After watching Cheryl Bernard from Calgary win the Ford Hot Shots on Saturday and a two-year lease on a Ford Flex, curling fans have the same opportunity with an on-line version of the game at FordHotShots.curling.ca
The eventual winner will also receive a two-year lease on a 2009 Ford Flex.
The contest closes on March 31 and the top two players will receive an all expenses paid trip to the 2009 Ford World Men's Curling Championship in Moncton, N.B. They will then compete, online, in a one-game showdown on April 10 for the two-year lease. To date, more than 400,000 games have been played.
COACHES WITH A PAST: Rick Lang, the coach of Ontario's Krista McCarville from Thunder Bay and Bob Miller from Shellbrook, Sask., played against each other at the 1985 Tim Hortons Brier in Moncton. Lang, playing third for Al Hackner, won that Brier, beating Pat Ryan from Alberta in the final.
Miller is the coach for Team Saskatchewan (his daughters Stefanie Lawton and Marliese Kasner play on the team) but he stayed at home because his wife Linda has health problems.
VOLUNTEER SPIRIT: Noreen Wills and her husband came to the Scotties to be part of the event and volunteer.
"Our options this year were the Brier in Calgary or the Scotties here,'' Wills said. "We chose the Scotties because of the weather in Victoria. When we left home [Pickering, Ont.], we were expecting another 10 to 15 centimetres of snow and it was cold. For us it is just fun to be part of the Scotties. We volunteered at the last Brier in Hamilton and we are thinking about doing it against next year in Halifax.''
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Julie Skinner and Cheryl Noble from the Scotties organizing committee, presented TSN commentator Linda Moore with a birthday cake during the fifth-end break yesterday afternoon. Moore is 55.
CONNIE'S IN THE HOUSE: Three-time Canadian women's champion and 1984 world winner Connie Laliberte is at the Scotties as the high-performance director for the Manitoba Curling Association.
In 1992, Laliberte won the Canadian title with Cathy Gauthier and Janet Arnott against Victoria's Julie Sutton (now Skinner), sister Jodie Sutton (Green), Melissa Soligo and Karri Willms.
Gauthier is a commentator for TSN and Arnott is Team ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½'s coach.
