The first ever HSE Curling championship finals - the Werner Wanker Memorial Cup day of glory was as thrilling as anticipated. The first ever champion is team Nurmilaukas!
Team Nurmilaukas:
Lauri Nurmilaukas, Patrizio Laina and Teemu Kari
CONGRATULATIONS
We’ll start our report with the scandalous bronze medal game between teams Toikka and Simola. The biggest topic in the media concerning this game has been the absence of a member of team Toikka. In the press, the behaviour of this player has been compared to that of Jere Karalahti who hasn’t ever played in a bronze medal game. Although the press has demonstrated paparazzi-like pictures showing that the player was in the afterparty-spirit already before the game, we on behalf of the organizer still wish to point out that the official reason of a foot injury holds and that the injury does not prevent the particular player from taking part in events outside sports.
The bronze medal game itself was over surprisingly quickly. Team Simola was in excellent condition and took advantage of errors committed by their opponent. Especially Mr Tikkanen’s performance was of extremely highly quality. The result, 13-6, leaves no doubt about the winner. However, Mr Toikka and Mr Zhou cannot be blamed for the defeat because of the enormous pressure following the scandal.
The Final was played between teams Nurmilaukas and Aniszewski. The teams were seeded third and fourth, respectively, what contributed its own share of excitement to the game. How would the teams handle the pressure? Probably, they had not believed even themselves in the possibility of reaching the finals.
The first few ends were a bit nervous, as the game went from 2-0 for team Nurmilaukas to 4-2 for team Aniszewski. Both teams tried to design their plays very carefully and that resulted in a lower pace of game as usual. By the time limit of 1h50m the eight end was in play. Team Aniszewski leaded 8-6 but team Nurmilaukas held the advantage of the last stone. With two closest stones in the house, Mr Kari could have reached for the victory with his last stone, but he was unable to make it. The game resulted in a draw of 8-8.
The excitement grew as an extra end was about to be played. The extra end was decided to play with only six stones, that is one stone for each player. As team Nurmilaukas won the last end, team Aniszewski had the advantage of last stone. Skipper Nurmilaukas demonstrated high ability for handling pressure as his last stone was almost perfect, just an inch past the teeline in the house.
Now the pressure was on skipper Aniszewski. He directed his slow stone very well. The whole team ‘looded’ all the way to give the stone enough power to reach the teeline. The stone already seemed to stop too far away but the desperate ’looding’ made the ice enough slippery for the stone to get closer and closer… The crowd was yelling for support and flashes went on around the monumental Oulunkylä Curling Palace, and there was hope, but not enough. The stone stopped just two inches before the teeline and team Nurmilaukas could start breathing again - they were now the first ever HSE curling champions, the winners of the Werner Wanker Memorial Cup!
A great tournament got a final that it deserved. All players have now time to rest and gather their thoughts and emotions. It is a long year for the next opportunity to make it to the glory and the players now that. Next year the competition is going to be even tougher as more teams are invited. However, the first comments from the losing skippers were optimistic and even courageous:
Mr Simola: “Latest science has shown that there is basically no chance at all that my team would have to suffer from the extraordinary bad luck next year. We’ll be unstoppable…”
Mr. Toikka: ” I am taking my team to Kitzbühel on a training camp this summer and we will start preparing for next year’s Cup early enough. We won’t let this year’s disappointment happen again!”
Mr. Aniszewski: ” We have to be glad for our performance. We did everything we could, it wasn’t enough for that one inch, but we’ll come better next year. ”
When the losing teams were already taking their liberties after dieting for the competition, the winning skipper had to answer a load of questions from the press:
Mr Nurmilaukas: ” It’s funny, you don’t actually understand what you have just achieved. A few days ago we were almost nobody in the curling scene and now we get a congratulations call (reverse-charge) from Mr Wanker himself! It’ll take time until you realize it… Yes, of course we’ll go to the Kitzbühel Open! Mr Wanker offered to arrange all the practicalities so that we can concentrate on the game itself… I wish to thank my team, my family and my homies. It has been a life-changing experience… I haven’t experienced any media attention before in my life and neither has my team. Anyway, we are sportsmen and I hope that you guys, the press, make it possible for us to concentrate for the Kitzbühel Open. It’s going to be the challenge of our lives…”
And so the most expected and important event of spring 2008 is completed. It is time look into future… On behalf of the organizer, we wish to thank everybody involved in the Cup! Hopefully we will here also about Herr Wanker soon!
Ladataan ...