Bryden, Ford Johnston leading Canadian rinks into curling playoffs

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Randy Bryden’s Regina-based men’s team, representing Canada, won its fifth straight round-robin game Wednesday and qualified for the World Senior Curling Championship quarter-finals in Fredericton.

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Atina Ford Johnston, who is from Gray and grew up curling in Regina before moving to Alberta, is skipping the Canadian senior women’s champions, who have also qualified for the playoffs in Fredericton.

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Skipping a rink that includes teammates Troy Robinson, Russ Bryden (Randy’s brother) and Chris Semenchuck, Bryden defeated Ireland’s Bill Gray 9-4 in seven ends Wednesday to clinch its playoff berth.

“We were curling the same time as Atina,” said Randy Bryden, who saw the women’s team beat New Zealand 13-1.

“We’ve got lots of fans here and so does Atina. So all the Canadian fans were out at the same time, wearing red hoodies and cheering for us. Atina looked really tough out there.”

Bryden’s team has a final round-robin game slated for Thursday afternoon against Bob Bomas of the Netherlands before first-round playoffs were scheduled to begin Thursday night.

“Germany looks tough and we beat England, another good team,” said Bryden. “A medal would be great but it’s gonna be a tough battle.”

Russ and Randy Bryden were teammates on a rink that won a Canadian mixed championship in 1996. Randy’s son, Josh Bryden, skipped the University of Regina men’s rink to last year’s U Sports championship and qualified for the recent FISU Games in Italy, where the team placed fourth.

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Thirty-one countries were represented in the men’s event, including Nigeria, Israel, Spain and the Philippines. They were split into five pools (four of six teams; one of seven teams), with the top two finishers in each plus two third-place wildcards qualifying for the playoffs. Canada’s seven-team pool also included Portugal and Belgium, countries that also aren’t known as curling hotbeds.

“It’s a neat thing after the games,” said Bryden. “We meet the other teams and they share their stories, what they’ve gone through to play. They play because they love the game. The team we just played, all their guys were in their 60s and one guy was 76.”

Because Canada had the best last-shot draw totals, it received one of four byes into the men’s quarter-finals Friday afternoon. Canada will play one of four winners from the qualifying round. Semifinals are scheduled for Friday evening, with the gold- and bronze-medal matches slated for Saturday morning.

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Only eight of 16 women’s teams qualify for the single-knockout playoffs. The women’s teams were divided into pools of five, five and six, with each of the top two finishers plus two wildcard teams advancing to Friday’s quarter-finals. Semifinals were planned for Friday night with the medal games scheduled for Saturday.

Ford Johnston won a Canadian junior women’s title in 1990 as skip, representing Saskatchewan, and was the alternate for Sandra Schmirler’s team that won the 1997 world championship and 1998 Olympics while playing out of Regina, the Queen City.

The Canadian women made the playoffs by winning their first four games; they have a final round-robin game slated for Thursday before beginning playoffs Friday morning.

The reigning national senior men’s and women’s champions were crowned following Curling Canada championships Dec. 7 in Moncton, giving them more than four months to prepare for the world championships.

“We hadn’t played for a month, so we started pretty conservatively,” said Bryden. “There’s lots of curl (in the ice), which is great, and we’ve been playing pretty well. It’s a tough draw and it’s tough competition.”

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Canadian men’s teams have won the last six senior championships and Canada’s women’s teams have won the last three. Paul Flemming of Halifax and Susan Froud of Alliston, Ont., were the respective winners last year in Sweden.

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