1979 Macdonald Brier
1979 Macdonald Brier | |
---|---|
Host city | Ottawa |
Arena | Ottawa Civic Centre |
Dates | March 4–10[1] |
Attendance | 89,081 |
Winner | ![]() |
Curling club | Deer Lodge CC, Winnipeg |
Skip | Barry Fry |
Third | Bill Carey |
Second | Gordon Sparkes |
Lead | Bryan Wood |
Finalist | ![]() ![]() |
« 1978 1980 » |
The 1979 Macdonald Brier, Canada's national men's curling championship was held from March 4 to 10 at the Ottawa Civic Centre in Ottawa.
Manitoba's Barry Fry won his only Brier title of his career. He clinched the Brier title following the Friday night (March 9) draw. The rink which also included Bill Carey, Gordon Sparkes and Bryan Wood would go on to represent Canada at the 1979 Air Canada Silver Broom, the World Curling Championships.
It would be the last Brier under the sponsorship of Macdonald Tobacco. This marked an end of an era, as Macdonald Tobacco had sponsored the event since the first Brier in 1927. Following the final draw, the head of Macdonald Tobacco, David Macdonald Stewart declared "[f]or half a century, Macdonald Tobacoo has followed an idea ... a dream to ... bring together Canadians, from all parts of the country and all walks of life, in a national sporting event. Curling was the ideal sport. It's been a wonderful experience. We've now seen the final chapter in 50 years of Canadian history". To commemorate the end of the Macdonald era, every living Brier champion skip at the time were invited to attend the Brier, and had their picture taken together. The lone surviving curler from the 1927 Brier, Emmet Smith (Northern Ontario) was also invited.[2] The group of skips gathered before the final draw of the event for a special ceremony.[3]
The event was also the last Brier without a playoff following the round robin. The final attendance of the event was 89,081 which was a Brier record at the time.[4] 7000 people witnessed the final draw on March 10, despite the matches being meaningless to the outcome of the event.
The event was marred with slow ice conditions and bad rocks,[5] which were borrowed from a local curling club. The rocks were mismatched and pitted which "reduced shotmaking to a guessing game."[6] Part way through the week, organizers asked for the teams to vote on changing the rocks. The teams that favoured hitting, including the leading Manitoba rink opposed changing the rocks, as the mismatched rocks made draw shots more difficult than hit shots.[7]
Teams
Round robin standings
Key | |
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Brier champion |
Province | Skip | W | L |
---|---|---|---|
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Barry Fry | 10 | 1 |
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Rick Folk | 8 | 3 |
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Larry Pineau | 8 | 3 |
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Bob Fedosa | 6 | 5 |
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Wayne Matheson | 6 | 5 |
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Paul Devlin | 6 | 5 |
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Jim Ursel | 5 | 6 |
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Glen Pierce | 5 | 6 |
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Alan Darragh | 4 | 7 |
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Richard Belyea | 3 | 8 |
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Jeff Thomas | 3 | 8 |
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Don Strang | 2 | 9 |
Round robin results
March 4
- Draw 1
Ontario 6-5
Prince Edward Island
British Columbia 5-3
New Brunswick
Alberta 8-6
Nova Scotia
Manitoba 6-5
Northwest Territories/Yukon
Quebec 8-2
Newfoundland
- Draw 2
Manitoba 8-6
British Columbia
Prince Edward Island 6-3
Alberta
Saskatchewan 7-1
Northern Ontario
Ontario 6-3
Nova Scotia
New Brunswick 4-3
Northwest Territories/Yukon
March 5
- Draw 3
Nova Scotia 5-3
Northern Ontario
Quebec 10-3
British Columbia
Manitoba 6-5
Newfoundland
- Draw 4
Alberta 6-3
New Brunswick
Northwest Territories/Yukon 10-3
Ontario
Prince Edward Island 9-3
Saskatchewan
- Draw 5
Quebec 7-3
Nova Scotia
Saskatchewan 5-3
Northwest Territories/Yukon
Newfoundland 9-4
Prince Edward Island
Northern Ontario 7-5
New Brunswick
Ontario 8-4
Alberta
March 6
- Draw 6
Northern Ontario 5-3
Northwest Territories/Yukon
Newfoundland 11-3
Nova Scotia
Quebec 5-4
Ontario
Saskatchewan 7-6
British Columbia
Manitoba 10-1
New Brunswick
- Draw 7
Alberta 7-5
Newfoundland
Manitoba 10-3
Northern Ontario
Saskatchewan 8-6
New Brunswick
Prince Edward Island 10-3
Quebec
British Columbia 7-6
Northwest Territories/Yukon
March 7
- Draw 8
Saskatchewan 7-3
Manitoba
Alberta 8-3
Quebec
Northern Ontario 5-3
British Columbia
Ontario 5-4
Newfoundland
Prince Edward Island 8-3
Nova Scotia
- Draw 9
Northern Ontario 7-4
Prince Edward Island
Ontario 5-3
New Brunswick
Northwest Territories/Yukon 7-4
Nova Scotia
British Columbia 5-4
Alberta
Saskatchewan 8-5
Quebec
March 8
- Draw 10
Nova Scotia 12-3
New Brunswick
Saskatchewan 8-4
Newfoundland
Manitoba 4-2
Ontario
Prince Edward Island 6-3
Northwest Territories/Yukon
Northern Ontario 10-3
Alberta
- Draw 11
Alberta 10-7
Saskatchewan
Manitoba 5-3
Nova Scotia
British Columbia 8-5
Newfoundland
Northern Ontario 6-5
Quebec
Prince Edward Island 8-3
New Brunswick
March 9
- Draw 12
Newfoundland 11-4
Northwest Territories/Yukon
Northern Ontario 6-4
Ontario
New Brunswick 5-3
Quebec
Manitoba 5-3
Alberta
Nova Scotia 9-6
British Columbia
- Draw 13
Ontario 9-7
British Columbia
Quebec 10-6
Northwest Territories/Yukon
Manitoba 4-3
Prince Edward Island
Nova Scotia 8-7
Saskatchewan
Northern Ontario 10-5
Newfoundland
March 10
- Draw 14
Manitoba 7-2
Quebec
British Columbia 5-4
Prince Edward Island
Alberta 6-4
Northwest Territories/Yukon
New Brunswick 8-2
Newfoundland
Saskatchewan 7-4
Ontario
References
- ^ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=QBJtjoHflPwC&dat=19790306&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
- ^ Weeks, pg 153
- ^ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19790310&id=_IgxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9qEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4394,1918174
- ^ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=QBJtjoHflPwC&dat=19790312&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
- ^ Ottawa Citizen, March 6, 1979, pg 19
- ^ "The Brier", Bob Weeks, pg 158
- ^ Weeks