Calgary Herald from Calgary, Alberta, Canada • 13

The Calgary. Herald MONDAY, MARCH 15, 1976 SPORTS PAGE 13 BWilBS had the last lauah By Larry Wood (Herald staff writer) REGINA The 47th Brier which concluded here Saturday afternoon was no Newfie joke. They'll remember March 13th, 1976, as the day Newfoundland won the Brier and the joke was on everyone else. Particularly those who thought it would never happen. Jack- MacDuff and his young St.

John's teammates were supposed to be operating under extreme heat during that last round of the Brier but the Newfies applied more pressure than they appeared to be burdened with and won this renewal in a fashion befitting champions. I wr 1 i I 'I -it v- I "1 1 'v I I i 1 vO) I HI I 'MM J) JM i CONGRATULATIONS WERE IN ORDER FOR JACK MacDUFF the Brier champion's wife was handy for that sort of thing JACK MacDUFF WATCHED THE OTHERS FALL BY THE WAYSIDE the Newfoundland skipper takes it easy after routine victory And why not? MacDuffs the first Canadian champion from this precinct in memory. That's in anything. Most of Newfie's accolades are reserved for squid jiggers and clam collectors. But this triumph pointed up what's so revered about the curling game and about the Brier.

It's Canadian through and through and anybody who was a part of Saturday's rather touching closing ceremony has the picture. Only New Brunswick's Dave Sullivan and Northern Ontario's Rick Lang solved the Newfies last week and they did it early. On Monday to be precise. MacDuff was 2-2 at that point and it was his third victory Tuesday afternoon which he felt was the turning point. It was a collision with Quebec's Jim Ursel, who might have won this Brier except for a slow start, and MacDuff had to steal it with a super draw into a cluster of three Quebec stones which Ursel couldn't follow.

The Quebec skip had most of the odds in his favor with his last rock for three points but he found the only avenue that Newfie needed and he left MacDuffs rock shot and MacDuff a 6-4 winner. "I didn't want to see any more of him after that," recalled MacDuff. "We got off the hook there and it seemed to lift us. After that everything just fell into place." Yah, like pieces of a jigsaw. In their next three outings the Newfies got away winging early and were never headed.

They got a niiscue from Roger Anholt, who had a barrel of them saved for this Brier, and scraped past Saskatchewan. Then they pol-eaxed Howard Brazeau of the Territories and the Ontario lineup at a time Hal WALKER sports editor No team at the Brier has gained a faster grasp of how curling is supposed to be played than did MacDuff and friends last week. They benefitted from some coaching tips from their individual host, Sam Richardson, but Richardson wasn't around to throw the rocks. That assignment was left up to MacDuff, a 26-year-old air traffic controller; third Tobias McDonald, a 24-year-old lawyer; second Doug Hudson, ta 32-year-old employee relations service clerk; and 24-year-old lead Ken Templeton who is a chartered accountant. This unlikely group challenged Ontario's woeful entry in Round 13 Saturday and found Bob Char-lebois, the man with the last rocks, wanting.

It was a story that had already been written about Charle-bois earlier in the week. He had the answers only on rare occasion in this Brier and. he wilted along about the eighth end at the last gasp, fanning his last rock to allow MacDuff a free draw for a go-ahead deuce that was the beginning of the end of the Brier. Newfoundland ran away to a 9-4 decision leaving Manitoba's Clare DeB-londe, who needed a combination of his own victory and a Newfie defeat to force a sudden-death playoff, battling from behind for the runner-up silverware. And the Brier ended as it started last Sunday, waiting for DeBlonde.

He persevered in his own time and stole two in overtime to unsaddle Alf Romain of Nova Scotia 9-7, thereby crting a four-team traffic jam among the runner-up. But the story here, was Newfie, all about four guys who came equipped with a scheme to improve on the province's best-ever record of four wins, and found that once the wins started coming, they kept coming. MacDuff, an articulate guy who exudes class, won seven in a row to clinch this one and he beat everybody west of Thunder Bay, and with personnel who aren't the usual transplanted Westerners, but Atlantic-born. The skipper is a native of Halifax and there have been few better shooters in the Brier from that part of the world. The other members of this team are homebrews and you'd better believe they were bound for pedestals back home this week.

