By Jonathan Brazeau
LONDON, Ont. — Oh yes, we have some bananas. The Banana Bar Crawl made its way to the AMJ Masters at the Western Fair Sports Centre for Draw 12 Thursday night.
A boatload of fans in banana costumes packed the on-ice lounge and brought more than just a healthy dose of potassium. They were cheering and chanting, hooting and hollering, all while waving banana signs and big head cutouts of the curlers. There was even one fan in a gorilla costume, as well as a few stray bananas in the stands that had split off from the bunch.
And when there was a peel takeout? Oh, you better believe there was an eruption of: “Peel! Peel! Peel!”
Even Norway's Team Magnus Ramsfjell got in on the fun and donned banana costumes.
The bananas were in for a treat, too, as defending champion Ross Whyte and his Scottish squad took on Canada's Team Brad Jacobs in a rematch of last season's Masters men's final.
Whyte came out on top again, this time with a 6-1 decision, and said the banana crowd was great.
"They were cheering for everyone out there and brought a really good atmosphere to the curling," Whyte said. "I think bringing that, hopefully, will allow for more people to come and enjoy themselves, find it more of almost like a party atmosphere, kind of exciting rather than just the curling going on.
"It’s a bit more of a fun feeling, so hopefully, that can continue and people keep bringing all these good vibes."
Matt Dunstone, whose crew fended off Team Mike McEwen 7-3 in a clash of Canadian clubs, also found the banana fans appealing.
"It was awesome. That’s what we’re looking for," Dunstone said. "They’re screaming, they’re having a good time, they’re saying a bunch of stuff that you hear but doesn’t make any sense and it’s funny. That’s an atmosphere that the sport is missing. The more of that, the better.
"I think it’s great. I never thought it would come in the form of banana costumes, but we’re going to take what we can get. Hopefully, they keep on coming."
It was a fruitful first end for Whyte, who capitalized to score three points off the bat after Jacobs made an error on his last. The seven-time Grand Slam of Curling men's champion was looking to make a double bump and roll, but his shooter over-curled and took out his shot rock, giving Whyte an easy open draw anywhere in the house for his trio.
After Jacobs was forced to draw for a single in the fourth, Whyte made a tricky bump on his own stone in the house to spill them both further in and score a deuce to hold a four-point advantage.
Jacobs shook hands following a steal in the sixth.
During the preliminary round and tiebreakers, the first Grand Slam of Curling event of the season features a draw to the button to determine the winner instead of extra ends. Teams receive three points for a regulation win (in eight ends or less), two points for a shootout win and one point for a shootout loss. Extra ends will return for the playoffs.
With pool play complete, teams will wrap up the preliminary round Friday with a crossover matchup.
Whyte topped Pool D with an unblemished 3-0 record (nine points) and will face Switzerland's Team Marco Hösli (1-2, two points).
Jacobs (1-2, three points) gets Sweden's Team Niklas Edin (2-1, six points).
"It’s a great feeling to be on the winning side," Whyte said. "Those boys are good. We knew it was going to be a tough game out there and we came out firing.
"Thankfully, we got an early break in the first end and then went on from there, so we didn’t really look back. We knew those boys were going to put us under pressure, but kind of had all the answers today."
Meanwhile, Dunstone took a 3-2 lead with a deuce in the fourth and was up 4-3 without the hammer coming home. McEwen was forced to attempt a super-spinner to grab shot rock, but his shooter didn't make it — perhaps it was a tad unripe — leading to a steal of three on the board.
Team Dunstone (3-0, nine points) finished first in Pool C and will go up against Switzerland's Team Yannick Schwaller (1-2, three points) from Pool A.
McEwen (1-2, three points) meets Canada's Team Brad Gushue (1-2, three points).
"Especially in this format, too, to win three outright is obviously huge," Dunstone said. "I don’t know the math on it, I’m assuming we’re in the playoffs at this point mathematically, which is an awesome feeling. Tonight, we struggled a little bit early on, got a break in four, and then we took over the momentum from there. We played really well in the back half."
"I’m just proud of the group," added Dunstone, whose team missed the playoffs at the AMJ Shorty Jenkins Classic tournament to start the season. "We had a tough first event a week ago. This is an event we had to come out and bounce back, and we’re doing exactly that. We’re showing a very gritty version of this team right now."
Consider Dunstone a fan of the format, even if he has to play the No. 2 team in the world, as he said, "there's no easy opponents out here."
"I think the format is really unique," said Dunstone, who is fifth in the rankings. "I think we needed something different to try. The points system adds a whole different aspect to how we actually play the game, which I think puts your mind in a pretzel sometimes, but it’s fun.
"I think we need to try more of these things. I quite like this system and this format, to be quite frank."
Elsewhere in Draw 12, Team John Epping earned a 6-3 victory over Team Rylan Kleiter in another all-Canadian showdown.
Epping (2-1, six points) gets Germany's Team Marc Muskatewitz (1-2, four points) and Kleiter (0-3) takes on Scotland's Team Bruce Mouat (2-1, six points).
Team Eun-jung Kim stole the winning point in the eighth end to beat Team Eun-ji Gim 4-3 in matchup of South Korean clubs.
Kim (2-1, six points) will play Italy's Team Stefania Constantini (1-2, three points).
Gim (2-1, six points) goes up against Canada's Team Kerri Einarson (1-2, three points).
UP NEXT
Round-robin play resumes Friday with Draw 13 at 8 a.m. ET / 5 a.m. PT. Tickets are available at GSOCtickets.com with live online streaming at rockchannel.com.
Broadcast coverage continues on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ with Draw 14 at 11:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. PT.
NOTES
The AMJ Masters features 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams.
The top eight teams qualify for the playoffs. If necessary, tiebreakers will be played Saturday morning. The quarterfinals and semifinals are set for Saturday. Both finals are scheduled for Sunday.
