Kaitlyn Lawes and her Fort Rouge team (Selena Njegovan, Jocelyn Peterman, Kristin McCuish, Coach Connor Njegovan) have won the Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts presented by RME.
Team Lawes jumped out to a 4-1 lead after three ends but Beth Peterson and her Assiniboine Memorial team fought back to tie 7-7 after eight. A Lawes deuce in the ninth end set the stage for a dramatic tenth when Peterson had a chance to draw through a narrow port to the four foot circle for a pair and a tie. She navigated the port but slid a few inches too deep and scored just a single and final 9-8 score in the Lawes victory.
The Lawes deuce on the ninth came on one of the finest shots of the event when Kaitlyn Lawes faced two and played a re-direct hit, just rubbing off a Peterson stone in the front of the eight foot circle and doubling out the second stone on the centre line in the back of the eight foot circle.
The Peterson team matched shots throughout the game with the #1 seed and CTRS #4 ranked Lawes team.
It continued a run which began when they qualified for the championship round with a 3W-2L round-robin record. They were the only team to win all three championship round games and then played a precision control game to win the semi-final over #2 seed Kate Cameron (Granite).
Team Lawes will represent Manitoba as Team Manitoba at the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts in February, joining Team Canada Kerri Einarson and CTRS #2 ranked Jennifer Jones as teams for Manitoba curling fans to cheer for.
Beth Peterson’s Assiniboine Memorial team was the only one to win all three of their championship round games and will advance to the Sunday playoffs of the Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts presented by RME.
Peterson, the fourth seed in the competition, defeated both #2 Kate Cameron (Granite) and #3 Jolene Campbell (AMCC) as well as Zoey Terrick (Heather) in the team’s successful run to the playoffs.
Top seed Kaitlyn Lawes (Fort Rouge) lost Saturday morning to Campbell but bounced back to beat Cameron in an afternoon game which gave them a 7W-1L record and first place in the standings. With the win, the Lawes foursome earned the bye to the Sunday afternoon (2:00PM) final.
Cameron finished with a 6W-2L record, tied with Peterson, and the two will meet in the Sunday morning (9:30AM) semi-final.
With Peterson posting the third win Saturday afternoon, the only other team with a playoff hope was the Jolene Campbell team. A last round loss to Kristy Watling (East St. Paul) dashed the Campbell team’s hopes as they both finished with 5W-3L records.
Six teams have advanced to the Championship Round of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts presented by RME in Morden.
Kaitlyn Lawes (Fort Rouge) and Kate Cameron (Granite) solidified a hold on a Sunday playoff position by improving their perfect records to 6W-0L to lead the way.
Trailing by three after giving up a four-ender to Kate Cameron, Kristy Watling fought back to tie with a steal of two on the eight end. Watling made two great draws (red) behind a Cameron stone biting the front four foot circle and Cameron (yellow) slid by to give up the steal. It was not enough as Cameron took two back on the ninth end enroute to victory
Lawes defeated Zoey Terrick’s Heather team while Cameron was a winner over Kristy Watling, scoring a four on the sixth end for a three point lead and then scoring two on the ninth after Watling had tied the score. Terrick and Watling have 3W-3L records.
Beth Peterson (AMCC) pulled even with Jolene Campbell (AMCC) and both are in the playoff chase after Peterson’s evening win over her clubmate gave both a 4W-2L record.
The top three teams in each pool advanced from the preliminary round-robin to play each of the teams from the other pool. They carry their records forward and after the three game round, the top three will advance to a playoff round with the top team earning a bye to the Sunday afternoon final.
Earlier Friday to wrap up the round-robin, Kaitlyn Lawes (Fort Rouge), with a last round win over Beth Peterson (AMCC), and Kate Cameron (Granite), with a last rock draw to win 6-5 over Jolene Campbell (AMCC), topped their pools respectively. Zoey Terrick’s young Heather team had a last round win over Lisa McLeod to earn the third championship round spot behind Cameron and Campbell.
Behind Lawes in her pool, three teams were tied for second place with 3W-2L records. Beth Peterson (AMCC) and Kristy Watling (East St. Paul) advanced while Shaela Hayward’s U-18 Champions from Carman were outside looking in after the tiebreaker last stone draws tally was implemented.
