EDITOR’S NOTE: Having already spent a couple of afternoons on the ice in Morris, I am ready for summer to be over and curling season to begin. I see Jordon McDonald and his team have had a good start in Edmonton – reaching today’s championship round and I’m hunting for details on the performance of four Manitoba teams at the Canada 55+ Sr Games in Quebec. And I’m ready to start talking/writing about curling again. Looking forward to a great season ahead – GOOD LUCK & GOOD CURLING TO ALL OF YOU!!!!

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Eleven teams from the United States and nine from Canada will be playing this weekend in the international Icebreaker bonspiel at CurlMorris.

While Club Manager Gabriel Brandt would have been happier with an even split, the 11-9 ratio “is close enough”. The 10-team Women’s event is even at 5 & 5 while six teams will visit from the USA in the Men’s event.

They’ll be playing for first prize money of $1,800 (CDN) in the two events but Brandt says last year’s experiment with a “Playing for the Flag” concept was so popular that it has been brought back and enhanced.

Across the two events, there will be a total of 24 games played between a Canadian and an American team. Simply explained, each win gets marked on the scoreboard with a Canadian OR US flag – and the country that gets to 13 wins first will be declared the international Icebreaker champion nation for this year.

Last year, Brandt says, the bragging rights were on the line right to the final game of the round robin preliminary round when the Canadian team defeated the visitors.

“It’s just a fun idea,” he says, “but we know from watching the Olympics how proud people are to compete fort heir flag and to support the rest of their national team.”

Play starts Friday at 3PM in Morris with games Friday evening and all-day Saturday. Three playoff rounds start at 9AM on Sunday.

On the men’s side, the US teams hail from Colorado (Sobering), Wisconsin (Hebert, Kadlec), Minnesota (Sampson, Sinnett) and North Dakota (Hodek). They’ll take on Manitoba teams skipped by Hayden Forrester, Sean Grassie, Zach Norris and Riley Smith.

The US women will be coming to Morris from Illinois (Hagenbuch), Minnesota (Giroux, Johnson), and North Dakota (McMakin, Workin). They play against Canadian teams from Alberta (Skrlik), Saskatchewan (Thevenot) and Manitoba (Cameron, Hayward, Watling).

With 24 round-robin games, the possibility exists for an even 12-12 split in the results. Not wanting to push the flag-waving over into the playoff round, the committee has decided to start the American side with a one-win advantage – “simply Canadian hospitality,” Brandt explains.