Congratulations to Team Canada!

After suffering a heart-breaking defeat in the 1-2 playoff with Scotland, Team Canada defeated Norway in the semi-finals of the 2008 World Men's Championship and then defeated Scotland in the finals to win the overall championship (just as Alan and I predicted!).

Unfortunately, I was traveling and was unable to watch the game on television. And once I arrived in Houston, no one here had any idea who had won, so I had to wait until I had computer access to find out the result of the finals.

I'm sure both the men's and women's Canadian champions are grateful for the page playoff system, since they both needed that extra game to win their respective championships.

Even though the world championships have been decided, and even though the ice is on its way out at most local clubs, the season is not over. We'll try to keep up with the curling news throughout the rest of the year, leading up to the olympic trials.

Once again, congratulations to Kevin Martin and his rink. They certainly seemed dominant for most of the championship tournament.

Where will YOU watch the 2008 Men's World Curling Championship?

We were discussing this last night at the local curling club. It turns out you won't be watching much of the 2008 Men's world curling championship on CBC-TV, who has the exclusive telecasting contract in Canada. Why not?

• Several of the games will be shown on "Bold", formerly known as "Country Canada", CBC's alternate channel for things they don't think are important enough to show on the main CBC network channel. To get Bold (what a pretentious, wannabe name), one must have a digital box or satellite dish in our area.
• But many of the games involving Canada will be available only via webcast at CBC.ca. So if you don't have high-speed internet, you're s.o.l. And even if you do have access to these games, the betting at our club was that they'll be done on the cheap via CurlTV. Not that I want to knock CurlTV; rather, I'd expect more from CBC.
  
  Update: We are unable to get anything from the CBC.ca website; thanks, again CBC! If you are able to get even the draws involving Canada, and you live in Canada, please post a comment explaining how!
  
  Update #2: Finally, it's there. But why the screwups???
  
  
• and heaven forbid you might want to watch a game between two other teams, not including Canada. We have found no way for you to do so if you live in Canada.

So why is CBC doing this to us?

• Are they punishing Canadian viewers because they lost the bid to cover curling in the future?
• Are they embroiled in some battle with CTV to see who can control CurlTV?
• Are they just plain idiots?
• And after several years of repeated travesties, why and how does CBC still obtain any rights to curling telecasts at all? Who made these contracts with CBC without specifying more carefully what would be expected of CBC? And why would they make such contracts?

Or are there some rational explanations for CBC's continued botching of the telecasting of curling?

Picks for the World's Men's Championship

Alan and I both picked Jennifer Jones of Canada and her rink to win the 2008 Ford World's Women's Championship, and we also both had some pretty good ideas about who the challengers would be. I was pretty far off in some major respects, though:

1. I didn't think either China or Japan would have progressed as fast and as far as they have.
2. I really expected the US to be better than they were.
3. I was intrigued to see that a team of three players (Scotland on the last day of the round robin) would be allowed to play without forfeiting, and I was equally intrigued to see that they could win. I wonder if the three of them could maintain that energy and exertion for an entire round robin.

On to the Men's championship.

1. First, and this will not be the last time I say this, I'm sure: I'm am more than a little distressed that CurlTV will be there and will be webcasting games for the rest of the world to watch, but we will not be able to receive those games in Canada.
   
2. I'm picking Canada and Kevin Martin's rink to win the championship. They have looked really strong all year, and even if they are five percent off their game, they should still have a good chance of winning.