FINAL ROUND ROBIN STANDINGS: ASHAM BLACK POOL 5-0 Kaitlyn Lawes (Fort Rouge) 3-2 Beth Peterson (AMCC) 3-2 Kristy Watling (East St.Paul) 3-2 Shaela Hayward (Carman) …. finish fourth in the pool on draw-to-button ranking 1-4 Emma Jensen (Heather) 0-5 Emily Cherwinski (AMCC)
FINAL ROUND ROBIN STANDINGS: ASHAM EXPRESS RED POOL 5-0 Kate Cameron (Granite) 4-1 Jolene Campbell (AMCC) 3-2 Zoey Terrick (Heather) 2-3 Lisa McLeod (Portage) 1-4 Tiffany Armstrong (Dauphin) 0-5 Rachel Kaatz (AMCC)
Three teams remain undefeated after two days of play at the Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts presented by RME in Morden.
Shaela Hayward’s U-18 Manitoba champions have gained great experience this week at the Scotties. At the same time, the young team is within a win of advancing tot he next round of play at the Scotties – an impressive first appearance at this level.
The top three seeds, Kaitlyn Lawes (Fort Rouge), Kate Cameron (Granite), and Jolene Campbell (Assiniboine Memorial) all won their two games on Thursday to improve their records to 4W-0L. The three are assured of being among the six teams who will advance beyond the preliminary round-robin.
Behind Lawes in the Asham Black pool are Beth Peterson (AMCC) with a 3W-1L record and Kristy Watling (East St. Paul) and Shaela Hayward (Carman), both with 2W-2L records.
Behind Cameron and Campbell in the Asham Express Red pool are Zoey Terrick (Heather) and Lisa McLeod (Portage), also both with 2W-2L records.
Based on the results in the final round of play Friday morning, two of Peterson, Watling and Hayward will advance to the next round and either Terrick or McLeod will advance.
The top three teams from each pool carry their round-robin records forward and play three more games, against the three teams from the other pool. If needed, a single tiebreaker game will be played Saturday evening. The Sunday playoff round will feature the second and third place teams facing off with the winner advancing to play the first place team.
ASHAM BLACK POOL STANDINGS: 4-0 Kaitlyn Lawes (Fort Rouge)
Only three teams survived the opening day with two wins at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts presented by RME in Morden’s Access Event Centre.
First seed Kaitlyn Lawes and her Fort Rouge team is the only unbeaten team in the six-team Asham Black Group. In the Asham Express Red Group, #2 seed Kate Cameron (Granite) and #3 Jolene Campbell (Assiniboine Memorial) both won their opening day pair of games.
It was a bold first end attempt by Kate Cameron – playing an outside-in attempt to bump her own rock and roll on for a pair. The shot over-curled and stopped in the rings for a single point but it set the tone. A deuce on the 3rd end and two more on the 7th gave the Cameron foursome a 7-4 win and their second win of the day.
Fourth seeded Beth Peterson (Assiniboine Memorial) and fifth seeded Kristy Watling (East St. Paul opened with wins but lost their second games of the day. Watling lost to Lawes while Peterson lost to Manitoba’s U-18 champions, the Shaela Hayward team from Carman.
With Lawes in the Black pool are four teams with a win and a loss and one team with a pair of opening day losses.
Dean Dunstone looks on as Andrew Irving calls the sweeping in his 4-1 Asham Event final game victory
Andrew Irving and his Fort Rouge team have won their second consecutive Manitoba Open bonspiel championship. The Fort Rouge team defeated Dean Dunstone (Granite) 4-1 Monday evening at St. Vital. It makes the Irving foursome the first back-to-back bonspiel champions in the years since the Manitoba Open format was implemented.
Irving’s ASHAM Event winning team this year includes Brad Van Walleghem, Ronan Gueret, Roy Janz, and Alex Forrest. In addition to the bonspiel championship, the Fort Rouge team also earns an invitation to compete in the Viterra championship in Stonewall, February 6-11.
The Dunstone team, which includes Greg Melnichuk, Al Purdy, Bruce Wyche, and Scott Kidd will be invited to compete in Stonewall as the winner of a Manitoba Open berth.
The third Manitoba Open Viterra invitation belongs to Brad Micholson – Deer Lodge (Ian Campbell, Rayan Lagace, Paul Nielands, Norm Gautron) after a NOTT AUTOCORP Event final game 7-6 win over Paul Scinocca – St. Vital (Ed Barr, Joel Marcon, Joel Newberry, Logan Schirmeister)
The Dunstone berth became available because the finalists in the ORIGINAL 16 Event, Corey Chambers (Portage) and Steen Sigurdson (Deer Lodge) could not use the bonspiel berth. Sigurdson’s team is already qualified for Stonewall and Chambers’ Mixed team would not be eligible for the Viterra Men’s championship.
