(CurlManitoba Release) Teams from the now-closed Thistle Curling Club and from the Gimli Curling Club have won the Seagram’s Whisky Manitoba Curling Club Championships. They’ll be the Manitoba home-teams at the national championship at Assiniboine Memorial, in late November.

Kara Balshaw’s Thistle team of Heather Carson, Sandra Carson, Cathy Gingera, and alternate Kim Merasty went undefeated through the women’s division. Gimli’s Derrick Anderson with Justin Hoplock, Chris Sigurdson, and Mitch Einarson stumbled only once in seven games to win the men’s division of the event hosted by the Fort Rouge Curling Club.

Twenty-four teams from across Manitoba began the championship chase last Thursday.

The women’s championship final featured by a pair of highlight reel runbacks by Thistle skip Kara Balshaw – one on the seventh end for a three ender and one on the extra end. The latter became the game winning shot as Balshaw did not have to throw her last stone.

Team Balshaw started with the hammer and, after opening with a pair of blanks, Balshaw gave up a steal. She came close to giving up a bigger steal on the fourth end. Facing three, her hit facing three was tight to a guard just off-centre but she got by and stuck for a single and a tie after four ends.

Opposing skip Jennifer Clark-Rouire and her team of Karen Klein, Amanda Hickey, Kristie Moroz, and coach Ron Westcott moved ahead on the next end. A light-weight curling tap-back by Clark-Rouire, with her first stone of the sixth end, set up a pair and a 3-2 lead.

However, a Balshaw final rock double bump takeout on the seventh end put the Thistle team back in front. She had attempted the shot with her first but just rubbed a guard. Clark-Rouire, attempted to place a second guard but slid deep to the face of a Balshaw stone. The hit was just a little bit more open because the guard had been touched and there was no mistake on the last stone. Team Balshaw led 5-3 coming home.

The Fort Garry opponents fought back to score a deuce and a tie – setting up the dramatic extra end by Team Balshaw.

In the preliminary round, both Balshaw and Clark-Rouire had perfect 5W-0L records to earn first place in their respective pools. Team Balshaw had reached the final with a 7-5 win over former champion Stacey Irwin of Brandon while the Clark-Rouire foursome were 5-2 semifinal winners over Lisa Dickson (St. Vital).

The men’s final was controlled by Anderson’s Gimli team who opened the game with a three on the first end. Down four after two, Team Bohn rebounded with a four on the third end. Skip David Bohn (Bryan Galbraith, Dennis Bohn, Larry Solomon, Shane Walker) made an apparently perfect freeze to his own shot stone on the front of the button. With two Anderson rocks behind, a steal seemed certain but the Gimli skip’s deadly accurate big weight hit bounced three rocks out of the four foot to salvage a single and a 5-4 lead at the break.

The big hit moved momentum back to the Gimli side. A steal of one more, followed by a pair for Team Bohn had the game tied 6-6 after six ends but the Gimli foursome kept the pressure on and put a four on the board in the seventh for a 10-6 concession.

Bohn and Anderson had topped the pools in the round-robin portion of the championship. Both had 4W-1L records. Anderson’s Gimli team beat Andy Stewart (Stonewall) 7-3 and the Bohn foursome were 6-4 winners over Kyle Forsyth (Dauphin) in the men’s semifinals.

Thistle’s Team Balshaw and Gimli’s Team Anderson will represent Manitoba at the national Everest Club Championships in late November at Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club.

Jennifer Clark-Rouire (Ft Garry) and Kara Balshaw (Thistle) ended the round robin of the Seagram’s Whisky Women’s Club Championship with wins – giving both teams perfect 5W-0L records and first place in their respective pools.

Team JCR beat former champion Loris Pelissier (Thistle) 6-2 while Balshaw was a 9-5 winner over former champ Tracy Andries.

In the semifinals, Sunday at 10AM, Balshaw will play Stacey Irwin’s former champion Brandon team who finished second in their pool with a 4W-1L record.

The Clark-Rouire foursome will play Lisa Dickson (St. Vital) who defeated Tiffany Armstrong (Dauphin) in a late Saturday tiebreaker. The two had both won their final round robin games to finish at 3W-2L and force the tiebreaker.

In the Men’s tiebreaker, Grant Brown (Burntwood) and Kyle Forsyth (Dauphin) both scored a pair of steals but Forsyth scored one more point in a 5-4 tiebreaker win. Forsyth advances to play David Bohn (AMCC) while Andy Stewart (Stonewall) plays Derek Anderson (Gimli) in the semifinals.

Grant Brown and his Thompson team had a modest objective at the Seagram’s Whisky Men’s Curling Club Championship at Fort Rouge this week – play for at least as many hours as the one way drive from Thompson.

They were assured five games so five, 8-end games would do it! Five short games would not!!

They’re into  bonus time with a third win today – an afternoon win over Kyle Forsyth (Dauphin). The win left the two teams with a 3W-2L record – and the two teams required to play a tiebreaker for second place.

First in the pool went to the Derek Anderson (Gimli) team who finished 4W-1L with a final round win over Corey Thompson (Der Lodge).

The top two teams in the other pool advance to playoffs with identical 4W-1L records.  Andy Stewart (Stonewall) and Devid Bohn (AMCC) both won their final round games. Stewart beat Elmwood’s Brett Walter while Bohn eliminated Randy Neufeld (La Salle).

Bohn will have first place thanks to a round robin win over  Stewart.  

In the semifinals at  10AM Sunday at Fort Rouge, Bohn will play the Forsyth-Brown winner while Stewart plays Anderson.

