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Throwback Thursday (TBT) digs through the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling archives as we revisit historical moments of the series. Today we rewind to December 2008 for the National in Quebec City.

Back in the day, John Epping manned the front-end mentoring under high-profile veteran skips Mike Harris and Wayne Middaugh. It was during his time playing second for Middaugh that he won his first career Grand Slam title at the 2008 National.

Joining Epping on Team Middaugh that season were third Jon Mead and lead Scott Bailey, who missed the National final after sustaining a neck injury during their win over Kevin Martin in the semifinals. Maxime Elmaleh filled in Bailey for the championship game against Brad Gushue.

The 2006 Olympic gold medallist Gushue edged Randy Ferbey 6-5 in the other semifinal match to book his spot in the final and continue his quest for his first career Grand Slam title.

Gushue opened with the hammer and jumped to a 2-0 lead with a single in the second followed by a steal in the third. The teams alternated points in the fourth and fifth ends as Gushue maintained the two-point advantage.

Middaugh finally caught up in the seventh end with a chance to score three. His rock slid out of the house to only count two though, but that was enough to tie it 3-3 heading into the final frame.

Gushue held the hammer coming home in the eighth with an opportunity to win, however, his last rock rolled heavy and just rubbed off of Middaugh’s shot rock. Middaugh stole for the 4-3 victory to claim his eighth Grand Slam championship.

Epping has since added two more Grand Slam titles as a skip capturing the Players’ Championship in 2012 and the Canadian Open almost a year ago, coincidentally, defeating Gushue in the final.

As for Gushue and his elusive search for his first Grand Slam title, well, as the saying goes there’s always the next year (no really, check back here next week for our TBT feature on that).