1956_Macdonald_Brier

1956 Macdonald Brier
1956 Macdonald Brier
Host city	Moncton, New Brunswick
Arena	Moncton Stadium
Dates	March 5–9
Attendance	25,800
Winner	Manitoba
Curling club	Fort Rouge CC, Winnipeg
Skip	Billy Walsh
Third	Al Langlois
Second	Cy White
Lead	Andy McWilliams
Finalist	Ontario (Phillips Sr.)
	« 1955 1957 »

1956 Macdonald Brier

Canadian men's curling championship

The 1956 Macdonald Brier, the Canadian men's national curling championship, was held from March 5 to 9, 1956 at Moncton Stadium in Moncton, New Brunswick. A total of 25,800 fans attended the event.^[1]

Quick Facts Host city, Arena ...

Both Team Manitoba and Team Ontario finished tied for first in round robin play with 8-2 records, necessitating a tiebreaker playoff between the two teams. Manitoba, who was skipped by Billy Walsh defeated Ontario in the tiebreaker 8–7 in an extra end to capture the Brier Tankard in what is considered to be one of the greatest Brier finishes of all time. The game would come down to the last rock as Walsh delivered a perfect shot which snuck past the Ontario guard, then knocked the Ontario shot rock out of play while Walsh's rock managed to bite the 12 foot to capture the Brier championship. Walsh's winning shot was ranked 19th by TSN in their Top 50 Curling Shots of All Time segment.^[2]

This was Manitoba's fifteenth Brier championship and the second won by Walsh as a skip, with his first being in 1952. This was the first time in which a championship tiebreaker would go to an extra end and only the second time in which any tiebreaker game would go to an extra end (the other was the second place tiebreaker in 1931).

Event Summary

Heading into the Thursday evening draw (Draw 9), Manitoba was unbeaten with a 7–0 record with Ontario right behind with a 6–1 record while Alberta, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan had an outside shot with 4-3 records. On the Thursday evening draw, Alberta would be eliminated with an 11–7 loss to Northern Ontario while Saskatchewan defeated Quebec 11–5. Nova Scotia would defeat previously unbeaten Manitoba 15–4. Ontario took advantage and beat Newfoundland 10–8 to tie Manitoba in the standings heading into the final day.

In the first matches on the final day, Ontario would lose to British Columbia 11-9 opening the door for Manitoba to be in the drivers seat heading into the final draw. Manitoba would do just that as they defeated Alberta 11-5 leaving Manitoba and Ontario as the only two teams that could win the Brier.

In the final draw in the afternoon, Manitoba was sitting with an 8–1 record while Ontario had a 7–2 record. A Manitoba win would have them clinch the Brier outright while Ontario needed a win against Nova Scotia and a Manitoba loss against Saskatchewan to force a tiebreaker playoff that evening. In the final draw, Ontario trailed 9–6 against Nova Scotia with two ends remaining, but Ontario would score five in the eleventh end then steal three in the last end to win 15–9. Saskatchewan handed Manitoba their second defeat of the Brier with a 12–10 win, which forced a tiebreaker playoff that evening between Manitoba and Ontario.

The tiebreaker game between Manitoba and Ontario would be an instant classic. After the first end was blanked, Ontario would strike first with two in the second but Manitoba would counter and tie the game at 2 after three ends. Both teams traded singles the next four ends, but Manitoba would take their first lead of the game at 5–4 with a steal of one in the eighth end. Ontario would tie the game with one in the ninth. Manitoba then scored one in the tenth and stole one in the eleventh to take a 7–5 lead heading into the final end. Ontario would score two in the last end to tie the game at 7. This meant for the first time ever that a tiebreaker playoff to decide a Brier would be decided in an extra end.

Manitoba would have the hammer in the extra end, which would come down to the final stone. With Ontario having shot rock within the four foot in addition of having a rock in front of the house guarding that rock, Billy Walsh would have his work cut out for him prior to his final stone. As he released the stone, it slid past the Ontario guard into the house. The rock then struck Ontario's shot stone, which would roll out of play. Walsh's stone would roll out and would stop just biting the 12 foot to score one and capture the Brier championship in one of the greatest Brier finishes of all time. Walsh's winning shot is still considered one of the top shots in Brier history.

Round-robin results

All draw times are listed in Atlantic Time (UTC-04:00)^[5]

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This article uses material from the Wikipedia article 1956_Macdonald_Brier, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[attendance-1] [1]
"EE22_BrierSouvenirProgramFinal.pdf" (PDF). Curling Canada. p. 59. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 April 2022. Retrieved 25 April 2022.

[2] [2]
TSN (August 29, 2020). "Top 50 Greatest Curling Shots & Moments". YouTube. Sports Complex. Retrieved 5 May 2022.

[3] [3]
"1956 MacDonald Brier - Curling Canada Stats Archive". Archived from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2022-05-04.

[4] [4]
"Belec's Rink Bows Out In NOCA Curling Finals; Copper Cliff Wins 9-8". Sault Star. January 30, 1956. p. 12. Retrieved May 5, 2022.

