variation in what your are eating is very tough there because of the small amounts of restaurants. Take note everyone: ‘’Belle et Bum’’ is an new, excellent restaurant with a casual ambiance.
-We found Eric’s new nickname: ‘’The Photographer’’. Up to you to find out why!
Next up is Grand Slam second event in Kelowna. Follow and encourage us!
Jean-Michel, Martin, Éric, Philippe et Robert
Masters of curling - Brantford, ONT
After a 9 hour drive split in over two days, we finally arrive in Brantford for the first leg of the season’s Grand Slam. A lot of team are overly enthusiastic; during the summer, a lot of rumors were saying the Grand Slam would not come back this year due to financial problems. The series was however purchased by Rogers/Sportsnet and high management made a very reassuring presentation to the players before the tournament. Important to note that for this one Grand Slam event, 6 teams instead of 8 would qualify for the playoffs.
First up is Olympic titlist and juggernaut, Kevin Martin and cie. For the event, John Morris was working real hard on his very suspect movember mustache. We basically barely manage to keep our head above sea-level for the first 5 ends and we end up being 4 points down with hammer, playing the sixth end. With 3 rocks to throw, all we have is a corner guard. No Problem! Combine 3 perfect stone from us with 2 missed shot from them, and the result is a big, fat and juicy 3-ender. Opponents are clearly not happy about it and carry their mood in the 7th end. We take advantage of the situation to put a lot of pressure on them to the point that they are forced to play a double to concede us a point, which they do. We have a golden setup in the 8th end to steal the victory... but Kevin, as he did so well over the last 20 years, pulls a rabbit out of his hat to kill any chance of a steal. First lost.
Our second match is against Danish up and comer Rasmus Stjerne. We are physically there, but our mind seems to have stayed in bed. 2 atrocious ends combined with the fact that the opponents are playing superbly and we understand quickly that a ‘’miracle on ice’’ will not happen that morning. Once again, we place ourselves behind the 8-ball and need to win our last 3 games to have any chance to qualify.
We finally find our draw weight and results go our way. We beat John Epping, which admittedly is not having his best game; we play a tight game against Ulsrud, which we win thanks to a great in-off by JM for 4 points; we play a solid game against Sven Michel from Switzerland and beat them fair and square: still alive!
After the dust settles, we have to play a tie-breaker against Jeff Stoughton to reach the playoffs. Interesting to note that if the spiel would have qualified its usual 8 teams, we would have been directly in the playoffs thanks to our shootout!
We start strongly, leading 3-0 after 2 ends. Full of experience, Stoughton slowly claws his way back into the game. We miss a shot for 2 in the 6th end, and a poor clock management forces us to rush things in the 8th end; JM misses his last shot by 2 inches to force an extra-end. We lost a heart-breaker, but we are encouraged by the fact that we never gave up and offered some solid curling after a disappointing start. We repeat it: we can beat any team on a good day.
Funny facts of the weekend:
- Eric was victim of a vicious attack from players not to be named to protect their reputation. Full of pride, he however managed to resist to them when they tried to take his coat away from him.
- Poor Eric! He is usually at the center of our funny facts. He felt not once but twice will sweeping rocks. Apparently, ice was very slippery...
Next up : Charlevoix!
Jean-Michel, Martin, Éric, Philippe et Robert
Gatineau and Chicoutimi
Greetings!
First of all, a word from Philippe to apologize not being on schedule to write the spiels’ updates. To catch up, a ‘’turbo-update’’ of the spiels in Gatineau and Chicoutimi will be done.
Gatineau: We manage to squeak through the ‘’C’’ side, all this while playing the maximum games a team could possibly play in the preliminaries. Add to this the fact that we were playing draws scheduled at 10PM (but really, it was more like 10h30PM). Losses to Jamie Murphy and Mike Fournier had put us in the ‘’no-tomorrow’’ section, but we got revenge by beating Murphy in the ‘’C’’ final and earn a spot in the playoffs.
We were then playing a red-hot Ian MacAulay team, and we tripped right at the beginning. We played decently, but the opposition was clearly on a mission. It was the end of our spiel, at least going back with a playoff qualification.
Chicoutimi: It is without our skipper that we were heading up to the provincial circuit final in Chicoutimi. For this spiel, Martin was taking on the skipping duties while his brother-in-law Philippe Brassard was giving us a hand as the vice-skip. Being the top seed, we enjoyed a bye and were already in the ‘’A’’ semi-final. We beat Dan Élie, and we then are in control of our ‘’A’’ final match against Mike Fournier for the first 6 ends. Unfortunately, the 7th end turns out to be catastrophic and the game slips through our hands. As expected, ice conditions are brutal. We play Martin Ferland in the ‘’B’’ final and the latest assessment is in full display during this game. Unthinkable errors are being made by both teams at a ridiculous rate. We fall back on our feet quicker than them and we managed to get out of this nightmare victorious.
