By Kyle Rooks
The renamed Welton Beauchamp curling championship is coming to Ottawa Nov. 9-12.
The tournament, now called Cowan Wright Beauchamp, along with many other Canadian bonspiels found itself in hot water with the World Curling Tour (WCT) sanctioning body this past summer.
In May, the WCT, in association with the World Curling Player’s Association (WCPA), rocked the Canadian curling world by announcing plans for the Grand Slam of Curling, consisting of four events, with a total purse of $450,000.
The WCPA-sanctioned Grand Slam is their way of capitalizing on dissatisfied players’ resentment towards their meagre share of the Brier profits, as well as the Canadian Curling Association (CCA)’s refusal to let players don sponsors’ crests during broadcast tournaments, like the Provincial play-downs and the Brier.
Chad McMullan, executive director of the WCT, says these changes have been a long time coming.
“Something had to be done,” he says. “Why would they bend over or give into anything that anyone was asking, when they control everything?”
The WCPA went after 1998 world champion Wayne Middaugh and other top 20 curlers in the country getting them to sign a contract which, while inking them for the Grand Slam of Curling, in effect prohibits them from playing in their respective provincial play-downs or the Brier, both CCA events.
Most of the teams followed suit before the imposed deadline, except for four. Among the hold-outs was Ottawa-native John Morris, a two-time world junior champion, and previous member of the Ottawa Curling Club.
The WCPA initially threatened to ban the four renegade teams from all Canadian WCT events this year, as well as withdrawing support to events that allowed them to participate. However, Danny Lamoureux, tournament chairperson, says bad press and backlash from bonspiels like the Cowan Wright Beauchamp, forced the WCT to delay the restrictions until Jan.1, 2002.
“They were trying to tell us who we could and couldn’t let in the tournament,” says Lamoureux. “We have some of both (signed and unsigned) in our field, we didn’t want to get caught in any cross-fire.”
“We just want to run our event and give out money,” he says.
Morris says the WCPA’s Grand Slam would make it easier to make a living off of the sport. He didn’t sign with the WCT because of his desire to play in the Brier.
“I’ve grown up watching the Brier and it’s always been the pinnacle of curling for me,” says Morris. “That’s our number one priority.”
Dave Parkes, chief executive officer for the CCA, says the new format could definitely be beneficial to curling in this country, “as long as it was done co-operatively with us and with others who run events in the country.”
Lamoureux assures the fans it’s business as usual despite all the controversy and change in sponsorship, the third since its inception in 1989.
He says the new sponsor, resulting from the July 2001 merging of Welton Beauchamp Nixon Inc. and the Waterloo-based Cowan Wright Insurance Group, will see the tournament stay in Ottawa through 2005.
The tournament will be held at five local rinks, including the Ottawa and the Rideau Curling Clubs, in Centretown. The 64 men’s, 42 women’s and 32 senior teams will battle for $175,000 in total prize money.
Lamoureux says the Beauchamp, a regional qualifier for the 2002 Nokia Brier as well as a berth in the Olympic trials, is a compilation of all the good qualities the organizers have seen in other tournaments throughout the country.
“We took the best things that all the bonspiels did and try to put them into one,” says Lamoureux.
This year’s field, comprised of top Canadian and International teams, includes current WCT leading money winner Middaugh, 1989 and ‘92 Beauchamp winner Anne Merklinger out of the Ottawa Curling Club and 1997 winner Richard Moffatt, who curls out of the Rideau Curling Club.
“They beat down our doors with a stick to get in so we must be doing something right,” says Lamoureux.