Four Men’s teams and four Women’s teams have won their first two games at the Seagram’s Whisky Club Championships at Fort Rouge.

On the women’s side, Brandon’s former 3-time champion Stacey Irwin (Fordyce) beat former champion Lori Pelissier (Thistle) on the Friday early afternoon draw to record a second victory. Team Irwin is joined by Kara Balshaw (Thistle), Tiffany Armstrong (Dauphin), and Jennifer Clark-Rouire (Fort Garry) with two game perfect starts.

In the men’s division, David Bohn’s AMCC team beat former champion Mark Anderson (RIverview) earlier today to hold a 2W-0L record. The Bohn brothers have not competed at a serious level for several years but the quest for a ‘buffalo’ continues. Joining them in the hunt, still unbeaten are Andy Stewart (Stonewall), Derrick Anderson (Gimli), and Kyle Forsyth (Dauphin).

A Thursday evening game at Fort Rouge in the Seagram’s Whisky Men’s Curling Club Championship finished in true club-game style as former Manitoba junior champion Brett Walter elected to play a double kill for the win rather than a draw to force an extra end.

His opponent was Mark Anderson, the Brandon-Riverview skip who is the only former champion skip in the men’s field this week.

Up one coming home, thanks to a steal on end #7, Anderson buried a rock in the back eight foot leaving Walter a choice of draw for one or ‘go-for-it” (see picture). Walter and his Elmwood team elected to try the cross house double – didn’t make it and shook hands.

A loss by Manitoba Masters champion Randy Neufeld, recent winner of a Senior Men’s berth for this year, to Stonewall’s Andy Stewart in tonight’s first round of play in the Seagram’s Whisky Men’s Curling Club Championship exemplifies the “iffy” nature of the club championships event.

Playing with club teams, which by their nature tend to be somewhat less competitive, skips who might normally be favoured often find themselves on the bottom side of the score.

A confounding factor might also be that for the first time many competitors in the event are experiencing three new rules. They are playing the competitive circuit “no-tick” rule (guard touching centre line cannot be moved off the line within the first five rocks), they are playing with time clocks and they are playing with draw to the button to determine last rock.

None of these are foreign concepts to club curlers and curling fans but none of them are played in their regular club games.

For the record, results of the first round of play were:
Andy Stewart (Stonewall) 7-3 Randy Neufeld (La Salle)
Andrew Irving (Ft Rouge) 7-3 Grant Brown (Burntwood)
Kyle Forsyth (Dauphin) 8-2 Corey Thompson (Deer Lodge)
David Bohn (AMCC) 7-1 Kyle Csversko (Dauphin)
Derrick Anderson (Gimli) 10-5 Ryan Hyde (Portage)
Mark Anderson (Riverview) 5-3 Brett Walter (Elmwood)

The men’s teams all play Friday morning at 9AM.

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The Fort Rouge Curling Club and three of its teams are hosting 21 other teams from across Manitoba this week as the Seagram’s Whisky Men’s and Women’s Curling Club Championships become the first provincial championships of the 2023-24 season.

Andrew Irving and Natalie Carrierre and their teams are the host club representatives in the men’s and women’s divisions respectively. Former champion Tracey Andries and her team won a Winnipeg regional berth into the event.

Andries is one of three former Manitoba champion skips in the women’s competition, having won it in 2014, 2016 & 2017. Brandon’s Stacey Fordyce is also a three-time former champion, with wins in 2010, 2013 & 2017. Thistle’s Lori Pelissier skipped the champion team in 2012.

With berths earned last spring, Pelissier and Kara Balshaw will skip teams representing Thistle, the Manitoba curling original seven club which has closed its doors this season.

The rest of the women’s field is made up of Tiffany Armstrong (Dauphin), Tracy Blight (Portage), Lisa Dickson (St. Vital), Jennifer Clark-Rouire (Fort Garry), Kendall Kohinski (Neepawa), Sherri Horning (Burntwood), and Laurie Macdonell (Beausejour).

The 2022 Manitoba Curling Club Provincial Women’s was won by Lisa Birchard (Pembina).

Fordyce and her 2013 & 2017 teams and Andries with her 2016 team join Granite’s Meghan Armit and her 2011 team as Canadian champions in this event.

Riverview Curling Club’s Mark Anderson is the lone former champion skip in the 12-team men’s competition. He skipped the 2017 championship team. Fort Rouge’s Andrew Irving, the 2007 Manitoba Junior champion skip; Brett Walter (Elmwood), 2020 Manitoba Junior champion skip; and Randy Neufeld (La Salle), the reigning Manitoba Masters champion and 3-time Manitoba Seniors champion skip; also all have experience skipping Manitoba teams at Canadian Championships.

The rest of the men’s field includes teams skipped by Derrick Anderson (Gimli), David Bohn (Assiniboine Memorial), Grant Brown (Burntwood), Kyle Csversko (Neepawa), Kyle Forsyth (Dauphin), Ryan Hyde (Portage), Andy Stewart (Stonewall), and Corey Thompson (Deer Lodge).

The 2022 Manitoba Curling Club Provincial Men’s was won by Zacharay Wasylik (Pembina).

Manitoba’s Men’s champions have yet to win the national championship at this level.

The Seagram’s Whisky Curling Club Championships begin Thursday, October 26 with six-games draws at 6PM and 9PM. Competition will continue all day Friday and Saturday. Semi-finals at 10AM and finals at 2:30PM Sunday, October 29 will determine the Manitoba representatives who will compete at the national Everest Club Championships at Assiniboine Memorial in late November.