World Curling Tour Players’ Association Announces 2009-10 Award Nominees

The World Curling Tour Players’ Association announced today its list of nominees for the 2009-10 World Curling Tour Players’ Association Awards.

All five awards – Men’s Most Valuable Player, Women’s Most Valuable Player, Men’s Team of the Year, Women’s Team of the Year and Rookie Team of the Year – will be voted on by the players.

The winners of each award will be announced during the season-ending Grey Power Players’ Championship, where our ladies are competing. In the Most Valuable Player category, Cheryl and Susan are nominated. It is quite amazing to see Susan standing here in the middle of 3 other skips: Annette Norberg, Jennifer Jones and Even Muirhead.

It is will be a very tight result for sure. If everything is taken in consideration, Cheryl Bernard has been promoting Curling more then any other player ever before all around the world; without competing internationally on a regular basis, without winning a slam, and despite all that, she is standing second on the ranking at the moment, which I think pull her ahead of everybody. But the players are voting for that, so we'll see.


In the team of the year category, our ladies are in nomination, of course, along with Team Jennifer Jones, Team Annette Norberg and Team Even Muirhead.

This is going to be tough: Team Jones won a major this year, was finalist to another slam and got the bronze at the World Championship. Team Norberg won the gold at the Olympics and Team Muirhead had a very good year to, among it, a silver medal at the World Championship.

Team Bernard is standing in the middle of it, winning beautifully the Roar of the Rings Olympics Trial and got the silver there. Then again, the players will decide who is the team of the year. But if you ask me, the fact that 2 women of Bernard Team is nominated, that sounds pretty much like winner here.

Did you know that ...

… Bernard had made a deal with teammate Cori Bartel 3 years ago that if they ever qualified for the Olympics, they will get a tattoo? The Olympics rings and a small maple leaf was the design of choice. Apparently, Bernard, Bartel and O’Connor went under the ink gun to fulfill that bargain. Can we have proof ladies?

"I don't know that I ever believed it would happen," had said Bernard, who then had booked her trip to the Olympics with a thrilling last-end, last-rock victory over Kleibrink in the Canadian Championships. "Cori reminded me the minute we won."

Did you know that...

… Cheryl got a stud to her right nostril to celebrate her 40th birthday? She had planed to keep it during the Olympics Games? And she did wear it.

Tournament of Hearts Wallpaper

Some of the best captures took during the Tournament of Hearts from the 2009 edition. What is great with pictures is that there is always a way to make them feel new again. Those are a bit more then a year old, quite recent I'd say! Cheryl was blonder, but she didn't change much: she always had that unforgettable gaze that is somehow intimidating and shows such a determination. And, images say a lot, there are some here screaming : "haaaaaaaaaaard", like only Cheryl can.

This year, Cheryl and her team were getting ready for the Olympics, so , they didn't participate to the Provincials. They considered playing it but they choose to aim on the Olympics preparation, which paid off, winning a silver medal. The Scotties was held from January 30th to February 7th.

Grey Power Players’ Championship

Strong of their silver medals at the Olympics, Team Bernard will take on the Grey Power Players’s Championship held from April 13th to April 18th, 2010. It is taking place at the EnCana Events Centre in Dawson Creek, B.C. Having no other choice than let their place to Jennifer Jones and her team to represent Canada to the World Women Championship to fulfill Olympic Winners commitment, they are back! And we, fans, are all eager to see our favorite team, and most especially, their grey blue eyes Skip, Cheryl Bernard.

As information supplement regarding the final of the World Curling Championship, Jones got the bronze medal after all. It is Germany, let by Andrea Schoepp, who was at the Olympics, that won the gold beating in the extra 8-6 the Scotland team lead by Eve Muirhead (who was also present at the Olympics) that was clearly disappointed of this lost, especially after such a great win the night before over the Canadian team. It is a second title for Scheopp, first one won 22 years ago.

Back to our main course: the Grey Power Players Championship is part of the glad slam tournament of the Curling season. Cheryl is seeded second and will take on 15th-seeded Kerry Flett. The event features a triple knockout format along with a total purse of $100,000 (CDN). It is also the last event of the year that will give point for the ranking. Cheryl is very close of Jones, so, there might be a chance for her to finish first.

She is over it, we should move on too

I am so so tired to read articles about how the Gold Medal slipped away from Cheryl Bernard's hands at the Olympics that I am going to create her own blog where this is the only time you are going to read this. Yes, because, the foursome won the silver, didn't they?

They could have missed the medal round, they could have missed in the semifinal, but no, they made it the final round, and fans of the famous skip from Alberta, know that she was herself disappointed about how the match ended, but, she is over it, and we should move on too.

They were black stallions going into those Olympics: nobody from the curling world was expecting them to be there at the first place. They won in a dramatic way their ticket at the Olympics Trial "Roar of the Rings", Team Bernard losing only 1 match in the entire tournament.

Also, this blog will never refer to Cheryl as a curlgar: I guess Simmons didn't mean any disrespect but Cheryl Bernard suits her fine and the high class curler she is doesn’t need any nickname.

And, this will also be the only time we’ll talk about the rumor about the naked picture Cheryl would have done for “the women of curling calendar”: it’s not her!

So, on this blog, I will gather information and about Cheryl Bernard and her team -Cori Bartel, Carolyn Darbyshire and Susan O’Connor-, past, present and future. I will add some precious pics, even short videos and some of my own desktop creations and icons to honor this great foursome and most especially, this incredible woman who led her team to a great silver medal. Susan O’Connor won’t argue with that, easing the weight of this loss from Cheryl Bernard’s shoulders saying publicly right after the match to her skip that she lead them there and she wouldn’t have anybody else in the world to throw that last stone.