Howard reuniting with Hart, adding Mead next season
A familiar face will return to Glenn Howard’s Penetanguishene, Ont., team next season.
Richard Hart, who played third for Howard for over a decade until stepping back in 2011, is coming out of retirement to rejoin the rink. Jon Mead, who currently plays with Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton, is coming on board as well and will shuffle one province over to throw second. Howard has retained Craig Savill at lead.
Third Wayne Middaugh has opted to take a break while second Brent Laing is heading west to join Calgary’s Kevin Koe.
Hart won the Brier and world championships with Howard in 2007 in addition to eight Grand Slam titles. He also earned a silver medal for Canada with skip Mike Harris at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. Mead won two Brier titles and one world championship with Team Stoughton.
The final tournament for the current Howard foursome will be a title defence at the season-ending Players’ Championship set to begin Tuesday. Howard as won three of the past four Grand Slams including the Masters and National this season.