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Craig Savill making full-time curling comeback with Team Thomas

Craig Savill said it broke his heart last year watching all of his curling buddies playing on TV and not being out on the ice alongside them.

Savill, a 12-time Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling champion, was forced to step back from the game while he battled Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The 38-year-old from Manotick, Ont., announced in August his cancer was in remission and has played in a couple tournaments this season already as a spare. Now Savill is ready to return full-time announcing Tuesday he’s joined Charley Thomas’s Edmonton-based team for the remainder of the season.

Savill will throw lead stones with Thomas, third Nathan Connolly and second Brandon Klassen and plans to make his debut with his new crew next week at the Tour Challenge (Tier 1) in Cranbrook, B.C.

“At the start of the year I started feeling a lot better,” Savill said. “My last treatment was in May and I started going to the gym right away to get my strength back up and my cardio. I worked out really hard for a few months and started feeling better and better.

“When the curling season started I thought that I just wanted to play in a few tournaments here and there. I didn’t want to play too much. I wanted to stick around home and spend some time with my family. I started getting a lot of calls to spare. I spared a couple times and felt really good out on the ice. It felt like normal again like before I had the cancer treatments.”

It was Thomas’s side who actually reached out first, asking if Savill would be interested in playing the Tour Challenge and a couple of events. Things just snowballed from there with their Alberta provincial playdowns sign-up deadline looming.

“It just happens to be that our deadline to declare our fourth player for provincials was today,” Thomas said. “So when we told him that he pretty much jumped on board to play with us for everything.”

“We asked him if he would be interested in playing with us for the whole year but I think he may have been a little bit hesitant just because with a new team it’s a pretty big commitment,” Thomas added. “I think that’s when he saw everything that we had, the spiels that we plan on playing in and it worked out well for him.”

Savill said the opportunity to join a great young squad like Team Thomas was really appealing to him.

“They have the same work ethic as I do. They practise lots, same goals to compete at the Slams and to go to the Brier and win the Brier,” he said. “I think Charley is a really good skip. I have a lot of respect for him. He’s played exceptional with [Brad] Gushue this year [as a spare]. He’s a really good shooter, a pure shooter. I’m really excited to play with some young guys that are as committed as I am. It’s a lot of time away and a lot of work being on tour with practising and gym time and time away from the family at night. We said that if I wanted to go back and put this much effort in, I wanted to do it with a team that was putting in the same amount of effort as I am and these are the guys that are doing that.”

For the 30-year-old Thomas, his new addition brings a wealth of veteran experience to the table that he covets. While Thomas won back-to-back world junior titles in 2006 and 2007, he’s still a relatively newcomer on the elite tour scene having just made his Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling series debut as a skip this past season. He also has yet to make an appearance at the Brier while Savill, a two-time world men’s gold medallist, has played in 10 national championships including this past season as a special alternate.

“We were looking for someone with some experience and someone who we could learn from,” Thomas said. “Obviously he’s played in some of the biggest games you could possibly play in the sport and he’s been on a bunch of successful teams so that’s kind of what we were looking for. Someone that could bring a little bit more to our team other than just a good shooter.”

Best friend and former teammate Brent Laing said it’s obviously great to have Savill back on tour where he belongs.

“He’s still one of the best players out there and can make any team better,” said Laing, who throws second stones for the reigning world champions Team Koe. “From a personal standpoint it’s great to see Craig back. From a competitive standpoint he just made Charley’s team better just because of all the experience Craig has. Obviously his shot-making abilities and his sweeping is as good as anybody in his position but his experience is hard to find. It took a lot of years to rack up all those games and wins and he was always a big part of our success over the years. He’ll definitely make Charley better so I’m excited to see how they do. That being said, hopefully he doesn’t make Charley too much better where they start beating us all of the time.”

Laing joked that he’s glad his team has the auto-berth back to the Brier and doesn’t have to play provincials against Team Thomas.

