Registered: Mar 2015
Location: Ottawa
Posts: 23

Can someone please explain the "Donny B Three" that Kevin Martin refers to periodically when he covers games? I believe it starts with a draw to the back of the rings when the other team's draw slips very deep.

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Registered: Oct 2019
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Posts: 1523

I first heard about the "Donnie B Special" when Gerry Geurts was commentating the Homan vs Einarson match in 2019 Canad Inns Classic.

I think there are two layers of discussion that can be had here. I'll call the first layer the LOGICAL, i.e. why the shot makes sense as a call in the skip's mind. Then there's the second layer, which I'll call the THEATRICAL, i.e. how the call is communicated secretively to the rest of the teams, as opposed to the usual public announcement of a call that everyone can see (audience, opposition, stats recorder).

I'm not a curler, and I'm a new fan, so there's only so much of the logical layer that I can appreciate, but I've long been fascinated by the theatrical. Even before I heard this commentary, I've long suspected that there's something fishy going on sometimes, where something is being communicated in secret, perhaps with the hope to mislead the opposition.

I've seen time outs where the team loudly proclaims that two points is maybe the best that they can hope for, and they somehow end up scoring three or more. I can't help but suspect that there's some theatrics involved here. Had they said "We can get three here, boys!", alarm bells would be immediately raised, so perhaps saying "Geez, boys, there's only a deuce here at best! *wink*wink*" can lull the opposition to overlook something?

More in line with the "Donnie B" type of stuff, I've also seen some "missed" shots, some Plan B's that I suspect were Plan A's all along.

I haven't watched much Sportsnet/grand slams, so I didn't know that Kevin Martin talks about the Donnie B-type of stuff all the time. For a while I thought I was just crazy for seeing things, but now I've caught on somewhat, and I find this whole thing super fascinating.

Last edited by curlingclips on 12-22-19 at 06:29PM

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Registered: Oct 2019
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This is the best explanation of the Donnie B 3 that I've come across so far. From Kevin Martin himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEr-VMWcScM

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Registered: Oct 2019
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Posts: 1523

1st end of SUI vs GER in 2021 World Women's is a Donny B 3 in a nutshell, and Kevin Martin talked us through it in great detail. Short postmortem in 2nd end as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvKd6vX3ZjY&t=6m

Basically, with hammer, you come around center guard to back 8. Opposition HAS to make a freeze. If they don't for whatever reason, they're in trouble the whole end.

SUI had hammer and came around to back 8. GER did call for the freeze, but was light. Lots of rocks accumulated behind tee line after several bumps, SUI could've scored 5 if GER weren't careful.

Last edited by curlingclips on 05-08-21 at 04:42PM

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