Playdowns.com - Curling news and playdown results

Trial date set for Paralympian Jim Armstrong

Cary — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:48:36 +0000

A new trial date has been set for the Paralympic curling champion and retired Richmond dentist charged with trafficking counterfeit Viagra and Cialis.

Jim Armstrong, 59, and his son Gregory, 28, will stand trial Oct. 25, 2010 in a U.S. District Court in Seattle, Wash.

The date was determined Monday at a 30-minute status conference/hearing between Justice Ricardo Martinez, prosecutor and assistant United States attorney Patricia Lally, and lawyers Richard Hansen and Paula Deutche.

Ful story: Richmond Review – BC Local News

Strong field at 2010 Canada Cup

Cary — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:44:52 +0000

The “Cup” is filling up fast with the brightest stars on our country’s curling scene, all preparing to hit the ice in the first elite event on the Season of Champions schedule.

The 2010 Canada Cup, December 1 – 5 in Medicine Hat, will feature the game’s top 20 teams — 10 men’s and 10 women’s — in a field that represents the “who’s who” of the competitive circuit.

Leading the way for the men are Canada’s Olympic gold medalists skipped by Kevin Martin, making their first Season of Champions appearance in their home province following the Vancouver games.

Full story – Canadian Curling Association

Olympian becomes Golden Ears Club President

Cary — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:22:46 +0000

Golden Ears Curling Club’s new President is 2000 World Curling Champion and 2002 Olympic Bronze Medalist Diane Dezura. Now retired from competitive events, Diane has worked with the Board of Directors in the club located in Maple Ridge, BC for the past three years and feels her new role has helped her appreciate how important volunteers are. “We each need to put our hand up and say, ‘I’ll do it.’ If everyone gave just a few hours, it would make such a difference in our community.”

Having an Olympian as President seems a perfect fit with the curling world still buoyed with the success of the Canadian curlers and the Olympics. “This is an exciting time for our game”, states Dezura. “Curling received so much TV time, our club was very busy with people wanting to give it a try.” And Golden Ears Curling Club is ready for all who want to join in the fun this year. They have expanded league nights and added more on-ice instruction to make the game fun for people of all ages and abilities.

And Golden Ears Curling Club has even more great news. After two years of hard work and determination, the Curling Club is on solid financial ground. “There were a lot of rumours out there about our financial situation. But thanks to the work of the Board, our Past President, Linda Winterhoff and our club manager, Lynne Jambor, we have turned the corner.”

And when you ask Dezura what she wants to see for the Curling club, “Curling has given me so much. I want everyone to try this game.” Whether you are 8 or 80, a family, a couple or only one, it seems at Golden Ears Curling Club you will find good fun and good friends. “It’s a great game”.

Playdowns.com goes mobile

Cary — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:37:29 +0000

A new mobile version of Playdowns.com was announced at the recent Canadian Curling Association meetings. The mobile edition has been optimized for the iPhone, Blackberry and Android phones to give visitors on these devices a lightweight version that loads faster and is easier to view on the smaller screens.

The increased traffic on Playdowns.com from mobile devices made it important for these visitors to have the best possible experience for the upcoming Curling season. Mobile editions can no longer be an afterthought for websites due to the amazing growth of the mobile web.

Mobile web is growing 8 times faster than the desktop web grew
1 billion users within the next 2 years using heavy mobile data
Smartphones are projected to pass PCs in sales by the middle of next year (2011)
Mobile is going to be 10 times the size of the desktop internet market
AT&T’s mobile data traffic in the last 3 years has increased 50 times. That’s a 4,932% increase starting in June of 2007
The average iPhone user uses 30 times more traffic than a feature phone user
Smartphone penetration among businesses and consumers in Canada is about 25 per cent

As a Curling fan and smartphone user, I have found it very frustrating to view results from the Canadian Curling Association’s CurlCast software on my iPhone. CurlCast uses Flash which is not supported on iPhones. Flash also takes longer to load than regular HTML and can be very taxing on system resources – even for desktop computers.

The mobile edition of Playdowns.com is at http://m.playdowns.com.

Curl BC announces new playdown structure

Cary — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:11:21 +0000

Say goodbye to the to the Coastal and Interior Championships for men.

After a 10 month review Curl BC has announced that the provincial playdown structure in British Columbia will be changed for the 2010/2011 season on a two-year trial basis. The regional qualifying events for both men and women will be broadened with two open Coast and Interior playdowns which will qualify two teams each directly to the provincial championship. The interior events will be split between north and south while the coast events will be split between Vancouver Island and the mainland. Both events will be on separate dates to allow teams to play in one or both events in their playdown area.

The remaining two berths at the provincial championship will be reserved for the defending champions and the top BC team on the Canadian Team Ranking System list as of December 1 of each curling season.

Curl BC will determine the knockout format for the regional qualifying events in the next few weeks.

Gold medalist John Morris finds shaving difficult

admin — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 04:43:34 +0000

John Morris, third of Kevin Martin’s 2010 Olympic gold medal winning team, remarks about how difficult he finds shaving is in a one-on-one interview with Canwest sports reporter Cory Wolfe.

Perth, Scotland to host 2011 World Juniors

Cary — Sat, 22 May 2010 06:30:35 +0000

The Royal Caledonian Curling Club and the World Curling Federation (WCF) yesterday announced that Perth will host the 2011 World Junior Curling Championships from March 5-13.

The World Juniors will return to the Dewars Centre where, 15 years ago Tom Brewster Jr won the 1995 title in front of his home crowd with a 6-3 win over his German opponents.

Full story: Perthshire Advertiser

Cloverdale awarded 2011 BC Scotties

Cary — Sat, 22 May 2010 06:26:41 +0000

Curl BC is pleased to announce that the 2011 Scotties Tournament of Hearts BC Women’s Curling Championship presented by Best Western has been awarded to the Cloverdale Curling Club. This event will run from January 17 – 23, 2011 with the semi-final and final games broadcast on Shaw TV.

Full story: Curl BC

Jim Armstrong charged with drug smuggling

Cary — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:05:26 +0000

The Curling News is reporting that 1987 Brier runner-up and 2010 Paralympic gold medalist Jim Armstrong is facing charges in Seattle, WA on allegations he attempted to smuggle thousands of counterfeit erectile dysfunction pills into British Columbia.

Full story: The Curling News.

Canada’s Koe wins world championship gold

Cary — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:10:43 +0000

It wasn’t as dramatic a finish as his Brier victory — an extra-end, last-rock draw to the button that began a succession of leaping into each other’s arms, roars, high fives and bear hugs — but the celebration and outcome was just as sweet for Kevin Koe.

Because now you can call his rink: Campioni del mondo — that is: champions of the world.

Koe and teammates Blake MacDonald, Carter Rycroft and Nolan Thiessen earned the title — Canada’s 32nd overall — with a penetrating and thorough 9-3 eight-end triumph Sunday over Norway’s Torger Nergard at the 2010 Capital One men’s world curling championship in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

Full story: National Post