[schedule-5] [5]
"Canadian bonspiel". The Regina Leader-Post. March 5, 1956. p. 19. Retrieved 6 May 2022.

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Alberta	British Columbia	Manitoba	New Brunswick
Granite CC, Edmonton Skip: Matt Baldwin Third: Gordon Haynes Second: Art Kleinmeyer Lead: William Henning	Kimberly CC, Kimberley Skip: Harold Jordan Third: James Livingstone Second: William Moscovitz Lead: Donald Beattie	Fort Rouge CC, Winnipeg Skip: Billy Walsh Third: Al Langlois Second: Cy White Lead: Andy McWilliams	Beaver CC, Moncton Skip: Ralph Lister Third: Horace Trites Second: Jimmy Vance Lead: Ralph Patterson
Newfoundland	Northern Ontario^[4]	Nova Scotia	Ontario
St. John's CC, St. John's Skip: Robert Goudey Third: Wesley Hermanson Second: Norman Pounder Lead: George Giannou	Copper Cliff CC, Copper Cliff Skip: Steve Kuzmaski Third: Bill Hudgins Second: Al Rodin Lead: George Burns	Truro CC, Truro Skip: Gerald Glinz Third: Avard Mann Second: Frank Hoar Lead: Edward Henry	The Granite Club, Toronto Skip: Alf Phillips Sr. Third: Reginald Mooney Second: Stanley Jones Lead: William Leak
Prince Edward Island	Quebec	Saskatchewan
Charlottetown CC, Charlottetown Skip: Wendell MacDonald Third: John Squarebriggs Second: Andrew Likely Lead: Elmer MacDonald	Thetford Mines CC, Thetford Mines Skip: Walter Smith Third: Edwin Whitham Second: Henry Foster Lead: Royce Little	Delisle CC, Delisle Skip: James Hill Third: Harold Worth Jr. Second: Elmer MacNevin Lead: Donald Morris

Province	Skip	W	L	PF	PA
Manitoba	Billy Walsh	8	2	106	78
Ontario	Alf Phillips Sr.	8	2	105	79
Saskatchewan	James Hill	7	3	124	81
Nova Scotia	Gerald Glinz	6	4	111	98
Alberta	Matt Baldwin	5	5	87	90
Quebec	Walter Smith	5	5	87	95
British Columbia	Harold Jordan	4	6	98	105
Northern Ontario	Steve Kuzmaski	4	6	93	92
Prince Edward Island	Wendell MacDonald	4	6	89	102
New Brunswick	Ralph Lister	3	7	89	115
Newfoundland	Robert Goudey	1	9	73	127

Sheet B	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
Prince Edward Island (MacDonald)	0	2	3	0	1	3	0	1	0	3	0	3	16
Nova Scotia (Glinz)	2	0	0	1	0	0	4	0	3	0	2	0	12

Sheet E	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
Ontario (Phillips)	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	9
Alberta (Baldwin)	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4

Sheet A	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
Newfoundland (Goudey)	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	4	0	1	0	8
Nova Scotia (Glinz)	2	1	0	2	0	2	0	4	0	1	0	2	14

1956_Macdonald_Brier

1956 Macdonald Brier

Event Summary

Teams

Round-robin standings

Round-robin results

Draw 1

Draw 2

Draw 3

Draw 4

Draw 5

Draw 6

Draw 7

Draw 8

Draw 9

Draw 10

Draw 11

Playoff

References

External links

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Sheet A	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
Manitoba (Walsh)	0	2	0	3	0	1	2	0	2	1	0	1	12
Quebec (Smith)	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	3	0	7

Sheet C	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
British Columbia (Jordan)	0	0	3	0	2	0	4	3	0	0	0	0	12
Newfoundland (Goudey)	1	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	3	0	1	9

Sheet D	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
Saskatchewan (Hill)	1	0	2	0	2	1	0	3	0	1	0	0	10
New Brunswick (Lister)	0	3	0	3	0	0	1	0	2	0	2	1	12

Sheet B	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
Alberta (Baldwin)	2	1	0	0	1	3	1	1	3	0	0	0	12
Prince Edward Island (MacDonald)	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	4	3	2	11

Sheet C	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
Northern Ontario (Kuzmaski)	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	2	1	0	1	0	7
Manitoba (Walsh)	1	1	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	2	9

Sheet D	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
New Brunswick (Lister)	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	6
Quebec (Smith)	1	0	2	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	2	8

Sheet B	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
British Columbia (Jordan)	0	1	0	1	0	2	0	1	0	1	0	1	7
Nova Scotia (Glinz)	1	0	3	0	3	0	2	0	4	0	1	0	14

Sheet C	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
Saskatchewan (Hill)	0	1	2	2	2	1	0	4	2	0	0	1	15
Prince Edward Island (MacDonald)	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	1	2	0	6

Sheet C	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
Northern Ontario (Kuzmaski)	1	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	1	1	0	2	8
Nova Scotia (Glinz)	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	3	0	6

Sheet A	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
Manitoba (Walsh)	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	2	5
Nova Scotia (Glinz)	0	3	1	1	1	0	5	0	1	0	2	0	14