Stoughton to appeal $1000 fine

Canadian Press
3/16/2006 2:13:40 PM

REGINA (CP) - Manitoba skip Jeff Stoughton says he’ll appeal his $1,000 fine for unsportsmanlike conduct at the Canadian men’s curling championship.

The Canadian Curling Association disciplined Stoughton after he kicked rocks and slamming his broom in a game against New Brunswick on Wednesday, but Stoughton also said he was told by the CCA he had been accumulating offences, some of which he was unaware.

“I thought they would at least let me know I was accumulating some fines,” Stoughton said Thursday. “We’ll write a letter and see what they do.”

“A thousand dollars, give me a break.”

Stoughton was upset after New Brunswick scored four points in the fourth end of Wednesday morning’s game. Stoughton’s team, former world and national champions, were on route to a fourth straight loss in that game.

Stoughton said he kicked a couple of rocks in the corner and banged his broom on the ice in disgust, and when he was admonished by an official, he did it again.

But Stoughton said he received a letter from the CCA accusing him of throwing a water bottle during a game against Quebec and couldn’t remember doing so and that he had also committed an infraction against the Territories that he couldn’t remember either.

Both the CCA’s rule book and the competition guides each player receives has codes of conduct for players and what players can be fined for is in the latter.

“If someone goes ranting and raving and throwing chairs on the ice or something for 10 minutes, then certainly that’s a problem,” Stoughton said. “But if you can’t blow off some steam, I’m not really sure what you’re supposed to do.

“(The fine) seems a little extreme. They’re not paying me a salary. I’m not a professional football player getting fined because I spiked the football.

“We’re just arguing it’s seems a little extreme for a guy is out there trying to help the event and put on a show and have a good time.”

Each teams gets $14,000 at the Brier for wearing sponsors crests

and from the Athletes Assistance Fund and the top four split an extra $130,000 in prize money.

National and world champion Colleen Jones was fined $300 three months after the Canadian women’s championship in 2005 for signing autographs too long following a game, but her team did not have to pay it as the disciplinary process was later reviewed.

Source