Catching up with Northern Ontario Curling Executive Director Laura Forget

With the provincial championships in full swing, Sean catches up with Northern Ontario Curling Association Executive Director Laura Forget. They discuss the role of executive directors for member associations, how provincial championships are put together, and the challenges of streaming provincials. They also chat about some of the financial challenges facing member associations, how the associations work together, and the challenges facing recreational curling in Northern Ontario.

You can stream the Northern Ontario provincials here.

Sean and Scott are doing play-by-play on Saturday January 26 for the qualifying games at the 2025 Over the Rainbow bonspiel at the Ottawa Curling Club. Streaming starts at noon ET on Saturday and the guys are doing the games at 2:00 and 4:30. Check our socials for links to the stream.

For more, visit us at GameofStonesPod.com

2025 Bold Predictions

It's time for one our favourite annual traditions as we go around the world of curling and offer up some bold predictions for 2025. From Olympic qualifying to broom foam density, there's a lot going on in the sport that will shape how the year plays out. Let us know if you agree with our predictions and what you think will happen this year.

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2025 Off to a Hot Start! Trials, Lineup Changes, & a Draft

We are kicking off 2025 with a roundup of what has been a very busy time in the world of curling. Sean and Scott start by talking about the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials that wrapped up on the weekend, including what happened in the final, before getting into the most recent major lineup shuffle with Teams Carey and Einarson and the implications for both squads. They then discuss the draft that the Grand Slam held to determine the pools at next week's event in Guelph, ON before wrapping up with some streaming and world curling announcements.

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5 Things to Watch at the Canadian Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials

With just over 13 months until the 2026 Olympics, the Canadian Mixed Doubles Trials kicks off Monday in Liverpool, NS and Sean and Scott are here to highlight some of the things to keep an eye on over the course of the week. From the strength of the two pools to the weather, they discuss some of the factors that could determine who is standing at the top of the podium at the end of the week.

Check out our full discussion of the Powerplay here.

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4th Annual Stoney Awards

It's a tradition like no other! Sean and Scott are back to go through the best in the world of curling from 2024. They go through 10 categories giving out awards for everything from Biggest Oddity to Best Team. Who would you award a prestigious Stoney Award to for 2024?

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Euros Recaps & News Update

With the 2024 European Curling Championship in the rearview mirror, Sean and Scott look back on the week that was in Lohja, Finland.  They talk about a surprising win for  the German men, the continued dominance of the Swiss women, and who struggled during the week. They then discuss the other news in the world of curling, including a new event from Curling Ontario, the Candian Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials Qualifier, and the Canadian Club Championship.

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Nearly Live from a 1-Day Bonspiel

Come along with Sean and Scott as they play in the 2024 Rideau Curling Club 1-day Oktoberfest Bonspiel. With a 6-person team, they take you through the day as they play 2 games, comment on the third, and talk about the pros and cons of the 1-day format.

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European Championship Preview

It's time for the 2024 European Curling Championship! Ryan from Rocks Across the Pond joins Sean and Scott for the 5th Annual Bad Beer Bet! They go through the fields for both the A & B events before giving their picks for who will win, who will get relegated, and who will be promoted. For more, join us at GameofStonesPod.com

A New Roster Trend?

The guys are back to talk about another week of bombshell news in the world of curling. They talk about Brendan Bottcher joining Team Gushue as second and what that will look like on the ice. They then chat about whether this is part of a larger trend in the sport and what that means for elite-level curling moving forward.

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What's the Value of Streaming & In-Season Lineup Changes

Sean and Scott chat about last weekend's Grand Slam before talking about the state of streaming in the world of curling, including the World Curling Federation's new season pass. They debate the value of streaming games and whether it's a good idea to keep all games behind a paywall. They then discuss a couple of big - and rare - in-season lineup changes for Teams Koe and Gushue and chat about what this trend could mean for the sport moving forward.

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Curling for Beginners and Improvers

This week the guys are joined by John Robertson, author of Curling for Beginners and Improvers. John talks about his passion for the sport, why he wanted to write a book for new players, and the best way to introduce people to curling. John also talks about some of the key topics in the book, including best ways to practice, introducing the rules, introducing strategy, and keeping up with pace of play.

Following the discussion with John, Sean and Scott talk about the PointsBet and this week's return of the Grand Slam as well as some of the new branding we're seeing in the world of curling.

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Schedule Watch 2024

The 2024-25 season is underway and the guys are back with their annual look at how teams are setting up their schedules. They look at a couple of the top Canadian teams, some of the best international teams, and a couple of the 'middle class' and up-and-comers to see which events are being targeted and how teams are managing travel. They wrap up by talking about some of the early season results along with the other news from the world of curling (44:10).

For more, visit us at GameofStonesPod.com

Summer Q&A

This week we take a couple questions from the listeners before checking out what's being asked over on the curling sub-reddit. From new schedules to best positions to how to improve your club, we offer up our answers to these questions.

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Improving Engagement at the Rec Level

This week, Curl ON Executive Director Matt Allen joins the show to talk about his Engagement Tour Report (which you can read here). After spending more than 200 hours meeting with curlers and clubs across the province, Matt's report outlines ideas to increase engagement at the local level and proposes strategies to get more people playing the sport. From improving the online presence to attracting new and young curlers to adopting new business models, the report lays out a number of ideas to keep the sport strong at the grassroots. Do you think that these ideas will help increase engagement at the rec level?

For more, visit us at GameofStonesPod.com

Curling Trivia

Everyone loves a good trivia game, so this week Sean gives Scott some trivia questions related to the Scotties and Brier. Play along and see if you can beat Scott! If you do, be sure to let us know!

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We Sponsored a Team! How'd it go?

This week Sean talks with the skip of Team Davies, Zach Davies. You may remember that we sponsored a team for the 2023-24 season, so we wanted to catch up with everything that happened over the winter. Zach talks about the challenge of skipping his team while also playing front end for the Canadian Junior Men's team, how the team improved over the season, and some of the highlights they experienced along the way - including some surprising road trip music choices.

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Summer News Update

It's been a while since we caught up on all goings on around the world of curling, so this week we catch up with what's been happening. We talk the European C championships, some host city announcements for upcoming events, and the Canadian Wheelchair program selections. We also get into a report on recreational curling engagement from CurlON and finish the show with a special clip of what could Scott's big break.

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2024 Curling Commercial Rankings

For the first time in a couple years, we were gifted with some new curling commercials for the 2024 Season of Champions! And as we love to do with a new batch of ads, we’re here to rank them. From agricultural products to Curling Canada promotions, there is a lot to discuss this year. What do you think of our rankings? Did we miss any ads this year?

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Spring News Update

We're back after a brief hiatus to talk about what has been a very busy spring in the world of curling. We start by discussing the Men's World Championship along with the mixed doubles before going across Canada to talk about all the men's (16:00) and women's (39:40) lineup changes that we've seen.

For more, visit us at GameofStonesPod.com

Women's Worlds Recap & Men's Worlds Preview

It's a busy time of year in the curling world and we're excited to be talking about it all. We start by recapping what was a fun week at the Women's World Curling Championship. We talk about Rachel Homan's win, the game/shot of the year, and how the rest of the field broke down over the course of the week. We then move on to preview the field for the Men's World Curling Championship. We go through the field and talk about all 13 teams before offering up our picks for the week.

For more, visit us at GameofStonespod.com