News National

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 the 2010 National final in Guelph, Ont.

As we recapped last week, it was heartbreak for Brad Gushue in the National final against Wayne Middaugh during the 2008-09 season. Gushue held the hammer in the final end with the game tied and missed his last shot to give up a steal. Middaugh captured his eighth Grand Slam as Gushue’s quest for his elusive first title in the series continued.

The St. John’s, N.L., team of Gushue, Mark Nichols, Ryan Fry and Jamie Korab had to “wait ’til next year” for redemption. This time around they faced the famed Ferbey Four: Randy Ferbey, David Nedohin, Scott Pfeifer and Marcel Rocque. Team Ferbey, from Edmonton, had won three Grand Slam titles together.

Ferbey made the playoffs with a 4-1 record, outlasting Gushue 6-5 during their last round-robin match, and beat Middaugh and Kevin Koe to reach the final.

Gushue, who qualified with a 3-2 record, topped Mike McEwen in the quarterfinals and Glenn Howard in the semis to advance to the championship game once more.

Trailing by one after three ends, Gushue pulled off a runback for three points in the fourth to slide into the lead 4-2.

Ferbey counted two in the sixth end to make it all square 4-4.

Gushue blanked the seventh end setting up an eerily similar scenario to the previous season: all tied up with the hammer coming home in eight. Ferbey had a steal situation set up until Nichols made a pair of stellar shots to bail his team out. Nichols fired a triple peel to eliminate three guards then pulled off a double runback to knock out Ferbey’s guard and shot stone.

That cleared the deck for Gushue to make a hit around a guard with his last rock for a deuce to secure the 6-4 victory and finally capture his first Grand Slam title.

Also worth noting: the 2010 National was the series debut for Brad Jacobs, E.J. Harnden, Ryan Harnden and Caleb Flaxey. Fry now plays third for Team Jacobs with Flaxey serving as their coach.

Gushue enters next week’s 2016 Boost National in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., as the defending champion. The six-time Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling titlist Gushue also looks to make his season debut after missing his team’s first eight events of 2016-17 due to a hip/groin issue.