"I think they're going to throw the biggest parade Newfoundland's ever seen," MacDuff surmised amid the jubilation Saturday. statement after any Brier." Newfoundland curling will receive a booster shot from this effort, says Lester Bowering, a former Newfie Brier skip who was here last week as a Canadian Curling Association delegate. Bowering's Newfie accent is so thick he needs a translator but his eyes were shining when he hung up the long distance phone after a call home. "People who never heard of curling are whooping it up," he said. There are 1,400 registered male curlers in Newfoundland and the figure swells to close to 5,000 when you consider juniors, women and people who play in the mixed for social pleasure.

MacDuff drew a near-unanimous vote as the Brier's all-star skip while B.C.'s Bert Gretzinger topped the poll at third, Quebec's Don Aitken was the select second and B.C.'s Keiven Bauer, the Calgary kid who played with Wayne Sokolosky two years ago, won all-star rating at lead. Oh yes, and how about the Wayne Sokolosky rink? They finished up the track at 6 and 5 with four defeats in their last five games and their confidence somewhat shattered. "We played poorly in the game against Newfoundland," Soko recalled, "and we just didn't come out of it. I guess we were really down. We weren't the same team after that." Soko termed this Brier's ice as "too "There's no doubt it was great, but it was an equalizer.

Certainly not what you're used to seeing in an arena. Most of the teams here would have had big trouble on heavy ice. But it was anything but heavy and you don't hope for bad ice." Ursel won the Ross Har-stone Trophy as the curler combining gentlemanly conduct with talent. He was selected by his peers. Meanwhile, the local committee made it official that a new attendance record of 61,110 was set last week.

The figure represents the better-than-sell-out count of 4,365 per draw. For the first time in Br5 er history, there were no rush tickets sold. All were in the form of books covering the 14 draws. So it's on to the Silver Broom in Duluth. next week for the Newfies and the question, of course is whether or not this unheralded team can succeed where people like Harvey Mazinke, Hec Gervais and Bill Tetley have failed the past three years.

"We haven't had much chance to think about the world championship." said Jack The Skipper, "all we can do is give it our best shot." Lead on MacDuff. B--ft? SERVICE DEPT. SPEC IALS JW1 4W HP PL when many observers figured they were due to contract a case of the yips. But you don't get the yips in the air traffic control business and this may have been MacDuffs ace in the hole. Another was the fact that Newfie won the opening flip of the coin eight times in 11 tries.

"They'd never, heard of the double corner guard before," Sam Richardson, the four-time world champion second man, was saying later. "But they used the strategy to beat a few of these teams." "These kids just had a super week," he added. "If they ran through this thing again next week the result probably would be different. But you can make that So come on home, Larry, all is forgiven here, but I'm not so sure that the St. John's Evening Telegram and the Daily News won't be according you something other than special treatment for downgrading their athletes, and I can just visualize Howie Meeker and Bob Cole oiling their tonsils for a blast at "mainland" thinking.

Cole, who twice skipped rinks from Newfoundland to the Brier and came away a loser, seemed to be having trouble concentrating on broadcasting the Boston-Montreal hockey game in Montreal on Saturday night. His thoughts seemed to be in Regina. This was the greatest thing that could happen to the Brier, the myth that only stanemen from Western Canada could collect the silverware at will, finally, and conclusively, destroyed. It was no fluke that Mac-Duff led on his unwavering helpers. His rink did it with some cool, precise shotmaking against Ontario and MacDuffs estate as a curler was manifest in him being selected skip of the Brier all-star team by writers and broadcasters covering the colorful Regina show.

MacDuff has changed everything around now and Canada seems to have a very able champion to throw against world curlers in the Silver Broom in two weeks time in Duluth, Minn. Accepting big challenges doesn't seem to phase the 25-year-old MacDuff. In his workaday job as an air controller in Newfoundland he has probably had to deal with some tacky situations in reading aircraft to the ground in the unpredictable weather which haunts that part of Canada. It was the coolness of the Newfoundland rink which impressed me as the story unfolded on television. If a Newfie player missed a shot, his teammates would give him a reassuring tap on the butt with their brooms, instead of avoiding him as if he had acne.

It was their ability to regroup after a losing end which illustrated this as a full team effort. So a tip of the western hat to some fine young men from Newfoundland who proved beyond, any doubt that they were deserving winners of our top curling prize, the Brier. Joey Smallwood will be very proud of you, I'm surd. To begin with, let me explain that my wife thinks that curling is something you do to your hair. But I was totally unprepared for her analysis of Jack Anderson MacDuffs Newfoundland rink winning the Brier in Regina on Saturday afternoon.

