Scotland's Murdoch beating Canadians at their own game
Veteran curler does his best work in Canada
Last Updated: Monday, January 18, 2010 | 6:39 PM ET
Joe O'Connor, National Post for CBC Sports
Scotland skip David Murdoch's (far left) victims tend to be white, middle-aged, male curlers and his preferred stalking ground is Canada. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press) Do not be fooled by the disarming smile, the easy laugh, the laid-back manner or the pleasant Scottish brogue. David Murdoch is not your friend.
He is a killer. Clever. Methodical. Calculating. Cold-blooded.
His victims tend to be white, middle-aged, male curlers. His preferred stalking ground is Canada where the big games — and the big curling names - can be found. It was in Canada where a Scot with a disarming smile coolly dispatched Kevin Martin's rink three times on the way to capturing the 2009 world curling championships in Moncton, N.B., last April.
"With Canada, I don't know what it is, but when you are in a stadium with 4-5,000 people cheering against you, it tends to bring out the best in you," Murdoch says. "It certainly brings out the best in our team."
Murdoch and Martin had not met in competition since the Moncton massacre. They did again last Saturday at the Casino Rama Curling Skins Game in Orillia, Ont. Murdoch dispatched Martin in a tight game in the semi-final, which came down to a draw to the button to decide the winner. In the final on Sunday, Murdoch shut out Randy Ferbey of Edmonton to win the title.
Playing for big money in a skins format, where miracle shot-making and low-percentage chance-taking is often rewarded with a big payout, is different than playing for national pride.
Murdoch viewed the Skins as an opportunity to rest, have some fun, and hopefully pad his wallet, rather than an actual rematch with Martin. The real battle, he promises, will be at the Olympics next month.
"It is a little down-time this weekend," Murdoch says. Murdoch no doubt used the weekend to relax at the roulette table, where he always bets red because of his love for Manchester United.
More Canadian
Murdoch and his killer instinct seem more Canadian than most Canadians. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press) In some ways, this killer with the disarming smile seems more Canadian than most Canadians. Remember: Murdoch is a curler; a red-blooded hoser pursuit our country holds in high regard.
But then there is also this: before fully committing to curling, Murdoch's athletic loyalties were split between the ancient Scottish game and our national game, which he refers to as "ice hockey."
In Murdoch's hometown of Lockerbie, curling is what the entire Murdoch clan did, and still does. His father was a director of the local rink. His older sister was a star player and a national team coach, and his older brother a world junior champion.
But the youngest son did not really know what he wanted to be when he was 12. So when the Dumfries Ice Bowl opened for business, in nearby Dumfries, he became a goaltender.
"I lot of my friends decided to have a go at ice hockey, and suddenly I was in the whole 'keeper kit, and I ended up as a 'keeper for a few years," Murdoch says. "I think my highlight was probably only losing a game by 12 goals. When we started, Dumfries was a very new team, and it was a very established league, so we took some pounding early on."
After retiring from hockey, at age 15, he won world junior curling championships in 1995 and 1996. A silver medal at the 2005 world championships was his senior-level breakthrough, followed by a disappointing fourth place finish at the Turin Olympics — a bitter memory Murdoch partially erased by winning his first senior world title a few months later. Moncton was his second.
"Murdoch has been around," says John Morris, who plays third for Kevin Martin. "His team calls a really good strategy. They eat, live and breathe this game. They have done a ton of scouting, and video and strategizing."
Breaking the mold
Murdoch, top, coolly dispatched Canada's Kevin Martin, middle, during the mens gold-medal match at the 2009 world curling championships last April in Moncton, N.B. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press) And weightlifting. His belly is flat, instead of bulging over his belt, while his biceps betray hard evidence of curling weights when he is not curling rocks. Unlike the Canadians, who have day jobs to keep, the Scots are full-time, government-funded curlers. They work with a nutritionist and a sports psychologist.
They even have a gym routine tailored to curlers. Theirs may not be the path to material riches, but the ultimate reward could be a gold medal in Vancouver.
To polish their game, Murdoch and Co. — Euan Byers, Ewan MacDonald, Graeme Connal and Peter Smith - have been on the road for 15 of the last 17 weekends. A chunk of that time has been spent playing events in Canada. Living out of a suitcase in a cold country, far from home, can be a lonely, dislocating existence. But then this is Canada, where curlers, even Scottish ones, are recognized in airports and the recipients of helpful tips.
"We ran across a guy last week who told us about a place for haggis, and that it was made here, but I can tell you it was very expensive," Murdoch says. "I haven't had any since I left home."
He is almost home now, his Olympic journey is nearing its end. It started, in a sense, with the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Murdoch was only six years old at the time, but he has a vivid memory of Daley Thompson, the British decathlete, with a pole vault pole in hand, tossing himself over the bar and onto the top step of the podium.
"He was absolutely awesome," Murdoch says. "At that age, it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. That sticks in your memory. You are inspired by it. There was never any other sport that gripped me quite like watching the Olympics did. You just never thought curling would even become an Olympic sport."
So beware, Canada: do not be fooled by the disarming smile, or the pleasant Scottish brogue. A cold-blooded curler will be in Vancouver next month, looking for fresh victims and a familiar Canadian face.
"All I have been thinking about for the past four years is training and getting back to the Olympics," Murdoch says. "Just the build-up towards it, you just really want to get into it now. People are talking about it. There is more media attention. I just want to get out on the ice and play."
