In the ninth end of his matchup, Gushue had to ask officials to get a fan to leave his seat due to excessive heckling
Brad Gushue had to take matters into his own hands on the opening night of the 2024 Montana’s Brier on Friday night in Regina.
The skip of Team Canada had to eject a fan — a first for the 21-year Brier veteran and five-time champion.
Up 5-4 in the ninth end of the opening game of the Canadian men’s curling championship at the Brandt Centre, Gushue — the two-time defending champion — was getting ready to throw his final stone of the end before pausing, getting out of the hack and signalling to officials by making an ‘X’ with his arms, signalling a technical timeout request.
Gushue proceeded to head to the other end of the ice and wait as officials came down and dealt with the matter: an unruly fan in the front row mere feet away from the hack where Gushue was about to throw his stone. As the umpires made their way down, Gushue’s teammate E.J. Harden could be seen talking to the fan before the officials stepped in and asked him to leave.
“There was a gentleman down by the ice,” Gushue explained to media after the game. “He was there for quite some time but in the ninth end he got a little more aggressive than he had been.
“E.J. kind of asked him to keep it down and then they kind of got into it and it was time to get him removed.
“There was probably one too many Original 16’s in his system I think.”
The fan appeared to argue his case before getting out of his seat. He then made his way to the concourse along with another individual that was sitting with him.
With the fan gone, Gushue proceeded to return to the hack and make the shot — a tough angle-raise to score two points — and ultimately winning the game 7-4 over Nova Scotia’s Matthew Manuel in front of 4,837 fans, including the individual asked to leave.
“I was able to reset, use my experience and threw probably the best rock I threw all game,” said Gushue.
And while Gushue has dealt with the odd heckle from the crowd in the past, he has never had someone that close to him say things which he wouldn’t repeat to media, which is why he requested the individual be removed.
“(In) 21 years of playing here, that’s the first time that ever happened,” said Gushue. “But when he’s 12 feet away from you and you’re sitting in the hack and he’s chirping and saying some inappropriate things, I think it’s best that he got a cab ride home.
“I can’t even count how many times I’ve had people chirping me when they’re up in the stands, and I think that’s all well and good, but when you’re that close and leaning over the boards, it’s kind of like ‘come on, give us a break, go sit down’ and fortunately he did.
“If he was doing the same thing up in the stands, like in the middle of the stands, it would have been fine. But he was leaning over the boards and no more than 10 or 12 feet away from me.
“He really isolated himself and made himself known.”
