The round robin is over and with all the scenarios that were being buzzed about at the beginning of the day ended up with no tiebreakers. Its been a long time since I’ve been to a Brier where tiebreakers actually happened – one memorable one was Ottawa in 2001. The first round of tiebreakers started at around 11:30pm and it was a memorable party in the arena.

Thursday at 10:30 started with the match-up of the brothers – Kevin and Jamie Koe – playing each other while proud Papa looks on. KK started out by cracking a 3-ender in the first end and added a deuce in the 4th. With easy control from the start, Alberta knew they had to win this game to maintain their standing in the top four teams.  And it was game over after the 8th end chalking up another win at Jamie’s expense – final 8-3

Manitoba was taking on struggling Nova Scotia and again, knowing they could not afford another loss in order to have tiebreaker hopes. Pointless after 4 ends, Ian gets on the board with a 2 in the 5th but gives up a 3-chunk in the 6th. And putting the icing on the cake is another take of 2 for Manitoba – yet another early finish after 8 ends at 9-3.

The two Brad’s met up in a much anticipated match – both teams knowing one is obviously going to lose and the game didn’t disappoint. Tied at 3 after 5 ends, Brad Jacobs managed a defeating 3 on Gushue. Rebounding with just one point in the 7th, Jacobs takes a deal breaker 3 in the 8th and it was game over.  The Northern Ontario fans are going wild – the NL in red and white going suspiciously quiet.  Final score here was 8-4.

And the final game to review was one that had no meaning in the standings other than one of pride. It went all the way to a nail biting extra end. The overtime score came back at 8-7 for BC.

The morning draw went really long due to the extra end game so fans were scrambling for lunch and booting it back into the arena for the 3pm draw (#16 to be exact). PEI and NB (playing their last game) was another Maritime event – again with bragging rights of “who-beat-who”. PEI’s Rod MacDonald and his squad come out with much to prove – they want to be at least at 3 wins before the 2010 Tim Hortons Brier standings list is put to bed on Thursday night.  And they made their wishes one step closer to reality by whomping James Grattan 9-4 and headed to the evening draw with heads held high.

Quebec and Northern Ontario was a bit of another rout – fresh off their win over Gushue, Brad Jacobs and team cracked a three ender, stole 2 more, then another, and finished Serge Reid off with a final take of 2 in the 7th end.  Serge finally gave up any hope and shook hands with a jubilant now 2nd place Northern Ontario – final here 9-3.

Darrell McKee dragged out there game with Manitoba to an extra end. A questionable call from McKee in the 9th end ended up with Jeff taking total advantage by making a couple perfect shots and a resulting 3 ender. McKee had an opportunity to win the game in the 10th but his draw for 2 was just a titch heavy and on we go to the 11th. With Jeff’s first shot he makes a double to lie 2 frozen on the button. Darrell’s second shot was the double attempt but his rock rolled out – Jeff obviously did not have to throw the last brick.

And the Jamie Koe team in their last game of the Brier was against the Howard machine – and even though the game was fairly close until the 7th end, Howard had obvious control.  A take of 4 in the 8th didn’t help the situation and another mismatch score of 9-3 named the Yukon/Northwest Territories team to the bottom of the pile at 1-10.

Draw #17 was another rush for the fans. With the games so close in time this week, it has been difficult not only for the spectators to manage eating between games, but nearly impossible for the worker bees to do the same or even get work that has to be completed between draws. Suggestion for next year – start earlier and stretch out the day a bit more – it has become exhausting for everyone. And I honestly don’t know how the athletes do it – dashing off the ice, grabbing food, no time to rest or regroup and then back on to face another foe.

The crowd for the final draw of the round robin was lively and loud – great to see the lower bowl area almost full.

And of course, all eyes were on the Serge Reid/Brad Gushue game. Brad had to win to maintain at 3 losses and no tiebreakers. Manitoba fans were of course hoping for a loss to bring Brad back to them and have a Friday afternoon game. But Brad was having none of this and racked up 8 points in the first 5 ends to put the guns to Quebec. The embarrassment was over in 7 ends with a final of 8-2.

BC and PEI were again playing for standing placement and bragging rights – and PEI came out smelling like a rose by upending Jeff Richard 6-3.

In another “meaningless” game (hate that term because each game is meaningful to the players and to the families and fans), Nova Scotia took on deflated Saskatchewan. It was a great game to watch – steady consistent shot making by both teams but the first shot by Ian Fitzner LeBlanc in the 10th end was the Shot of the Day. A very long double raise back to lie 2 brought the crowd alive and his 2nd shot to remove McKee’s final shot for the win brough a huge roar from the Metro Centre. Well done!

And the final game of the night was not for placement but one that saw two of the top four battle it out – and a battle it was. Tied coming home at 6 apiece, the final winner was Glenn Howard – making his run absolutely perfect at 11-0. Now he just has to survive the North/South game on Friday night….

Well it has been a long tiring day and even though most of the spectators and players have the day off and it is party night at the Patch, this worker bee has to work at her real job most of tomorrow………..could be a bit unproductive as I helped close the Patch last night. Oh well, only have 4 nights left to hang out with Patch Buddies – bring it on!.

Meg Wallace
CurlingZone.com