The 1956 Macdonald Brier, the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

men's national

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...

championship, was held from March 5 to 9, 1956 at Moncton Stadium in Moncton, New Brunswick. A total of 25,800 fans attended the event. Both

Team Manitoba A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to infor ...

and Team Ontario finished tied for first in round robin play with 8-2 records, necessitating a tiebreaker playoff between the two teams. Manitoba, who was skipped by Billy Walsh defeated Ontario in the tiebreaker 8–7 in an extra end to capture the Brier Tankard in what is considered to be one of the greatest Brier finishes of all time. The game would come down to the last rock as Walsh delivered a perfect shot which snuck past the Ontario guard, then knocked the Ontario shot rock out of play while Walsh's rock managed to bite the 12 foot to capture the Brier championship. Walsh's winning shot was ranked 19th by

TSN TSN may refer to: Science and technology * Translin, DNA binding protein involved in microRNA function * Taxonomic serial number, a stable and unique taxonomic serial number issued by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System * The Science Netwo ...

in their ''Top 50 Curling Shots of All Time'' segment. This was Manitoba's fifteenth Brier championship and the second won by

Walsh Walsh may refer to: People and fictional characters * Walsh (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname Places * Fort Walsh, one of the first posts of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police * Walsh, Ontario, Norfolk ...

as a skip, with his first being in

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

. This was the first time in which a championship tiebreaker would go to an extra end and only the second time in which any tiebreaker game would go to an extra end (the other was the second place tiebreaker in

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

Event Summary

Heading into the Thursday evening draw (Draw 9),

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

was unbeaten with a 7–0 record with

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

right behind with a 6–1 record while

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, and

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

had an outside shot with 4-3 records. On the Thursday evening draw, Alberta would be eliminated with an 11–7 loss to

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Provi ...

while Saskatchewan defeated

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

11–5. Nova Scotia would defeat previously unbeaten Manitoba 15–4. Ontario took advantage and beat

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

10–8 to tie Manitoba in the standings heading into the final day. In the first matches on the final day,

would lose to

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

11-9 opening the door for

to be in the drivers seat heading into the final draw. Manitoba would do just that as they defeated

11-5 leaving Manitoba and Ontario as the only two teams that could win the Brier. In the final draw in the afternoon,

was sitting with an 8–1 record while

had a 7–2 record. A Manitoba win would have them clinch the Brier outright while Ontario needed a win against

and a Manitoba loss against

to force a tiebreaker playoff that evening. In the final draw, Ontario trailed 9–6 against Nova Scotia with two ends remaining, but Ontario would score five in the eleventh end then steal three in the last end to win 15–9. Saskatchewan handed Manitoba their second defeat of the Brier with a 12–10 win, which forced a tiebreaker playoff that evening between Manitoba and Ontario. The tiebreaker game between

and

would be an instant classic. After the first end was blanked, Ontario would strike first with two in the second but Manitoba would counter and tie the game at 2 after three ends. Both teams traded singles the next four ends, but Manitoba would take their first lead of the game at 5–4 with a steal of one in the eighth end. Ontario would tie the game with one in the ninth. Manitoba then scored one in the tenth and stole one in the eleventh to take a 7–5 lead heading into the final end. Ontario would score two in the last end to tie the game at 7. This meant for the first time ever that a tiebreaker playoff to decide a Brier would be decided in an extra end. Manitoba would have the hammer in the extra end, which would come down to the final stone. With Ontario having shot rock within the four foot in addition of having a rock in front of the house guarding that rock, Billy Walsh would have his work cut out for him prior to his final stone. As he released the stone, it slid past the Ontario guard into the house. The rock then struck Ontario's shot stone, which would roll out of play. Walsh's stone would roll out and would stop just biting the 12 foot to score one and capture the Brier championship in one of the greatest Brier finishes of all time. Walsh's winning shot is still considered one of the top shots in Brier history.

Teams

The teams are listed as follows:

Round-robin standings

Round-robin results

All draw times are listed in Atlantic Time ( UTC-04:00)

Draw 1

''Monday, March 5 3:00 PM''

Draw 2

''Monday, March 5 8:00 PM''

Draw 3

''Tuesday, March 6 9:00 AM''

Draw 4

''Tuesday, March 6 2:00 PM''

Draw 5

''Wednesday, March 7 2:00 PM''

Draw 6

''Wednesday, March 7 8:00 PM''

Draw 7

''Thursday, March 8 9:00 AM''

Draw 8

''Thursday, March 8 3:00 PM''

Draw 9

''Thursday, March 8 8:00 PM''

Draw 10

''Friday, March 9 9:30 AM''

Draw 11

''Friday, March 9 2:30 PM''

Playoff

''Friday, March 9''

References

External links

* Video: {{Canadian Men's Curling Championships Macdonald Brier, 1956 Macdonald Brier, 1956 The Brier Curling competitions in Moncton Macdonald Brier Macdonald Brier