1979 Macdonald Brier

1979 Macdonald Brier
Host city	Ottawa
Arena	Ottawa Civic Centre
Dates	March 4–10[1]
Attendance	89,081
Winner	Manitoba
Curling club	Deer Lodge CC, Winnipeg
Skip	Barry Fry
Third	Bill Carey
Second	Gordon Sparkes
Lead	Bryan Wood
Finalist	Northern Ontario &  Saskatchewan
« 1978 1980 »

The 1979 Macdonald Brier, Canada's national men's curling championship was held from March 4 to 10 at the Ottawa Civic Centre in Ottawa.

Manitoba's Barry Fry won his only Brier title of his career. He clinched the Brier title following the Friday night (March 9) draw. The rink which also included Bill Carey, Gordon Sparkes and Bryan Wood would go on to represent Canada at the 1979 Air Canada Silver Broom, the World Curling Championships.

It Would be the last Brier under the sponsorship of Macdonald Tobacco. This marked an end of an era, as Macdonald Tobacco had sponsored the event since the first Brier in 1927. Following the final draw, the head of Macdonald Tobacco, David Macdonald Stewart declared "[f]or half a century, Macdonald Tobacoo has followed an idea ... a dream to ... bring together Canadians, from all parts of the country and all walks of life, in a national sporting event. Curling was the ideal sport. It's been a wonderful experience. We've now seen the final chapter in 50 years of Canadian history". To commemorate the end of the Macdonald era, every living Brier champion skip at the time were invited to attend the Brier, and had their picture taken together. The lone surviving curler from the 1927 Brier, Emmet Smith (Northern Ontario) was also invited.^[2] The group of skips gathered before the final draw of the event for a special ceremony.^[3]

The event was also the last Brier without a playoff following the round robin. The final attendance of the event was 89,081 which was a Brier record at the time.^[4] 7000 people witnessed the final draw on March 10, despite the matches being meaningless to the outcome of the event.

The event was marred with slow ice conditions and bad rocks,^[5] which were borrowed from a local curling club. The rocks were mismatched and pitted which "reduced shotmaking to a guessing game."^[6] Part way through the week, organizers asked for the teams to vote on changing the rocks. The teams that favoured hitting, including the leading Manitoba rink opposed changing the rocks, as the mismatched rocks made draw shots more difficult than hit shots.^[7]

Teams

Round Robin Standings

Province	Skip	W	L
Manitoba	Barry Fry	10	1
Saskatchewan	Rick Folk	8	3
Northern Ontario	Larry Pineau	8	3
Ontario	Bob Fedosa	6	5
Prince Edward Island	Wayne Matheson	6	5
Alberta	Paul Devlin	6	5
Quebec	Jim Ursel	5	6
British Columbia	Glen Pierce	5	6
Nova Scotia	Alan Darragh	4	7
New Brunswick	Richard Belyea	3	8
Newfoundland	Jeff Thomas	3	8
Northwest Territories/Yukon	Don Strang	2	9

Round Robin Results

March 4

Draw 1

•  Ontario 6-5  Prince Edward Island
•  British Columbia 5-3  New Brunswick
•  Alberta 8-6  Nova Scotia
•  Manitoba 6-5  Northwest Territories/Yukon
•  Quebec 8-2 Newfoundland

Draw 2

•  Manitoba 8-6  British Columbia
•  Prince Edward Island 6-3  Alberta
•  Saskatchewan 7-1  Northern Ontario
•  Ontario 6-3  Nova Scotia
•  New Brunswick 4-3  Northwest Territories/Yukon

March 5

Draw 3

•  Nova Scotia 5-3  Northern Ontario
•  Quebec 10-3  British Columbia
•  Manitoba 6-5 Newfoundland

Draw 4

•  Alberta 6-3  New Brunswick
•  Northwest Territories/Yukon 10-3  Ontario
•  Prince Edward Island 9-3  Saskatchewan

Draw 5

•  Quebec 7-3  Nova Scotia
•  Saskatchewan 5-3  Northwest Territories/Yukon
• Newfoundland 9-4  Prince Edward Island
•  Northern Ontario 7-5  New Brunswick
•  Ontario 8-4  Alberta

March 6

Draw 6

•  Northern Ontario 5-3  Northwest Territories/Yukon
• Newfoundland 11-3  Nova Scotia
•  Quebec 5-4  Ontario
•  Saskatchewan 7-6  British Columbia
•  Manitoba 10-1  New Brunswick

Draw 7

•  Alberta 7-5 Newfoundland
•  Manitoba 10-3  Northern Ontario
•  Saskatchewan 8-6  New Brunswick
•  Prince Edward Island 10-3  Quebec
•  British Columbia 7-6  Northwest Territories/Yukon

March 7

Draw 8

•  Saskatchewan 7-3  Manitoba
•  Alberta 8-3  Quebec
•  Northern Ontario 5-3  British Columbia
•  Ontario 5-4 Newfoundland
•  Prince Edward Island 8-3  Nova Scotia

Draw 9

•  Northern Ontario 7-4  Prince Edward Island
•  Ontario 5-3  New Brunswick
•  Northwest Territories/Yukon 7-4  Nova Scotia
•  British Columbia 5-4  Alberta
•  Saskatchewan 8-5  Quebec

March 8

Draw 10

•  Nova Scotia 12-3  New Brunswick
•  Saskatchewan 8-4 Newfoundland
•  Manitoba 4-2  Ontario
•  Prince Edward Island 6-3  Northwest Territories/Yukon
•  Northern Ontario 10-3  Alberta

Draw 11

•  Alberta 10-7  Saskatchewan
•  Manitoba 5-3  Nova Scotia
•  British Columbia 8-5 Newfoundland
•  Northern Ontario 6-5  Quebec
•  Prince Edward Island 8-3  New Brunswick

March 9

Draw 12

• Newfoundland 11-4  Northwest Territories/Yukon
•  Northern Ontario 6-4  Ontario
•  New Brunswick 5-3  Quebec
•  Manitoba 5-3  Alberta
•  Nova Scotia 9-6  British Columbia

Draw 13

•  Ontario 9-7  British Columbia
•  Quebec 10-6  Northwest Territories/Yukon
•  Manitoba 4-3  Prince Edward Island
•  Nova Scotia 8-7  Saskatchewan
•  Northern Ontario 10-5 Newfoundland

March 10

Draw 14

•  Manitoba 7-2  Quebec
•  British Columbia 5-4  Prince Edward Island
•  Alberta 6-4  Northwest Territories/Yukon
•  New Brunswick 8-2 Newfoundland
•  Saskatchewan 7-4  Ontario

References

• Line scores - Ottawa Citizen, pg 22 March 12, 1979
• Rosters - Soudog Curling

Canadian Men's Curling Championships
Macdonald Brier 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 Labatt Brier 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 Nokia Brier 2001 2002 2003 2004 Tim Hortons Brier 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017