The Curse of the Semi-finals

[pythonian]

I posted this on my journal but thought it appropriate for this community.  To fill in some blanks, I am a member of the Royal Montreal Curling Club (est. 1807) Check out:  Royal Montreal Curling Club.    Our annual bonspiel, the Centenary, is currently underway.  Formerly a men's event, it is now an open one.
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For those who don't know me, I

Comments

[songmonk]

My teams kept going out in the semifinals too. So frustrating!

Even worse is when it's the third game of a three-game guarantee. Lose two and win the third: play on Sunday. Win two and lose the third: watching on Sunday.

Here's an idea that I've wondered why places don't do. *If* there are enough sheets, why not have a A-bracket semifinals consolation game? No need for the B-bracket and C-bracket semifinal losers since they've lost at least two games already. But it's pretty sucky for the A-bracket semifinal losers to do so *well* and not play at the end. So if enough sheets are available, why not have this game?

Is it just tradition?

I'm a new curler (little over a year) in a area without much curling (California!) so my exposure to curling history and tradition is limited.

[pythonian]

To answer your question: It's a bit of both. In our club we only have 3 sheets and therefore have no room for it. However, we did alter the draw to give the "A" division teams an extra game if they have won their first two games.

The third game corresponds to the quarter finals (32 team bonspiel) so we changed it so the losers go to "B". All 4 "A" losers play off to be in the bottom half of the "B" semis.

We even had the option of allowing the losers of the "A" semis a way out but chose not to do that. No time and no tradition of a consolation round. A bonspiel in Boston in which I play does have that tradition; they also have a fourth sheet mind you. They call the event "The Sno'bowl", short for "There is no bowl" or trophy. Cute.