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OLDS -- It's always news in Alberta when a couple of rats get across the Saskatchewan border.
But when they get through the straw curtain and end up in the B-event final of the Boston Pizza Cup provincial curling championships against Randy Ferbey's iconic Edmonton outfit with a chance to go on and represent Alberta at the Brier, well ... If this was the U.S. they'd have to call in the FBI with the accused having crossed state lines.
As far as Ferbey was concerned it was Alberta vs. Saskatchewan here Friday night as he went against Warren Hassall's border-jumping stubble jumpers out of Lloydminster. And, as is usually the case with Alberta vs. Saskatchewan at the Brier recently, Alberta won.
It looked to be over before the, er, Albertans even had hammer. Ferbey stole one on the first end, two on the second and one more on the third to jump to a 4-0 lead en route to a far-more-difficult-than-it-needed-to-be 10-5 shake-hands-after-nine win over Hassall's border bunch.
For Ferbey, the win made the rematch of the A event final against Edmonton's Kevin Koe in tonight's 1-2 game of the Page playoff system in the 12-team triple knockout tournament.
Ferbey, who likes to poke the bear, was poking this one.
"How can you allow a team to curl in the Saskatchewan championships one year and the Alberta championships the next year?"
Probably even a better question came from Pfeifer.
"If you could play in the Saskatchewan championships, why would you want to choose Alberta?" he said of the province where nobody other than Kevin Martin and Ferbey teams have won the province so far this century, although Martin is at home holding Olympic press conferences and Kevin Koe beat Ferbey in the A-Event final here Thursday night.
One day it's possible for not only these Saskatchewan curlers to represent Alberta at the Brier but for a team from B.C. to represent the province as well. Fort Nelson, Fort St. John, Dawson Creek, Tumbler Ridge and Chetwynd are all members of the Peace Curling Association.
In 2002, Ferbey won the Alberta provincials which were actually held in Dawson Creek, B.C.
Hassall admits it's kind of a quirky logistical thing when it comes to his team of Barry Chwedoruk, Scott Manners and Chris Hassall.
"Barry and Chris live in Alberta," he said. "Scott and I live a mile on the Saskatchewan side of the border.
"Barry and Chris are Edmonton Eskimos fans and Scott and I are Saskatchewan Roughriders fans," said the curler who has twice before made it to the Alberta provincial championship, the first time with Don Walchuk and the season with Brent MacDonald, curling out of Edmonton.
"The curling club in Lloydminster is located on the Saskatchewan side of the border but is affiliated with Alberta, not Saskatchewan," he said.
"Last year we had Mike Jantzen on the team and he's from Saskatoon.
"So we had three guys who lived in Saskatchewan. This year we replaced him with Barry. He's from Lac La Biche, Alberta.
"We felt that made us more Alberta than Saskatchewan. We felt to apply to go out of Saskatchewan with a guy from Lac La Biche would be a bit of a stretch.
"Our intention right from the start of this year was to curl in Alberta."
CASH SPIELS
As it worked out, Hassall's team played most of the cash spiels in Alberta and qualified here directly.
"It's nice to be here curling with Randy Ferbey and Kevin Koe and to be playing well," said the skip who didn't make as much noise at the Saskatchewan championships last year in Tisdale as he's done here this year even in dropping down to the 'C' event to play James Pahl of Edmonton in Saturday's semi.
While Ferbey, who was coming off three straight extra-end games, was the focus of the evening it was Brent Bawel of Calgary who provided the highlight of the night.
Bawel cracked a tick-tick highly accidental seven ender in a 12-3 win over 56-year-old Ben Wilkinson of Whitecourt to set up the other semifinal against Rob Armitage of Red Deer.
A Saskatchewan team is still alive to win Alberta and a Calgary team scores a seven-ender to make it to Saturday. This is not your normal Alberta provincial curling championship.
TERRY.JONES@SUNMEDIA.CA