Special to Western News
The future of men’s curling in Scotland appears to be in very good hands with Tom Brewster. His team has stepped up to carry the torch ignited by David Murdoch, a two-time gold medalist at the Ford World Men’s Curling Championship.
Brewster has been hammering at the door the past two seasons with emotional losses in the championship finals of the 2011 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship and the 2012 Capital One Men’s Curling Championship. At the 2011 Ford World Men’s in Regina, the Scots faced a red-hot Canadian crew skipped by Jeff Stoughton with top spot on the podium at stake. Last year, the final went to an extra end before Canada’s Glenn Howard wrestled away the gold medal in Basel, Switzerland.
The personable Scottish skip, along with teammates Greg Drummond, Scott Andrews and Michael Goodfellow, got a taste of victory as part of the Team World contingent that bested their North American counterparts in the eighth edition of the 2012 World Financial Group Continental Cup of Curling in Langley. It was a pressure-packed win that evened the international showdown at four championships apiece. After launching his competitive career on a high note with a 1995 World Junior Men’s Curling Championship gold medal, Brewster competed for several years in the shadows of international heavyweights such as Murdoch, Hammy McMillan and Warwick Smith. His next opportunity to experience the heat of international competition came in 2002 as an alternate for Smith in the Ford World Men’s Curling Championship.
The native of St. Andrews presently plays out of Curl Aberdeen, one of the premiere facilities in the community that is coincidentally known as “The Granite City.” As manager for Curl Aberdeen, Brewster understands all the intricacies of the ice — and he’s undoubtedly hoping that will be the case when he heads to South Okanagan Events Centre, Jan. 10 to 13 for the rematch between Team World and Team North America at the 2013 World Financial Group Continental Cup.
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