1970 Macdonald Brier


The 1970 Macdonald Brier, Canada's national men's curling championship was held March 2-6 at the Winnipeg Arena in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The hometown Don Duguid rink out of Winnipeg's Granite Club won the event in the last draw, when they beat Saskatchewan's Bob Pickering rink in front of 9,287 fans at the Winnipeg Arena, which was "filled to capacity". This gave the team the best round robin record, preventing a playoff against the next best team, Alberta which had one more loss. With the championship, the Duguid team would go on to represent Canada at the 1970 Air Canada Silver Broom, the World Curling Championships, which they won.
Duguid's only loss came against team British Columbia, skipped by 1964 Brier champion Lyall Dagg, who would go on to finish in third place. Manitoba's first round match against Alberta, skipped by 1961 Brier and World Champion Hec Gervais proved to be the deciding game. The ice in that game as particularly bad, as it had "almost turned to water", making players have to throw the rocks very hard to get them to the other end, and making hits nearly impossible. Manitoba won their match against Alberta 10-9, after Gervais missed his last throw.
Prior to the season, Duguid's experience as a skip was limited, though he had won the 1965 Brier as a third. For the 1970 season, Duguid reluctantly joined forces with teammates Rod Hunter, Jim Pettapiece and Bryan Wood, replacing Hunter's brother, and found immediate success.

Teams

The teams are listed as follows:

Round Robin standings

ProvinceSkipWLPFPA
Don Duguid9110568
Hec Gervais8211986
Lyall Dagg739784
Bob Pickering649777
Tom Tod648885
Newfoundland and Labrador|1952|name=NewfoundlandNBONPENSQC

Round Robin results

Draw 1

''Monday, March 2''

Draw 2

''Monday, March 2''

Draw 3

''Tuesday, March 3''

Draw 4

''Tuesday, March 3''

Draw 5

''Wednesday, March 4''

Draw 6

''Wednesday, March 4''

Draw 7

''Thursday, March 5''

Draw 8

''Thursday, March 5''

Draw 9

''Thursday, March 5''

Draw 10

''Friday, March 6''

Draw 11

''Friday, March 6''

Awards

All-Star Team

The media selected the following curlers as All-Stars.
Don Duguid became the first curler to make the All-Star team in more than one position as Duguid was previously selected to the All-Star team in as a third.
PositionNameTeam
SkipDon Duguid
ThirdJim Carson
SecondLeo Hebert
LeadGary Ford

Ross G.L. Harstone Award

The Ross Harstone Award was presented to the player chosen by their fellow peers as the curler who best represented Harstone's high ideals of good sportsmanship, observance of the rules, exemplary conduct and curling ability.
NameTeamPosition
Ed SteevesThird