We play the following morning against Robert Desjardins. Martin plays an awful game, sweepers miscall weight judgment by 20 feet and we get slug by them. After the match, Robert (playing in his home club) tells us that Martin was paying with the worst set of rocks in the solar system, which explains why Martin could not make a shot. The advantage of playing at home is notorious when ice and rocks conditions are mediocre at best.
-Special thank you to Jean Brassard and Hélène Duchesne (Philippe and Véronique Brassard’ parents) for having us over for supper Saturday night in Jonquière
-Thanks to JM, Annie and Marie-Soleil for the great welcome while playing in Gatineau.
Next up : updates on the first Grand Slam in Brantford as well as Charlevoix
Jean-Michel, Martin, Éric, Philippe et Robert
Mac Ice Classic - Ottawa, ONT
Thanksgiving weekend is a synonym of "Mac Ice Curling Classic" for our team. However, another big tournament in Toronto, the "Stu Sells" is clearly hurting the Ottawa tournament. The event organizer had to do miracle to find 18 teams and even though he promised a triple knock-out type of event, the format was changed at the last minute. 3 boxes of 6, with all 6 teams from outside the Ottawa region in the same pool!
We are playing decent curling that allows us to win against Matt Dumontelle, Mike Fournier, Mike Bryson and Trevor Bonot. After 4 games, we have yet to lose, which means we are assured of a place in the playoffs. Our last game of the round robin is against Philippe Lemay, who is eliminated. He offers us to skip the game so they can go back home earlier. After discussion, we agree on playing the game nonetheless. The team is tired and it seems like their heads are still on the pillow. We get trounced by the opposition. This will however be quickly forgotten during the rest of the day, which we use for some R&R.
We draw a solid veteran team in Howard Rajala as our quarter-final matchup. We begin with the hammer and we have a good chance to strike early, but Rajala’s 3rd, JP Lachance, makes 2 dandy freezes which completely turn the end around. JM has to draw the lid but it is miss swept by the front-end and the opponent steals 1 instead. After an additional steal in the third, we are very patient in the 4th and finally manage to score a deuce, which ties things up. We are 1 up without in the 7th, and JM makes a perfect freeze on his last shot to avoid a multi-points end; Rajala is forced to draw for one and surrender the hammer in the final end. Even though it ends up being an end a little more crowdy than expected, the only thing Rajala has on his last shot is a wick-draw that will end up being behind the t-line, giving JM some backing on his last shot, which will be successful.
Trevor Bonot, a team from Northern Ontario which in our opinion could give some trouble to Brad Jacobs at provincials, stands between us and the final. We blank the first 4 ends, a first for the team according to Martin. Unfortunately, this will lead to a steal of 1 for the opposition in the 5th end! We manage a deuce in the 6th, and Bonot saves the day in the 7th by only conceding 1 point to us. We are up 2 without in the 8th, a situation in which Philippe can’t remember having ever lost. He probably jinxed it as the wheels fall off the cart. His two rocks are frozen slightly in angle, literally becoming a guard for the opposition. Martin noses a peel attempt, the front-end miss a sweeping call on JM first rock (freeze attempt) and the skipper’ second rock picks. Phil’s streak goes down the drain as we lose the game and are eliminated from the spiel.
Funny facts of the weekend:
- The team learned that a 3 years old kid hears and repeats everything. While playing a tight hockey game on PS3, a curse was said by one of the team member after a missed opportunity. 5 minutes later, the same curse comes out of JM’s daughter’s mouth! We were stunned!
- Thanks to a funny schedule, we had time to go to the Keg on Friday night... Lovely!
- Finally, the team epic tennis battle happened once again, with Martin and JM winning. Éric was still dressed up like he was going to work on a casual Friday, with jeans to prove it and skills that comfortably stayed at home!
Next up is the Challenge Château Cartier in Gatineau. Stay tuned!
Jean-Michel, Martin, Éric, Philippe et Robert
Shorty Jenkins Classic - Brockville, ONT
On September 13th, the team was travelling its first kilometers of the season. Excited, we couldn’t wait to arrive to our first competition site and start the season in Brockville. Usually, at this spiel, the team manages to take the time to play a 9 hole of golf. This year, we ended up with a busy schedule, so we had to settle for a chipping contest, which was way better for Philippe mental health.
The spiel starts with the last team we played last year, Robert Desjardins. To be noted, Jean-Sébastien Roy was not in the line-up because of a knee injury. We have the upper hand on the quality of play offered, but Robert did numerous draws against multiple opponent rocks, which kept his team in the run. Nonetheless, the opponent skip doesn’t seem to realize that he has very suspect rocks and at the 6th end, he completely missed his freeze and we take a five-ender. They concede the victory.
The following morning, the team enjoyed the morning off to charge the batteries. We are more than ready to play our second game against the man who really put Quebec on curling’s radar at the first place: M. Guy Hemmings himself. Guy feels like a rookie, as he had to take last year off since he got injured trying to move his patio set back home! The rest of the team are all Philippe’s old teammates: François Gagné, Christian Bouchard and Ghyslain Richard. Rust seems to be a factor in our opponents shot-making: they can’t manage to offer a good resistance. We win a lopsided game in 5 ends. Very important to note: the way to break ties at this bonspiel is by doing a shoot-out after the team’ second victory. We end up with an excellent 3rd best shoot out, which places us in an excellent position if tie-breakers are necessary later in the week-end.
