Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 37

1 EDMONTON JOURNAL D3 MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2005 CURLING After five straight provincial titles, Edmonton rink will be toast of Brier town FERBEY 8 KING 6 (11) JIM MATHESON Journal Curling Writer INNISFAIL SPORTS mm: Lord ft 7 liil I il IHlHjt HrWl'lillV f--l MHMMMMMM CALGARY HERALD. CANWEST NEWS SERVICE Long live the kings. And a King is dead. In winning his fifth consecutive men's title here Sunday, Randy Ferbey did something nobody else in Alberta curling annals has ever done. But first he had to withstand a mighty challenge from fellow Edmonton skip Jamie King.

The Lords of the Rings keep hearing the rock anthem We Are the Champions whenever they play, but Ferbey isn't much of a history buff. He deals in today, not yesterday. "Idon'twonderwherewerankorhow anybody looks at us," Ferbey said following his crowning extra-end victory. "Maybe when it's over I can look back and appreciate people saying, 'You know, that was a pretty good Ron Northcott, nicknamed curling's Owl because of his black, horn-rimmed spectacles, feathered his way to four consecutive provincial titles in the 1960s, but Ferbey is the first to do it five times. Ferbey and his rink of Dave Nedohin, throwing last stones, Scott Pfeifer and Marcel Rocque just got past King 8-6 in 11 ends.

Nedohin made a last-rock takeout after Pfeifer had made a terrific double-kill earlier in the end so King couldn't draw a shot past any cover to steal the game. This will be Ferbes eighth trip to the Brier, tying him with former Alberta skip Cliff Manahan, who did it from 1937 to 1950, when they may have been using jam-pails, rather than rocks. Certainly corn brooms, not push brooms. "I'm more thrilled for Randy than any of us. Eight Briers.

That's pretty cool," said Rocque. This tide was tougher to come by than any of the others. King, who curls out of Saville Centre, has no apologies to make. His hard-luck team Blake Mac-Donald, throwing last rock, Wade Johnston and lead Todd Brick pushed Ferbey to the limit Ferbey uncharacteristically slammed his broom once after a narrow miss by Nedohin. And Rocque admitted he was feeling a little queasy late in the game.

pi Pt I 1 iMtmmmt I AAtaJ CALGARY HERALD. CANWEST NEWS SERVICE Randy Ferbey raises his broom in celebration as opposing skip Jamie King is reduced to the role of spectator in Sunday's provincial curling final. Ferbey won 8-6 in an extra end. Edmonton Brier will have a fresh look Unheralded names to compete at Rexall Place CALGARY HERALD. CANWEST NEWS SERVICE Blake MacDonald, of the Jamie King rink, wipes away a tear after the loss.

Their 34-game winning streak, going back to 2001 in the provincials, was a mere trifle. Just getting past King and back to the Brier was all they wanted. "The last game is bigger than any streak," said Rocque, who was breathing a sigh of relief. "In the eighth end I started to feel it in the pit of my stomach. I knew we had to get control of the game.

"All the credit to Blake and those guys. My gawd, we had them in trouble three or four ends, but Blake would make something and force us to do something big. "That's as far as we've ever been pushed in a game we've won." King and MacDonald lost to Ferbey's gang in the 2003 final, 10-3, before Johnston and Brick came aboard. Tm a huge Boston fan," said Johnston, "and I thought if the Sox could win the World Series, we could win, too. I even had my kid wearing a Curt Schilling shirt today." Johnston's wife Atina and Nedohin's wife Heather curl on the same women's team, which made the all-Edmonton matchup an even trickier proposition.

"It's a combination of frustration and Michel Menard of Quebec City beat Robert Desjardins 8-4. I At Northern Ontario, Mike Jakubo also made it to his first Brier, nipping bartender Tim Phillips 8-7 in an extra end. In Prince Edward Island, Rod MacDonald will be making his third trip to the Brier after beating John Likely in the final. MacDonald was the fifth man on Mike Gaudet's 2-9 team last year. Before this weekend's play: Gushue won Newfoundland; Adams knocked off Dacey to win Nova Scotia; Deane Horning won B.C.

over Bob Ursel and Wade Blanchard beat the '93 world champ Howard. tm Matheson strong marriage was they spent so much time apart Norma loved to take European vacations to capitals of culture like Paris, Florence, Venice and London. Her tastes ran to opera, gourmet dining and fine art Not surprisingly, Eddie, whose tastes run to a few frosty ones after the golf game with the boys, did not tag along on these sojourns abroad. Might separate vacations be a pathway to paradise? Sale was asked. "No.

We get asked that often," Sale said. "I've never felt that" Sale is heading to Las Vegas in the spring with a female friend, sort of a girls' weekend out But it was her friend's idea, not Sale's. "It's so weird for me not to go with (Pelletier)," Sale said. "We've never planned it where we said "Let's go on our own I don't think I could do that I just don't want to go anywhere without him." Skating brought the 2001 world pairs champions and 2002 gold medallists together in the first place, and Sale says they have learned, of necessity, to keep their business relationship as separate from their personal relationship as they possibly can. But just as they had to overcome some on-ice issues, such as a bad patch when Jamie King is consoled by his girlfriend Marie Graham after the Alberta final.

disappointment," King said following the loss. "Fm proud of my team to get this close, but nobody remembers who finishes second, unfortunately." "Hopefully, we get another shot at it, but it's a long way back," said MacDonald. That's especially in this province, where there are eight to 10 top-notch rinks that could easily qualify elsewhere where there's not always a Ferbey or a Kevin Martin in the way. "This can only make them "If they get down, they're done. They've gota greatyoungteam certainly younger than I am.