For the record, the Original 16 final game was won Team Sigurdson (Josh Claeys, Scott Bruce, Scott Peterson) with a 6-4 win over Chambers ( Lisa McLeod, Julien Leduc, Jolene Callum).
The winners of the minor events in the bonspiel were: ATKINS: Lucas Pedersen (Arden) defeated Tom Cameron (Pembina) 12-7 MANITOBA HYDRO: Michael Zacharias (Roland) defeated Tom Scott (Hibbing, MN) 9-4 DYNASTY: Kristy Mackie (St. Vital) defeated Andrew Wickman (Fort Rouge) 5-4 BITUMINEX PAVING: Craig Nicholl (Stonewall) defeated Alex Stanley (Pembina) 9-2 MANITOBA PORK COUNCIL: Rob Keough (Deer Lodge) defeated Evan Gillis (Morden) 9-4 CURLMANITOBA: Ken Ringaert (Fort Rouge) defeated Greg Bartley (Pembina) 7-3 MCMUNN & YATES: Mike Mahon (Granite) defeated Jeremy Sundell (Holland) 7-6 SPORT MANITOBA: Harvey Levitt (Pembina) defeated Justin Reischeck (Carberry) 9-8
Andrew Irving (Fort Rouge) is two wins away from winning a second consecutive Asham main event championship in the Manitoba Open. Corey Chambers (Portage) is two wins away from skipping the first mixed team to the bonspiel championship. And a dozen teams (if they are eligible) are closing on on a Viterra championship berth.
As play begins this morning, there are 4 teams still alive in the chase for the Manitoba Open Championship AND a total of 20 still playing in the main (Asham) and the next two (Nott Autocorp & Original 16) events which lead to a Viterra Championship berth. Many of the names are well known or at least recognizable.
That does not mean 20 eligible teams for three berths. Some already have berths, at least one is a mixed team, at least one is an out of province team, and a casual observer won’t know who is ineligible OR who is planning a sunny vacation at the time of the Viterra.
So that will all play out over today’s draws but as play begins, here are the survivors.
ASHAM 9AM: Winners play Monday at St Vital for the Championship Andrew Irving (Ft Rouge) vs Paul Scinocca (St Vital) AT Heather Corey Chambers (Portage) vs Dean Dunstone (Granite) AT St. Vital
ORIGINAL 16 9AM: Winners play at 3PM at St Vital Ryan Hlatkey (St Vital) vs Steen Sigurdson (Deer Lodge) AT Elmwood Merv Satterthwaite (St Vital) vs Dennis Bohn (AMCC) AT Elmwood Allan Godfrey (St Vital) vs Evan Martin (East St Paul) AT Fort Rouge Derrick Anderson (Gimli) vs Timothy Friesen (East St Paul) AT Fort Rouge
NOTT AUTOCORP NOON: Winners play at 6PM at St Vital or Assiniboine Memorial Dan Birchard (Pembina) vs Justin Reynolds (Wpg Beach) AT Fort Rouge Jeff Stewart (Gladstone) vs Brett Walter (AMCC) AT St. Vital Howard Doerksen (Pembina) vs Sean Grassie (Deer Lodge) AT Assiniboine Memorial Darren Perche (Charleswood) vs Soctt Moncur (Canmore AB) AT West St. Paul
At first glance only 12 of those teams MIGHT be eligible to win a Viterra berth – by this stage, eligibility has been confirmed, but it would take a reporter with more energy to track down the exact details.
And besides, my team and 31 others are still playing this morning in the Half ‘Spiel
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SEVEN TEAMS ALREADY HAVE VITERRA BERTHS Steen Sigurdson (Deer Lodge) Dan Birchard (Pembina) Juston Reynolds (Winnipeg Beach) Jeff Stewart (Gladstone) Brett Walter (AMCC) Sean Grassie (Deer Lodge) Darren Perche (Charleswood) Corey Chambers (Portage) – already has a berth with Braden Calvert – but the ‘spiel team is a mixed one with Lisa McLeod & Jolene Callum, so would be ineligible anyway.
AND WHO ELSE CAN’T WIN ONE? Scott Moncur – Canmore, AB
As noted above, there may be other ineligible teams as well – determining that as they advance makers for an interesting day!
Walk onto a sheet of curling ice that you have never played on – or maybe played on last year once – and throw a draw which covers the pinhole. No practice – no sweeping! Impossible – right?
Not anymore.
Assiniboine Memorial past-President Ken Onagi did it last night at Charleswood, before the opening draw of the Manitoba Bonspiel. His success earned him the use of a Tesla vehicle for a month complements of Nott Autocorp.