USA’s Pete Fenson is next. We play a decent first few ends, but we clearly lost the "battle of the angles" in the second end and Fenson is all over us for a three ender in the 2nd end. We tie the game after 3, but the 4th end plays against us: As we are shot rock, JM tries to split the rings in order to force Fenson to draw against 2. It looks perfect until the rocks passes over a flat spot! Once again, Fenson capitalizes and takes 4 points, which pretty much seals the deal. Even though the scoreboard says we got trashed, this defeat leaves a sour taste in our month as we believe we played as good as the opponent.
It’s an early wake-up call on Saturday, as we are first up at 8am against a Matt "Paul-less" team. Matt seems like he aggravated an old knee injury in his first match of the week. We went to bed early and are ready to go, which honestly does not seem to be the case of the other teams: bloody eyes tells us they enjoyed life a lot last night. They offer a good opposition but never manage to create any sort of offensive. 3rd victory for us.
We believe to be in the exact same situation as last year: We need to beat John Epping in order to get to the playoffs. If we don’t, we most probably will end up opening a bar bill. They play very well, but we manage to keep our head above sea-level. It is tie game after 4, but Phil makes 2 brutal shots, Éric almost makes a very tough double that ends-up as a disaster and Martin as a small brain freeze on 1 of his through. Jean-Michel is in D-E-E-P trouble and he can’t manage to save the day. We give up a four-ender that was totally deserved. We do make the final very interesting by stealing 2 in the 7th end and by having a decent set-up for another steal in the 8th. However, JM’s last shot is a few inches too deep, which gives Epping a rather easy shot for the wins. Consider it done.
Even though there is still a bunch of games to be played by other teams, our shoot-out is so good that we are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, something we didn’t know before the game. We are happy about this, but we know we have play a lot better if we don’t want to end up in the meat grinder the following morning.
We put a 7 game winning streak on the line against team Brad Jacobs on Sunday morning. Let’s be honest: the team plays a ‘’handicap’’ match because of Phil’s horrible play. Thanks to the other 3 players, we somehow manage to tie the game after 4 ends even though we gave up a 3-ender right off the bat. In the fifth end, we take the decision to give up 2 instead of taking the chance to potentially give up another 3-ender, as we feel that the team is playing slightly better. It was a ¾ of the truth: 3 players are playing slightly better than their counterparts. Philippe strikes again with 2 bad shots and we are behind the 8 ball. JM tries to generate an aggressive deuce by drawing in the back of the houses, but it quickly backfires at us as Jacobs make a delicate tap back and lies shot buried in front of the house. We have to concede one more point. We still have a shot for 2 in the 7th end, but JM narrowly misses and Jacobs steals another point. We concede the game and we are done for the weekend.
A lot of work needs to be done, but we still managed to get a grip on a precious few CTRS points in order to qualify for the Olympic Pre-Trials. Next up is the Mac Ice Classic in Ottawa. Keep in touch!
Funny facts of the week-end:
- Scotland’s finest was in town for the bonspiel. The lovely Eve Muirhead however shocked Éric by wearing "Ugg’s boots", which Éric is not a big fan of. However, it is important to note that Éric is not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to fashion...
- It really wasn’t Phil’s weekend as he made a "Tom Watson" during the chipping contest. Against all odds, he had a 4-footer to drain to win the competition. It wasn’t even close.
- Finally, a special thank to Marie-France Larouche and her team, as they gallantly accepted to share a table for Saturday’s supper after our respective qualification.
Jean-Michel, Martin, Éric, Philippe et Robert
Welcome word - 2012-2013 Season
Greetings everybody!
Days are becoming shorter and shorter; September is just around the corner. Let’s face it: curling-mania is about to begin!
Quite honestly, the team required some time to lick their wounds after our semi-final defeat at provincials last January. We had very encouraging results in last year’s cash spiel season and we rightfully believed that the odds were in our favor to represent Quebec at the Brier in 2012. Every member took a few months to reflect on our highs and lows, which lead to a very genuine and open discussion between us four. After the dust settled, we concluded that staying together was the best choice we could make to fulfill our objectives: a Brier podium and a qualification for the Olympics Pre-Trials. Schedule wise, no big change are going to be made. However, we decided to approach this season differently, an approach that will be much more goal-oriented, one that will allow us to avoid an end of season like last year. With all due respect to other teams in Quebec, we are convinced to be the top dogs and last year’s failure will only be an extra-motivation for all members to reach our goals.
Once again, we can’t move on without thanking our generous sponsors who once again have commit to help us financially: Performance, IamGold, SDV Logistics, Fournier Industries and Performance Curling Wear. Be assured we are doing everything humanly possible to represent you positively on and off the ice.
Finally, the site will be used once again to give you an update of how the team did after each of our tournament.
Jean-Michel, Martin, Éric, Philippe et Robert
Tim Hortons Brier
March 2 to 10
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