"You know," she know-ed, "this will be a big boon to the pet rock business." "Eh." "The pet rock business will get a big sales impetus in Newfoundland. When those fellows get home to St. Johns they can break up their rocks and sell parts as pets to all the people who want special souvenirs of the occasion." I stumbled blindly from the room, but when I regained my composure (and I'm not sure I have yet) I patiently explained to the Supreme Commander that curlers were not expected to carry rocks from bons-piel to bonspiel and that the blasted things were 40 pounds of granite, with two extra pounds of weight on the handles. And besides the rocks they used to win the Canadian championship didn't belong to them, anyway. The stones belonged to the Regina Curling Club, I explained, and while they are nice fellows and all that, they were not about to let their pet rocks move to Newfoundland.

And besides, I suspected young Mr. Mac-Duff and his friends were more concerned with having a couple of pints and a few swallows of Screech, the national drink of Newfoundland. "I still think it would be a good idea" my wife insisted stubbornly, and the pet rocks died right there. Along with woman's sometimes very suspect logic. But no question, the amazing conquest of the Newfoundland four in Canada's most prestigious curling event, ranks as Canada's sports story of the year.

They weren't given a chance by anybody, especially our man Larry Wood who booked their chances of winning at 100 to 1 in a pre-Brier assessment story. I'm afraid that some people harbor the notion that they are still using Irons to curl out there on the Island in the Atlantic because In average performance over the years Newfoundland rinks have won two gamesh ave never gone higher than four wins in the Brier. "1 mJSh mJ mmmmH Lai aj nil SPECIAL PARTS Here's how AND LABOUR INCLUDED For most Canadian American car Front Disc Brakes 14.88 extra includes: OFFER EXPIRES MARCH 20,1976 Premium bonded linings installed on all 4 wheels Check all wheel cylinders, springs and hoses Lubricate and clean brake backing plates Measure and inspect all drums for trueness BRAKE DRUM RESURFACING EACH EXTRA OIL CHANGE-FILTER -LUBRICATION Includes up to 4 quarts of a "national brand" multigrada oil, replacement oil they scored ROUND THIRTEEN Quebec 200 111 001 OLX -7 (Ursel 72, Lobel 72, Aitken 81, Ross 83) Alberta 010 000 000 10X -2 (Sokolosky 50, Morlssette 56, Cottam 68, Wylie 72) The Sokolosky rink scored 18 clean misses in this 11-end affair that brought the Brier to a sad end as far as Alberta was concerned. The Calgary team failed to execute a complete shot In the first end and Ursel was out in front for good with a deuce. It was pretty dismal thereafter.

P.E.I 010 010 000 102 0 -5 Territories 100 101 020 000 1 -6 New Brunswick 100 000 110 013 -7 N. Ontario 010 011 001 000 -4 Nova Scotia 110 001 030 010 0 -7 Manitoba 001 010 102 002 2 -9 Newfoundland 101 001 021 30X -9 Ontario 000 100 200 01X -4 Byes: B.C., Saskatchewan. FINAL STANDINGS Newfoundland 9 2 Manitoba 8 3 Quebec 7 4 B.C. 7 4 New Brunswick 7 4 Alberta 6 5 N. Ontario 5 6 Territories 5 6 Nova Scotia 4 7 Saskatchewan 3 8 Ontario 3 8 P.E.I.

2 9 Tiuer ana cnassis luuricmion. SQ.44 Ontario couple wins world junior pairs competition SPECIAL SEALED UNITS EXTRA You can put your trust In Auto Centres with the silver going to David Dagnell and Denise Best. Third and fourth places were taken by French couples. The women's title was won by American Suzle Brascher who brushed aside her final challenger, Garnet Oslermaier of West Germany, with a brilliant display In the final long program. 128.no points, beating Lor-ene and Donald Mitchell of the United States who had 1(1 and 121.1)1.

Elizabeth and Peter Cain of Australia won the bronze medal with 33 and ll.ti7. Earlier, British skaters swept the top two places in dance competition. The Rold medal was won comfortably by Nicholas Slater and Kat hryn Winter MEGEVE, France (Router) Sherry Baler of Mitchell, and Robin Cowan of Waterloo, won the puirs title Saturday at the world junior figure skating championships. The Ontario couple, who hud led the competition after the compulsory short program, won the froo dka-ting and finished with an ordinals total of 11 and We're car people. 10233-Elbow Drive S.W.

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