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Scottish Touch!

Kerr Drummond delivers a shot for Team Alberta-Sluchinski as he participates in his first Montana’s Brier as a Canadian citizen. (Photo, Curling Canada/Michael Burns)

Drummond making his mark for Team Alberta at Montana’s Brier

Imports are a part of high-level curling in Canada these days, but skip Aaron Sluchinski has gone a different route than normal.

He’s brought in one originally from Scotland.

It took Kerr Drummond a few years to be eligible to play in the Canadian men’s curling championship, but here he is this week in Regina at the 2024 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI.

And he’s performing well at second, helping Sluchinski’s all-rookie Alberta champions (2-3, Airdrie) remain in the running for a weekend playoff spot.

The Alberta team took a step back Tuesday, absorbing an 11-6 loss to Mike McEwen’s Team Saskatchewan (4-1, Saskatoon), but it still has life in the race for one of three playoff spots available in Pool B.

A three-way logjam for first place was created after Team Saskatchewan and Team Prince Edward Island (4-1, Crapaud), skipped by Tyler Smith, won their Tuesday matchups. The Islanders continued their surprising run at the Montana’s Brier with a 10-5 win over skip Julien Tremblay’s Team Quebec (2-3, Etchemin/Kenogami/Chicoutimi/Victoria).

Daniel Marsh, left, and Colton Flasch of Team Saskatchewan sweep a stone during Tuesday’s win over Team Alberta-Sluchinski. (Photo, Curling Canada/Michael Burns)

Team Northwest Territories (4-1, Yellowknife), skipped by Jamie Koe, also is tied for the top spot and had the afternoon bye in Pool B.

Skip Brad Gushue’s defending champions Team Canada (4-2, St. John’s) moved in right behind the leaders after cruising to an 8-3 win over Team Nunavut (0-5, Iqaluit), skipped by Shane Latimer. Gushue is looking to win his third straight Canadian men’s title, and sixth as a skip.

In the only other game on the Tuesday afternoon menu, Team Nova Scotia (3-3, Halifax, skipped by Matthew Manuel, defeated four-time Canadian champion skip Kevin Koe’s Team Alberta-Koe (1-5, Calgary) 11-5.

Drummond brings Team Alberta-Sluchinski a pure curling pedigree. Not only is he from Scotland, birthplace of the game of curling, but has two Olympic medallists in the family. His brother Gregg won Olympic silver in 2014 as a member of David Murdoch’s foursome. When Murdoch took the position as Curling Canada’s High Performance Director, Drummond replaced him last year as Great Britain’s Olympic head coach.

Kerr’s sister-in-law and now Gregg’s wife, Vicky Wright, won 2022 Olympic gold playing with the legendary Eve Muirhead.

Kerr began making a name for himself in Scotland playing lead on the Scottish team that won silver at the 2010 world junior championship and bronze in 2012. Turns out his curling future lay not in Scotland, but in Canada.

Team Canada skip Brad Gushue, left, shares a laugh with Team Nunavut skip Shane Latimer during action Tuesday at the Montana’s Brier. (Photo, Curling Canada/Michael Burns)

“I actually moved over here just for a year in 2013 and I liked it so much I knew within three weeks this is where I wanted to live,” says Drummond. “Western Canada is where I wanted to be, it’s a hot spot for curling and I wanted to keep playing. I picked Calgary to begin with but my wife is from Red Deer so I ended up moving there.”

He connected with Sluchinski about seven years ago but had to wait patiently until this year before he could qualify to compete in the Canadian men’s championship. Drummond got his Canadian citizenship in 2022.

“When he first moved here about 10 years ago we needed a spare for an event in Saskatchewan and he was able to come spare with us,” Sluchinski says of their initial meeting. “That was my first go with him and we’ve played together the last six years.”

“I saw them practising at the Calgary Curling Club,” adds Drummond. “This was before I knew any of them. I actually approached Aaron and said, ‘I want to play with you guys.’ We’ve got the same demeanour, the same attitude and I just knew it was going to work. They took a chance on me, knowing that I wasn’t able to play for a few years but they stuck it out and here we are, at the Brier.”

The 2024 Montana’s Brier continues Tuesday with a draw at 7 p.m. (all times Central).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2024 Montana’s Brier are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/

TSN and RDS will provide complete coverage of the 2024 Montana’s Brier. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule. Live coverage is also available for international streaming on TSN’s YouTube channel.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at https://www.curling.ca/?lang=fr