9/06/2009 
In a recent US and Canada episode of The Bachelorette (Monday, June 8 at 8 PM on ABC) Jillian goes home to Vancouver with the 13 remaining bachelors. In a true Canadian adventure, Jillian invites a group of the men on a competitive curling date, but only the winning team gets to join her for a romantic sunset cruise around the city of Vancouver. Check out this short video of the curling competition to see which team ends up victorious... and thus gets more time with The Bachelorette! http://abc.go.com/primetime/bachelorette/index?pn=index&clipId=212189 Cheers <Ian Palangio>
5/06/2009
Team Millikin wins 2009 Australian Men’s National Championships, and will represent Australia at the 2009 New Zealand Winter Games in August and the 2009 Pacific Curling Championships in November.
Team Members:
- Skip - Hugh Millikin
- Vice-Skip - Ian Palangio
- Second - John Theriault
- Lead - Steve Johns
The results from the weekend are listed below. The draw is outlined in my previous post here: http://www.curling.org.au/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=99
June 5, 2009
Game G1 6:00pm – Millikin vs Thomas
* denotes hammer in first end – decided by Draw Shot Challenge
| |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
Total |
| Millikin* |
3 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
X |
11 |
| Thomas |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
X |
2 |
June 6, 2009
Game G2 (‘A’ final) 10:00am – Millikin vs Panoussi
| |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
Total |
| Millikin* |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
X |
10 |
| Panoussi |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
X |
1 |
Game G3 1:00pm – Thomas vs Panoussi
| |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
Total |
| Thomas |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 |
| Panoussi |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 |
Game G4 (‘B’ Final) 7:00pm – Panoussi vs Millikin
| |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
Total |
| Panoussi |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
X |
3 |
| Millikin* |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
X |
8 |
June 7, 2009
Game G5 9:00am – Millikin vs Panoussi
| |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
Total |
| Millikin* |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
X |
6 |
| Panoussi |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
X |
2 |
Game G6 (‘C’ Final) 1:00pm – Thomas vs Millikin
| |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
Total |
| Thomas |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
| Millikin* |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
8 |
Cheers
<Ian Palangio> 4/06/2009The weekend of June 5 – 7 Australia will be conducting the National Curling Championships in Dunedin, New Zealand. With no dedicated curling facilities in Australia – having the competition in Dunedin is the closest rink to Australia and will provide a fantastic venue. The Dunedin rink just finished hosting the World Senior Curling Championships a couple of months ago (the first time a World Curling Championship has been held in the Southern Hemisphere) With only one team entered for the Women’s, Jr. Women’s, and Jr. Men’s they are all taking the opportunity to train in Dunedin and play some exhibition games. There are 3 Men’s team entries – Team Hugh Millikin, Team Dave Thomas and Team Matt Panoussi. We will be playing a triple knockout event to decide the winner. The draw is included below (click the graphic to view it full size). The winner of a National Championships earns the spot as the National Team for 2009/2010 for international events such as the Pacific Championships and the New Zealand Winter Games. For the Men’s and Women’s the Pacific's will be held in Karuizawa, Japan – where the 1998 Olympic’s were held. I’ll attempt to keep the results updated on this blog as the weekend progresses. 
Cheers <Ian Palangio> 18/05/2009It's our 25th Anniversary and we're back curling in Melbourne! That's right....now we have two venues in Victoria, Bendigo and under the Southern Star Observation Wheel in Melbourne’s Docklands. As we wait for the new Olympic sized ice rinks to open in November we're using the Winter Wonderland rink next door to prepare for the big event. Starting Tuesday June 2nd @ 6:30pm and every Tuesday after Cost $10/person to curl only (or) $25/person to curl and have a parma and pot or wine after the game at the Harbour Town Hotel next door Plenty of parking @ $5 flat rate (See map below: Enter via orange arrow on west side of wheel) Please note we are currently looking for curlers who would like to help us out with instructing new members to curl. No experience needed as we will be holding an Instructors Course at Winter Wonderland the previous Tuesday May 26th @ 6:30pm We are looking forward to catching up with old and new friends. Everyone is welcome. Please RSVP if you are interested in attending or have any questions to 
30/04/2009
Because our Secretary ie Ted’s wife had trouble accessing the site yesterday, we have had to combine Day 3 and 4.
Day 3 saw us facing the 2007 Championship winning team, Scotland. The boys finally came together and we were up 3/2 at the break. We hung in there but unfortunately we were pipped in the end, with a Scotland having to make seven peels and their final shot to win 6/4. The highlight of the game was the skip (Ted) calling to the lead, “take the shooter” and the lead thinking he said “tuck your shirt in” at which point he dropped his broom and proceeded to do so. In the end everyone concerned considered the game one of the best; if not the best games of curling they had ever participated in.