Nott Autocorp and CurlManitoba have partnered in the contest for the last nearly ten years. Each year, three bonspiel competitors are drawn randomly and they take part in the shootout during the bonspiel’s opening ceremony.
The rules are that simple – one shot, no practice, so sweeping and stop your stone fully within the button’s outside line.
The closest anyone has come in the past is a draw which stopped fully in the four foot.
Ken Onagi will admit he probably isn’t going to win the bonspiel championship but for all time, he has bragging rights to being the first to make what used to be considered an impossible curling shot!
(l-r) Art Oakes, Jane Howe, Jaelyn Perche, Ron Margolis (CurlManitoba Photo: Connie Laliberte)
The Manitoba Open bonspiel kicked off Thursday with opening ceremonies at the Charleswood Curling Club.
Over a thousand curlers, 192 teams in the Open and 64 teams in the weekend half ‘spiel, will populate the Winnipeg curling clubs for the next four days.
The bonspiel continues to attract curlers young and not so young; rural and city teams; men and women; high skill players and some maybe not so much. In what is still the world’s largest bonspiel, all 192 teams were equal at the first rock, equal in their love of the game and all with a chance to win the bonspiel championship.
That equal chance will change rapidly in the first two days as teams drop to the lower level events – leaving the more skilled teams to compete for the bonspiel championship and for eligible teams, a chance to win one of three available Viterra Championship berths.
The ceremonial opening rock was handled by junior Jaelyn Perche and dedicated Charleswood club volunteer Jane Howe (as the sweepers), club past-president Ron Margolis (holding the broom), and 86 year old Art Oakes, the oldest active curler at Charleswood (throwing). The ceremonial rock came up a little short of the rings but found an even better stopping point in a Charleswood club logo just in front of the rings.
The Manitoba Historical Society has recognized CurlManitoba (and its predecessors Manitoba Curling Association, Manitoba Ladies Curling Association, & Manitoba Branch of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club) with the presentation of the Society’s Centennial Organization Award.
Gary Moir-MHS Council Member, Keith Johnston – CurlManitoba President, Dan Furlan – MHS President, Craig Baker - CurlManitoba Executive Director
The award is presented to non-profit and not-for-profit organizations that have operated continuously in Manitoba for 100 years or more. This program parallels MHS’s Centennial Farm and Centennial Business Awards.
The award was presented at the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Manitoba Open Bonspiel at Charleswood Curling Club, Thursday, January 19 by MHS President Dan Furlan and Council Member Gary Moir.
In making the presentation, Furlan & Moir explained that the award honours organizations which have enhanced Manitoba’s social, cultural and economic life for over 100 years.
To date, the award has been presented to about 35 organizations by the Manitoba Historical Society which was formed in 1879, predating the Manitoba Curling Associations by about a decade.
CurlManitoba President Keith Johnston, who accepted the presentation on behalf of the 135 years of Association Presidents who have preceded him, expressed sincere appreciation for the recognition as acknowledgement of the important role the sport of curling has played in clubs and communities right across the province.
The original curling association, the Manitoba Branch of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club of Scotland, was formed following a meeting at Winnipeg’s Granite Curling Club on December 6, 1888. The seven originating member clubs were the Granite and Thistle Clubs from Winnipeg plus the clubs from Carberry, Portage, Morden, Stony Mountain, and Stonewall.
In 1908, most likely because of costs relating to the formal membership in the Scottish Association, the organizational structure and the name were changed to Manitoba Curling Association – in affiliation with the Royal Caledonian Curling Club of Scotland.
By 1921, a revised Constitution simply stated “the organization shall be called the Manitoba Curling Association and shall be affiliated with the Royal Caledonian Curling Club of Scotland.”
In 1925, the Manitoba Ladies Curling Association was established. The men’s (MCA) and women’s (MLCA) curling associations operated independently for the next 75 years, with one important junction point. In the early 1980’s a ‘joint council’ was established with representation of five persons (usually the executive committees) from each organization meeting together to manage projects of mutual interest. Mainly this related to the technical development aspects of the sport, including the hiring of the first technical sport staff.
In 2000, the Manitoba Curling Association and the Manitoba Ladies Curling Association amalgamated to form one provincial curling association. It was known as the Manitoba Curling Association.
In approximately 2010, the organization adopted the name now utilized – CurlManitoba. While the legal name of the organization remains Manitoba Curling Association, this name is rarely used except in formal situations such as legal contracts.
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