“When he was texting me I did mention, ‘Yeah, you’re in provincials in Alberta and we’re not in there so have at it,'” he said with a laugh. “Them and [Brendan] Bottcher heading into this year would both be favoured. I know there’s a handful of other solid teams that could challenge but they were both favoured. Bottcher adding Simmons obviously helps him with the experience. Now Charley adding Craig and Craig’s experience, I would say it’s a pick ’em between those two teams. Both have shown signs of being even a top five, six or seven team any given weekend so it should be fun to watch.”

Savill’s year away from curling also meant he wouldn’t be able to compete in his hometown Brier in Ottawa that he had been looking forward to since the event was announced. It meant the world to him when he was named the honourary fifth man and was able to hit the ice at TD Place to throw a pair of rocks with Team Ontario and his former skip Glenn Howard during a game.

“I get choked up just thinking about it. It was a very emotional week for me,” he said. “Certainly I would have rather been playing in it the entire week, of course, but that just shows what this sport, the fans and the associations are all about allowing me to do that and getting that opportunity is something I’ll never forget and I will always cherish. It’s something that if I’m not feeling good or if I’m having a down day, I think of moments like those to bring a smile to my face.”

Savill also sends a big thank you to the curling community for wishing him well during his fight with cancer.

“I’ve said this a few times and I can’t say it enough that the support that my wife and I got through the curling community has been unbelievable,” he said. “The number of messages that I’ve received and even going into the curling clubs and everyone still giving me best wishes I’m truly thankful for it.

“It’s strange that people are saying congratulations when now it just sort of seems like a little bump in the road for me. It was just a little bit of time away from curling and my life and I’m certainly grateful and very lucky to have the support that I did. I’m very thankful for it.”

Savill has been on the ice competing twice already joining Team Tuck for the Shorty Jenkins Classic in Cornwall, Ont., in September and filling in for the injured Patrick Janssen on Team Epping for a tournament two weeks ago in Gatineau, Que. Savill turned out to be the super spare as Team Epping went undefeated en route to the Challenge de Curling de Gatineau title.

“I have really big respect for John Epping. I think he’s one of the top skips in the world,” Savill said. “I always wanted to play a game with him for a long time so I’m glad I got that opportunity to play in a tournament with him. They’re a really easy bunch of guys to get along with and to play on the ice with. That’s another team that works really hard on and off the ice. It was easy to fit into that role and help them win. That and John plays really well too so [I got to] ride some coattails.”

He hasn’t lost his sense of humour either judging by his Twitter account. He scolded former teammate Richard Hart for stealing a Stabilizer from a curling club and even took a light-hearted jab at Team Epping for their zombie Halloween photo.

“I go through life laughing so I don’t understand people who are grumpy all the time. Life is too short to be like that,” Savill said. “I’m looking forward to seeing the guys and they’re probably missing my trash-talk on the ice so I’m looking forward to getting that going again.”

Laing said he has missed Savill’s chirps on the ice although they’ve never been at him, however, Team Koe lead Ben Hebert was a favourite target in the past.

“Craig’s a character. He’s been missed tons by me obviously and our history and Craig being probably the best friend to have in the world. I’ve missed having him around but the whole tour and all the guys have missed Craig,” Laing said. “Everybody has a Savill story from somewhere whether it’d be one of his famous dance-offs in the patch or sitting down and having a few drinks with Craig one night or his chirping on the ice. The best chirpers in the game still seem to be leads and I think that’s because they know it doesn’t come down to them at the end of the day.”

Thomas is also pumped about the fact he will have his proper foursome together for a Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event. Last season Connolly couldn’t make it to the Elite 10 or the Players’ Championship and the team called up junior sensation Matt Dunstone to fill in.

“I think that it’s a really good start for us,” Thomas said. “It’s going to be a big challenge, obviously, playing against the top teams in the world but we’re excited about it. We’re more excited to just have someone locked down with us for the rest of the season. It’s tough bringing in players in and out and when you know that your lineup is finalized that’s exciting.

“This will be our first Slam as a full and intact team so that’s exciting for me for sure.”

Team Thomas’s first game at the Tour Challenge is opening night against Team Carruthers of Winnipeg on Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. MT.