Former world champion to play in Napanee

THE WHIG-STANDARD
December 16, 2009

One of the best curling teams in the world is coming to Napanee in February.

The Glenn Howard rink, which lost against Kevin Martin in the final of the Roar of the Rings Olympic trials on Sunday in Edmonton, is planning to compete in the Ontario Tankard Feb. 1-7 at the Strathcona Paper Centre.

Martin defeated Howard 7-3. In an e-mail to theWhig-Standard yesterday, Howard team second Brent Laing said his squad will be using its automatic berth into the provincials as the defending champion.

"We're looking forward to it," Laing said.

The Coldwater rink has won the Ontario championship four years in a row and will be a favourite to advance to the Brier again.

If Howard would have won the Olympic trials and advanced to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, the team would have skipped the Ontario Tankard, freeing up a spot for reigning runner-up Peter Corner.

Instead, Corner will have to earn his way into the event at a regional competition in January or at a challenge event later in the month.

The 32 competitors for the four regionals in early January have been determined.

The local zone winners -- Greg Balsdon of the one-rink Loonie Curling Club in Chaffeys Lock and Christopher Ciasnocha of the Trenton Curling Club -- will be in regional action at the Quinte Curling Club in Belleville Jan. 9-10.

Another Belleville regional skip, Brian Lewis of the Ottawa Curling Club, is a Royal Military College graduate and a former winner of the Whig-Standard Bonspiel.

Also in the Belleville field is 2003 Ontario champion Bryan Cochrane of Ottawa.

Other entrants are Mathew Camm (Navan), J. P. Lachance (Rideau), Steve Allen (Arnprior) and Damien Villard (Renfrew).

The other regionals are in Minden, Shelburne and St. Catharines.

The last-chance challenge competitions take place in Alliston and Ottawa.