Your roving reporter has now moved north to cousin’s farm on the outskirts of Stettler, right in the middle of Alberta. It’s blue sky and snow swept freezing prairie outside but we are cosy warm in the basement watching wall to wall Brier coverage. We have just had our hearts broken by Brad Gushue of Newfoundland / Labrador who nailed the most incredible run back double to move two Alberta stones off the button to get a single in the 10th. That was after our hero Kevin Koe had played two dead draws to get Alberta into what seemed to be a game winning position. To watch this wonderful game go to TSN and go to the curling option and then click on VOD.

Northern Ontario roll on and win number 9 this afternoon against Saskatchewan puts them in the 1 v 2 play-off. Saskatchewan and Newfoundand are next in the table with Quebec going really well too. The new look Team Canada won both their games today against British Columbia and Ontario.  It was interesting this morning to hear the commentators say how much respect the BC team had for their former teammate Johnny Morris. The lead was grateful for the advice the 2010 Olympic gold medallist gave him when he played with the BC team last season,  including taking him to yoga classes to improve his flexibility and to learn to control his breathing when he gets into pressure situations.

Having the timeclocks set to ‘thinking time’ is catching some teams out. In last night’s battle of Alberta between Team Canada and Koe’s provincial winners both teams were spoken to by the umpire after four very slow ends. They teams then agreed to race through the fifth to get themselves ahead of time again.