(UPDATE: 10PM,20-01-25) Ryan Hyde and his team accomplished three different things Monday evening at Assiniboine Memorial. They had already won the Viterra berth that they had set out to win – a chance to play at home in the 100th Manitoba Men’s championship event. So that’s not one of tonight’s three.

Pick whichever order you want as the more important of these three.

1) They won the Manitoba Open Bonspiel’s Asham event – the undefeated Bonspiel champion.

2) They avoided losing the final game to Scott Moncur’s team from Canmore, AB – and thereby avoided being beaten by what would have been the first bonspiel champion from Alberta in the history of the event which began in 1889.

3) They became only the third team from Portage to win the bonspiel championship in the 137-year history of the bonspiel.

So Ryan Hyde, Kenneth Keeler, Hartley Vanstone, Trevor Munro,and Eric Leduc join 1973 champion Jack Wolfe and his team (Ken Wolfe, Terry Owens, Don Thompson) and the 1989 Don Spriggs team (Kelly Collett, Garry Wright, Clarke Munro) as the only MCA/Manitoba Open bonspiel champions from Portage.

Check the CurlManitoba website for all of the event winners from the Manitoba Open, the Half Spiel,and the New Curlers Fun Spiel.

(UPDATE: 4PM, 20-01-25) HYDE, MAHON, DUNSTONE WIN THE VITERRA BERTHS: Ryan Hyde and his Portage team (Kenneth Keeler, Hartley Vanstone, Trevor Munro, Eric Leduc), Dean Dunstone – Granite (Greg Melnichuk, Al Purdy, Paul Janssen, Scott Kidd), and Mike Mahon – Granite (Blair Smith, Kyle Halford, and a player to be named later) have won the three Viterra berths available in the Manitoba Open bonspiel.

Hyde will play for the bonspiel championship in the Asham event final tonight at Fort Garry against Scott Moncur and a team from Canmore, Alberta. Of note is the fact that going back to the first bonspiel in 1889, there has never been a Grand Aggregate or (more recently) a bonspiel championship winner from Alberta.

Dunstone will also be on the ice at Fort Garry, playing the Tyler Drews Fort Rouge entry in the final of the Original 16 event.

Mahon, who played the entire bonspiel with three players, bowed out in the semis of the Nott Autocorp event but were the most advanced eligible team. They will add a fourth eligible player and the three must compete in Portage to maintain team eligibility.

There will be five event finals at Fort Garry and six at Assiniboine Memorial at 7PM Monday evening.

(11PM, 19-01-25) SO WHO WINS THE VITERRA BERTHS?? Please note: nothing here is OFFICIAL – it is just my best guesses.

The CurlManitoba website is updated to include all results except (obviously) the 9pm Sunday draw – on the ice at time of writing. Based on that ……..

ASHAM MAIN EVENT: Ryan Hyde and his Portage team appear to have won the ASHAM EVENT entry into the Viterra Championship, giving the Portage host committee a home team for their event. The Hyde foursome will play Scott Moncur and his Canmore, AB team for the bonspiel championship Monday evening. Since the Albertans are ineligible, I believe the Hyde team earns the berth, win or lose in the final.

In the other two berth events, the eight semi-finalists include (I believe) seven ineligible teams. Unless I am wrong on some of my assumptions – that means a berth playoff is going to be required.

ORIGINAL 16: Corey Chambers vs Tyler Drews and Jacques Gauthier vs Dean Dunstone. The Gauthier team is in the Viterra already, Chambers is on the Sean Grassie Viterra entry and the Drews team has 2 players already in the Viterra, so all three are ineligible. I believe the Dunstone line-up may include players who are members of different clubs and therefore ineligible (but I stress this is very unofficial, pending formal clarification of membership status).

NOTT AUTOCORP: Graham McFarlane vs Tim Friesen and Shawn Rojeski vs Mike Mahon. McFarlane is already in the Viterra so his team is ineligible and Rojeski is from Hibbing, MN so also ineligible. I believe the Friesen line-up may include players who are members of different clubs and therefore ineligible (again I stress this is very unofficial, pending formal clarification of membership status). The fourth team, Mike Mahon’s group have been playing with three all weekend but I believe they are eligible.

So what all this means (if my guesses on eligibility are correct) is that one berth winner for sure (Hyde) and one berth winner maybe (Mahon) have been identified. The third is probably going to come out of a playoff – but which teams that playoff will involve, I won’t even try to guess.

<><><><>

FOLLOWING IS THE CURLMANITOBA BERTH ALLOCATION DOCUMENT FROM THE CURLMANITOBA WEBSITE

VITERRA CHAMPONSHIP BERTH ALLOCATION
MANITOBA OPEN
ASHAM EVENT: First Berth
<> The winner of the ASHAM event will be awarded one berth if eligible.
<> If the ASHAM winner is not eligible the berth will go to the Finalist.
<> In the ASHAM event there is no count back prior to the finals as all teams drop to either the Original 16 or Nott Autocorp Events.

ORIGINAL 16 and NOTT AUTOCORP EVENTS: Second and Third berths
If the Asham Event winner is awarded the berth there are 2 remaining berths for 3 teams.
<> Asham Finalist
<> Original 16 Winner
<> Nott Autocorp Winner
These 3 teams will playoff for 2 berths if all 3 teams are eligible.

1. If one of the teams, Asham finalist, Original 16 winner OR Nott Autocorp winner, are
   ineligible, the berths will be awarded to the remaining two teams.
2. If two of the teams, Asham finalist, Original 16 winner and the Nott Autocorp winner, are
   ineligible one berth will be awarded to the remaining team.
   <> The final berth will be determined on a countback and playoff game (s) within the Original
   16 and Nott Autocorp Events at the same level.
   <> The playoff game will be determined by CurlManitoba immediately and the teams will be
   contacted.