St. Thomas skins event rocks
By MORRIS DALLA COSTA -- London Free Press
Top teams, television and lots of loot.
St. Thomas scores big again when the 2003 women's skins game is held at St. Thomas Curling Club Dec.13-14.
This has been a somewhat quiet event so far.
But the closer it gets the more that will change. St. Thomas residents are known for supporting whatever comes their way, especially curling and softball, and with some of the best teams on the planet coming to the city to compete, that probably won't change.
It's a four-team event with $100,000 at stake, the first time women have played for a six-figure purse.
Colleen Jones, four-time Canadian champion, will be there with her defending Canadian championship rink. The United States world championship rink, skipped by Debbie McCormick, will participate.
Sherry Middaugh will lead her Canada Cup and money-leading tournament rink in the event. The fourth rink comes from Calgary. Renelle Bryden qualified with a win at the JVC women's cashspiel in Winnipeg.
Kelly Law is the defending champion and normally would be back but won't be competing because both she and teammate Julie Skinner are pregnant.
Skins games are a different kind of competition. In a regular event, consistency over a week-long period is required to be successful. If you play badly in one game, you have a chance to recover as the week goes on.
In a skins competition, there's money riding on every shot. Skins events usually attract high-profile shooters and with only three games in the schedule and lots of money on the table, every shot is a big one.
The events are flashy, exciting, profitable, quick, the players are well-known even to non-fans and it's spectator-friendly. As a result, skins competitions are ideal made-for-television events.
"St. Thomas has put on successful events in the past when it comes to curling," said Peter Inch, vice-chair of the event. The chair is Olympic curling team coach Jim Waite of St. Thomas. "This is another chance for St. Thomas to show they can stage another big event."
There will be morning and afternoon semifinals Saturday, Dec. 13, with teams banking the most dough meeting the next day in the final.
"One semifinal will have Jones against McCormick. That's a rematch of last year's final at the world championship," Inch said. "There is a real revenge factor going on."
Facing two Jones stones and leading by one, McCormick hit and stayed with her final rock to win 5-3.
TSN will televise all three games. With only one sheet in operation, bleachers will be set up on the other sheets. Spectators will be right on top of the play.
The $75 VIP ticket package has been sold out. Only half of the 700 on-ice bleacher seats at $40 a three-game package are still available. Individual game tickets have not yet gone on sale. Tickets are available through the website at www.2003skins.com, at Roy Inch and Sons on Wellington Road south of Southdale Road and at Highland Golf and Country Club.
Top-level curling is nothing new to St. Thomas. It recently staged the Southwestern Ontario Charity Cashspiel and the Canadian senior curling championship, both drawing big crowds.
The fans come first in this event. Spectators purchasing on-ice tickets will have access to the on-ice village where food and refreshment booths will be set up. All the teams will be available at times for autograph and photo sessions.
A lot of sports and athletes could learn something from curling.
"Even though they are playing for $100,000, you can get a picture taken with the best women's rink in the world. It's quite a souvenir," Inch said. "They did an autograph session at the Scott Tournament of Hearts. We told all the rinks that they had to give something a little more to the fans and they didn't have a problem with that."
Yet another event, as they say in curling, that managed to draw to the button.
