With all the big names slotted into the 8th annual Victoria Curling Classic, Neil Dangerfield and his local rink are hoping to just slide under the radar at the 2013 event that began Wednesday night at the Archie Browning Sports Centre.
Problem is, the Victoria Curling Centre skip drew Mike McEwen in his first outing, the same Winnipeg skip Dangerfield toppled 7-5 in a qualifier in 2011 before losing 6-3 to Kevin Martin.
鈥淵eah, I think we鈥檙e going to be on his radar screen. We won鈥檛 slip under the radar on him this season,鈥� Dangerfield said prior to his 8-6 loss to McEwen in Draw 1 of the event Wednesday night.
Beating McEwen is a tall order as the Manitoba rink is third on the World Curling Tour money list this season at $69,361, behind leader Kevin Koe at $100,200 and Jeff Stoughton at $78,400.
But Dangerfield, who has competed in a handful of Al Sutherland鈥檚 local WCT stops, didn鈥檛 go in with high expectations, just high hopes and excitement.
鈥淚t鈥檚 fun to be in the arena and it鈥檚 fun to play against all the top teams. There are a lot more European teams, too, this year, which is an added bonus.
鈥淲e were expecting a tough one. The field is so deep, it鈥檚 seeded and with all the international teams here, we鈥檙e down at the bottom of the pile.鈥�
Dangerfield is without his usual second, Darren Boden, this week as he鈥檚 off in Hawaii, so the skip picked up Jason Clarke, who will actually play third, with Dennis Sutton moving down to second and Glen Allen remaining at lead.
Dangerfield did qualify for playoffs in 2011, which would be an added bonus in 2013 with the likes of Martin (the 2012 Classic winner), Stoughton, Glenn Howard (2011 Classic champ), Koe and Brad Gushue among the top Canadian teams in Victoria.
Then there are eight international teams set to compete in next week鈥檚 Ford World Men鈥檚 Curling Championship at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
鈥淚t鈥檚 top of the money list and world-ranking list,鈥� said Dangerfield. 鈥淎 good challenge, a great experience and if you can pull off any type of win here, in this crowd, you鈥檙e doing well.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the only event we get to play in where you鈥檙e right out there with the crowd. It鈥檚 not as intimidating being the local team because you know there are all those other stars here that they鈥檙e watching,鈥� added Dangerfield.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have to put on a great show, just hold our heads up and last as long as we can.鈥�
The triple-knockout event, with a $25,000 top prize, began with Niklas Edin, who will represent Sweden at next week鈥檚 world championship, downing Japan鈥檚 worlds team Yusuke Morozumi 7-4; Saskatchewan鈥檚 Steve Laycock beating Swiss representative Sven Michel 6-4; and Gushue hammering U.S. worlds rep Brady Clark 11-2 in six ends.
The event continues this morning at 9:30 with Martin playing Finland鈥檚 Aku Kauste; Steve Petryk of Edmonton taking on Norway鈥檚 Thomas Ulsrud; Koe going up against Rick McKague, also of Edmonton; Stoughton playing Alexey Tselousov of Russia; and sa国际传媒鈥檚 Jim Cotter taking on Tom Brewster of Scotland.
Brewster, Kauste, Ulsrud and Tselousov will all be competing at next week鈥檚 worlds.
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