If they stick together, they'll get there (to the Brier)." "I know their turn is going to come. Hopefully not when we're in the final," said Nedohin. Tve been on the ice for a couple of Oiler games, dropping the first puck, with that crowd there and we all said we'd love to have a chance to play there," said Nedohin, looking ahead to the national showdown next month at Rexall Place. "We were close in '99 and now to do it, ifll be something well never forget. To have the support of the Edmonton crowd behind us will be amazing." KELLY WINS TITLE I Andrea Kelly of New Brunswick scored five points in the final three ends to defeat Desiree Robertson of Alberta 9-6 in the final of the Canadian junior women's curling championship Sunday in Fredericton.

Kelly scored two in the eighth end to tie it 6-6, then stole two in the ninth to take the Kelly lead and added a single in the 10th to seal the win. Robertson, who had not lost at the tournament, took a 3-0 lead with a single in the first end and a deuce in the third. Kelly replied with four in the fourth end before Robertson scored three straight singles to regain the lead. its on ice Sale had difficulty landing jumps, they've had to fine tune their personal relationship, as well They actually took a month-and-a-half break from each other last year. "I guess we went through sort of a midlife crisis, but we went through it way early," said Sale, 27.

"I think we needed to know that (our relationship) wasn't just about skating and it definitely wasn't It was a time for us to be apart and make sure we were happy. When we got back together I knew I was ready to be committed to him for my life." Sale said the key to a happy relationship for her and Pelletier, 30, is living totally in the moment, just as athletes are taught to focus on the now. "You have to always be dealing with things openly, the good, bad, funny, sad, whatever and also just learn to let each other be." The wedding day for Sale and Pelletier is still more than 10 months away, and wedding days can be heady times. Somehow, you get the impression that, after all they've been through and learned in the amateur and pro careers and their round-the-clock romance, they'll stick that landing when the time comes. jmackinnonllithejournal.canwest.com 7n Welcome to the generic Brier.

Other than Randy Ferbey, Ontario's Wayne Middaugh (the '98 world champ), Newfoundland's Brad Gushue, who was fourth last year in Saskatoon, and World Curling Tour hotshot Pat Simmons, it's pretty much a no-name list at Rexall Place. You can't program the field, though. "For sentimental reasons, we'd like to have (Pat) Ryan because he's from Edmonton and (Guy) Hemmings because he's a crowd-pleaser and Russ Howard because he won the Brier in Edmonton in '87," said Brier organizing committee head of marketing Darwin Daviduk. "But we've got a guy, Shawn Adams, Here's a love affair that actually survives when who beat Brier champ Mark Dacey out in Nova Scotia. He'll be interesting to watch." Manitoba's Randy Dutiaume may not be a household name outside of St.

Vital in Winnipeg, but he used to curl with Ferbey's last-rock thrower Dave Nedohin 10 years ago. "He's a great shotmaker and he obviously was on fire to win there," said Nedohin, who played third for Arnold Asham with Dutiaume at second when they wonaWCT event in beat Ryan Fry 8-5 in the Manitoba final, For skaters Sale, Pelletier its always Valentines Day Romance begins at workfor lots of people, but the lives of few couples anywhere are as utterly and completely interlaced as those of figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. They skate together, train together, travel together from town to town on the Stars on Ice circuit luxury bus, socialize as a unit, take vacations together, talk to the media together, and on and on. Today, they'll be flying home together to Edmonton for a brief Valentine's Daybreak from the pro skating circuit And they're not even married, although that's coming sometime around next Christmas and New Year's, following their recent engagement. "We haven't been married, obviously, but being together almost 247 for five-and-a-half years now, it's like we've been together for 15 years almost," Sale said in a telephone interview from Grand Rapids, Mich, on the weekend.

"Being together so much, first of all, Dave and I both absolutely love being together. We have no problem spending spoiling a good story. Ryan's dad Barry won the Brier in 79 for Manitoba. Fry had knocked out former world champ Kerry Burtnyk to meet Dutiaume. The remaining field looks this way: In Ontario, Middaugh stole in the 10th end to beat Glenn Howard 8-7.

I In Saskatchewan, Simmons, a chiropractor by trade, beat Daryl Williamson 7-5 in an extra end to earn his first trip to a Brier. Quebec, Herrmungswasneverafac-tor as he failed to make the playoffs after the round-robin. Rising starJean- 1 that much time together. It's actually weird when we're not together. It's definitely different, but we also enjoy being together that much.

We're like best friends. So it's Valentine's Day all the time." Non-stop togetherness is not necessarily everyone's idea ofbliss, wedded or not. Lots of athletes find love, mind you, but even if they share the same sport, they rarely compete together. You think of cross-country skier Sara Renner and her beau, Thomas Grandi, the alpine skier. Baseball player Nomar Garciaparra and soccer superstar Mia Harnm.

Tennis stars Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf. LPGA Hall of Fame golfer Nancy Lopez and former baseball star Ray Knight Norma Shack, Eddie's wife, once star-ded an inquisitor by noting that a key reason she and the former Toronto Maple Leafs madcap tough guy had such a iilg fD KAISER. THE JOURNAL. FILE David Pelletierand Jamie Sale.