If Jason Montgomery and his team feel at all nervous in their debut at the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Men's Canadian Direct Insurance Curling Championship today in Maple Ridge, expect to see plenty of rocks in the house. The Victoria team feels more comfortable that way.
"We play a little more aggressive than lots of competitive teams, but I think it makes it more interesting," the 26-year-old skip said. "If we don't get rocks in play, we usually aren't as effective."
The Montgomery squad, with third Miles Craig, second Gregg Danderfer, and lead Will Duggan, is among 10 teams beginning round-robin play in the provincial playdown today at the Golden Ears Winter Club. The event winds up on Sunday, when the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ champion will win a Purple Heart and a trip to the Tim Hortons Brier, March 7-15 in Calgary.
The only Vancouver Island squad to qualify for the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ championship 'spiel, Montgomery opens against former world champion Greg McAulay of Richmond. McAulay, by virtue of his national points ranking, and defending champion Bob Ursel of Kelowna, both had byes and didn't have to qualify through regional playdowns. Although McAulay has been competing seriously on the World Curling Tour this season, the Montgomery rink isn't particularly fazed by the challenge.
"We've played him a bunch of times, and we've beat him a bunch of times," said Duggan, who was 13 years old and Montgomery 14 when they first teamed up. Craig, 24, was on board for Montgomery's ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Junior Championship in 2003, and Danderfer, the senior member of the team at 32, joined three years ago.
"A big thing is the fact we're kind of going [into the provincials] under the radar. There's not a lot of pressure."
Montgomery has been in the mix in cashspiels and playdowns for several years, but he found out making the transition from the junior level to men's wasn't as easy as he expected. It took a while to build up a bank of experience, including four appearances at the Coastal Championship.
"You learn when to take your chances, and when to bail," Montgomery said.
A bit of a risk-taker, Montgomery thinks he has the team to do both these days.
He considers Duggan to be one of the best sweepers in the province, and someone Montgomery relies on to judge draw weight, while Craig usually has the same mindset as his skip when it comes to shot-making and strategy. Danderfer, at second, is the hitter. During the Coasts, where the team qualified out of the last-chance C-Event, Montgomery was in trouble a couple of times, but Danderfer made run-back doubles to turn the ends around.
And as far as last rocks, Duggan said Montgomery is much calmer than he used to be throwing those pressure shots.
"Before he'd get more upset with missed shots. Now it just rolls off his back," Duggan said. "Jason's a pretty good clutch thrower when it really matters."
"Playing with lots of rocks in play is risky, but we get lots of opportunity, too."
Other teams include Rick Folk and Jeff Richard of Kelowna, Vernon's Tyrel Griffith, Dennis Graber of Kamloops, and Royal City teams Sean Geall, Jay Peachey, and Bryan Miki. Draws are at noon and 7 p.m. today through Thursday, and the round robin winds up Friday morning. The Page playoffs begin Friday night. Fans can follow live scoring on www.playdowns.com.