Day 4 saw us facing England in our last game of the round robin (and our last game of the tournie). Considering we were facing the Poms, the boys came out firing and ended up ahead 6/2 at the break. Despite a mini comeback, and some nervous moments, we were able to run them out in the last end to win 8 to 5.
All in, considering the team had only curled together for two weeks prior to the Championships, we fared well. Hopefully this is the start of many successful trips to these Championships for Australian Curling.
The boys would like to thank their loyal fan club (ie the wives and Terry) for their fantastic support and also our sponsor, Carpentaria Exploration for the donation of their spiffy kit bags.
Good curling to all
Ted. Dave, Ali, Nick and Bill 28/04/2009To start with, the battery was dead in the girl's van (ie our cheering section), and Ted exploded a toilet seat in his hotel room.
Despite the poor start, the first game against Japan began much better, with the boys taking 3 in the first end. However, Japan fought back and won a close game in the last end.
Things got worse in the evening, with Canada continuing their (not so) lucky run to the top of the Blue group, downing an imposter team wearing gold and green jumpers.
It can only get better from here (or can it?). Tune in tomorrow to find out.
Australian Senior Curling Team
After a tough week of training in Naseby, during which the old hound dog skip discovered that retirement may not be all it was cracked up to be as he was immediately put on notice that this meant he was expected to cook at least three times a week, the team arrived in Dunedin.
The first practice on Sunday found the ice to be fantastic. This left no excuses for blaming the ice for missed shots. Later that evening, a welcome reception was held for participants, at which the teams were blessed by the local Maori tribe and the Mayor of Dunedin serenaded the curlers.
The opening ceremony was held on Monday morning and the Australian’s forgot their country started with and “A” and walked next too last. None the less, the ceremony was awesome and a real thrill for all.
The first game started poorly with Hungary scoring 3, however we hung in there and the come back culminated in a four pointer in the sixth end which finally saw us get on top. However, this was short lived and we suddenly found ourselves facing three with our last rock to come. Fortunately, the old hound dog skip came through with a brilliant draw to the four foot for the victory.
Tomorrow we face a very tough test with Japan in the morning and Canada in the evening. 27/04/2009Australia’s leading ice sports athletes took some time out and attended the Inaugural Australian Ice Sports  Awards for at Brighton Beach in Sydney on Thursday evening. It was a celebration of the growing strength of the nation’s ice sport teams, with the Australian Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, the Australian Curling Federation, Australian Ice Racing, and Ice Skating Australia announcing their respective Athlete of the Year, Coach of the Year, Junior Athlete of the Year and Outstanding Achievement awards. Congratulations to the Curling Award Winners Junior Athlete of the Year: Maddie Wilson (pictured above on left)
Coach of the Year: Lyn Gill (pictured above on right)
Outstanding Achievement award: Hugh Millikin
Athlete of the Year: Sean Hall 
Congrats Hugh (pictured above with ACF President John Anderson) on your Longevity award <grin>. 16/04/2009After 3 years of playing and competing internationally with the single goal of Olympic qualification for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver …we missed by ½ a point. See the chart below of the standings at the conclusion of this year’s World Championships. The top 10 countries are heading to Vancouver, and we are in 11th. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curling_at_the_2010_Winter_Olympics 
While we are disappointed, we are very proud of our International achievements over the past few years including: - 2 Pacific Championships Gold Medals
- 4 straight World Championship appearances
- 6th Place in the World Championships last year
- Medals in the past 2 Karuizawa Winter Festival tournaments
We are now looking forward to this years National Championships to be held in New Zealand, and hopefully qualifying us for representation at the New Zealand Winter Games and the Pacific Championships. Thank you to everybody who encouraged and supported us over the past few years in a variety of ways, most importantly to our wives and families who had to sacrifice the most while we trained and competed overseas. Cheers
<Ian Palangio> 13/04/2009It’s that time of year when the locals in Brisbane dust off the hacks and begin curling at Boondall Ice Rink in Brisbane. If you want to learn more about curling in Brisbane and have a go head over to http://qldcurling.com/ This year, the gang had a visit from Nitro the host of the Kid’s TV show “The Shak”. Nitro did some filming with the juniors curling and will be broadcast on Channel 9 sometime in April/May. Keep an eye on the Shak for it! 
Cheers <Ian Palangio> |
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