News from Dec. 18th, 2008, on sheet 8: It only took thirty years of curling, but Kent Brorson got his first eight ender in league play on Dec. 18th. Tom Eng, John Landsteiner, and Sophie Brorson helped him put all their red stones in the house. Way to go!

Belated congratulations to Chris Plys, Aanders Brorson, Matt Perushek, Matt Hamilton and coach Phil Drobnick! Team Plys won the Minnesota State Junior Playdowns at the Bemidji Curling Club last weekend, going undefeated. Next up for Chris and his team are the qualifying rounds for the 2010 U.S. Olympic Trials January 7-11 in Centerville, WI. Good luck guys!

Duluth curler Sophie Brorson also helped Alex Carlson, Tabitha Peterson, and Tara Peterson (of the St. Paul Curling Club) go undefeated to win the playdown. These young ladies have been curling together for four years, and this is their third state championship. The Alex Carlson rink will compete next week in Green Bay in the qualifying round for Olympic Trials. Nice work Sophie, and good luck next week!

OK, if you’ve curled at the Duluth Curling Club recently, you are probably aware of the, um, strange dark stripe on sheet 6. The question for today is: What should be the preferred term for the odd topography on sheet 6?

1) The Trough
2) The Valley of No Return
3) The Valley of Occasional Return
4) The Run Away, Then Come Back, Then Run Away Again
5) The Bermuda Wang-Dangle
6) Super Pick
7) The Half Pipe
8) Sixth Avenue East

Vote or add more suggestions in the comment section.

. . .and someone was there with a video camera.

From YouTube via jamesbatemangmail.

There is a lot going on in the Northland this weekend:

Friday night (tonight!) at the Duluth Curling Club, Ken and Joanne Docteur host a one night mini-spiel named “The Fun Night Before Christmas“. The event begins at 6pm and is open to the public. Ken and Joanne began these mini-spiels two years ago, and they are a lot of fun– last year’s event coincided with the Women’s Frozen Four (that’s hockey or something?), and the Harvard Pep Band came out to try curling– and they brought some great exposure for the DCC back to the East Coast. So if you have friends who are curious about curling and the off-ice action after the curling is done, bring them down!

Curl Mesabi is hosting the Super One Shootout, a major cash-spiel with a $20,000+ purse. The Super One Shootout is part of the World Curling Tour, and is attracting some big names to Eveleth– the DCC is well represented. 2008 Coach of the Year Phil Drobnick is organizing the event. The first draw is 2pm Friday, and the final is 3pm Sunday. You can watch live scoring at this link.

One big time curler who would probably be in Eveleth this weekend if he wasn’t otherwise occupied is last year’s national champion Craig Brown. He and his team are currently participating in the Continental Cup, an event modeled on golf’s Ryder Cup, in which teams from North America compete against teams from the rest of the world in a variety of curling formats. The games started yesterday, and North America had a few good games: Craig Brown beat Scotland’s David Murdoch 6 to 3, and Kevin Martin of Canada delivered a bruising to Fengchun Wang of China, winning 10-1 (could that be payback for this game?)
The World is currently way ahead of North America in points, leading 36 to 18, but there are a lot of games left. If you want to stay updated on the scores, CurlTV is probably your best bet.

And finally. . . Santa Spiel?

Here is a tantalizing hint that someone is working on a curling game for arguably the dominant gaming console, the Xbox 360:

The graphics are pretty spartan but quite adequate, if the physics and gameplay are accurate. Their website only says “coming January 2009″. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. . .

From YouTube via dadooGames.

Friday (and sub-zero air) has arrived in the Twin Ports. Anything going on?

On Saturday the Duluth Curling Club hosts their annual Mixed Doubles Bonspiel. This one-day event features two-person teams battling it out in the increasingly popular mixed doubles format. You can see a video demonstration of mixed doubles at this link.

Did you hear about the big storm headed to Duluth? One foot of snow? Yikes! If you are stuck inside, and your broadband connection isn’t knocked out by the weather, why not spend the weekend watching curling from the Great White North? Access to CurlTV is free with your membership to the Duluth Curling Club, and this weekend they are broadcasting live games from the Canada Cup qualifiers in Ottawa, Ontario.

Oh yeah, if your broadband connection is knocked out by Old Man Winter, remember that the Duluth Curling Club has free WiFi.

And finally, in case you missed it the first time, a little light hearted fun: Here is the video of the Fab Four curling in the Swiss Alps from the movie Help! Have a great weekend!

An unorthodox delivery and challenging ice conditions at the alpine resort of Adelboden, Switzerland last year– but she hits and stays in play!

From YouTube via Beojim.

Brady and Christin Clark of Seattle, WA won the 2009 U.S. Mixed Doubles Championship in Two Harbors last weekend. They will go on to compete for the World Championship in Cortina, Italy in April.

Closer to home, the Broman rink won the main event in the USWCA All American Bonspiel at the Duluth Curling Club. Congratulations!

2006 Olympic gold medalist Brad Gushue has a series of commercials for a Canadian product called Maple Leaf cocktail wieners, and they are pretty funny. (Or is it funny that a company actually still sells cocktail wieners?) Anyway the best part about this promotion is that you can enter a contest to win a personal training session with Team Gushue.

Here is the link for the details about the contest, and the first video is below. You can see all three videos at this link.

From YouTube via rumford77.

Local ABC affiliate WDIO had a nice story on the Duluth Curling Club a couple days ago– you can watch it online at this link. Sarah Frakes interviews DCC stalwarts Dean Birman, Seppo “Grungy Bag” Sormunen, Dave Johnson and Dick Priley, and they do a great job of describing why curling is loved by all who try it. Thanks WDIO!

If you like curling, but don’t want to commit an entire weekend to being on the ice, there are a couple one-day bonspiels coming up at the Duluth Curling Club:

The USWCA All American Bonspiel is this Saturday (Dec. 6th).  The event has a pirate theme, which is very timely given recent events around the Horn of Africa.

Next Saturday, Dec. 13th, is the Duluth Mixed Doubles Bonspiel.  This new format features two players per team, one female and one male, who deliver five rocks per end after pre-placing one stone as a guard or counter.  The mixed doubles format is innovative, confusing, and growing in popularity.

If you want to learn more about mixed doubles and see it in action, head up highway 61 to Two Harbors this weekend to see the US Mixed Double Championship, which is drawing teams from all over the country.

By the way, have you looked at CurlDuluth’s bonspiel calendar?  You can find all these events and more, and if you want to add your event, contact me!