(March 14) Dave Boehmer and his Petersfield team (Dale Lott, Sean Bracken, George Hacking, Alternate Scott Szydlik) have won CurlManitoba’s Strathcona Senior Men’s championship. It is the second championship in three years for the team and the win moves Boehmer and Hacking into a tie with the Neufeld team with their now-record five Manitoba Senior championships.

In a re-match of the 2024 final against Randy Neufeld and his La Salle team (Dean Moxham, Peter Nicholls, Dale Michie, Alternate Larry Borus), Neufeld led 2-1 after a conservative first half when Boehmer blanked the third and fourth ends. The Petersfield skip stuck on an attempted blank on the fifth end to tie the game at 2-2 and give Neufeld last stone advantage.

The last three ends of the game turned into a chess match which Boehmer won, stealing two on the sixth end to lead 4-2 and giving back a deuce to come home tied 4-4 with last stone.

On the final end, lying two already, Boehmer executed a near perfect freeze to his shot stone on the button. Facing three and with his clock ticking down, Neufeld’s desperation hit attempt almost worked but he left the new champions a pair of counters without them having to throw their final rock.

The final game was also a re-match of this year’s Page 1-1 Playoff game which was won 6-2 by Neufeld.

Boehmer trailed in the Monday morning semi-final but stole singles on the home end and the extra end to defeat Paul Scinocca (Charleswood) 6-5. Scinocca had beaten Dean Dunstone (Granite) 5-4 in the Page 2-2 Playoff game.

In the playoff quarterfinal games, which serve as qualifiers for the Page 2-2 Playoff game, Scinocca stole single points on ends 6, 7, and 8 to beat Mike Mahon (Granite) 5-4. Dunstone scored two coming home to defeat Butch Mouck (Minnedosa) 5-3.

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(March 23) FIRST EVER SENIOR WOMEN’S TITLE FOR ST. VITAL: Marlene Lang and her St. Vital team (Pamela Kok, Jackie Hendrickson, Patti Ulrich) have won the Pharmasave Senior Women’s Championship with a Sunday afternoon victory at the East St. Paul Curling Club. Remarkably, it is the first Senior Women’s title for a St. Vital team in the 56-year history of the event.

The Lang foursome completed their four-game round robin with a 3W-1L record but were awarded a spot in the Page 1-1 Playoff game based on the tiebreaker formula. Joelle Brown’s Fort Rouge team had an identical record and tiebreaker advantage.

The Lang-Brown Page 1-1 Playoff game was won 10-1 by the St. Vital team, forcing the Fort Rouge team to the semi-final where they defeated Jennifer Clark-Rouire’s Fort Garry team in a close 5-4 match.

In the final game re-match, coming out of the mid-game break, the Lang foursome scored a four to lead 6-2 enroute to a 10-3 victory.

The CurlManitoba record book shows numerous St. Vital based junior champions, Karen Young and Jennifer Jones (several times) as women’s/Scotties champions, and three Masters Women champions; Elaine Jones, Sylvia Erickson, and Pat Malanchuk.

There has only been one St. Vital Men’s champion, Dave Smith, in the 100 year history of the Manitoba men’s championship. No St. Vital team has ever won the Mixed title.

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(March 19 – CurlManitoba Release) CHAMPIONSHIP RECORDS COULD BE SET AT CURLMANITOBA’S SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS: Randy Neufeld (La Salle) and Terry Ursel (Portage) can set new records in Manitoba Senior curling by winning championships this week at East St. Paul in the Strathcona Senior Men’s and Pharmasave Senior Women’s respectively.  Dave Boehmer (Petersfield) and Kim Link (East St. Paul) can join the current record holders if their teams win the championships

Neufeld and his La Salle team (Dean Moxham, Peter Nicholls, Dale Michie) will attempt to add to an already record number of Manitoba Senior Men’s championships when the Strathcona Trust Senior Men’s Championship takes place at East St. Paul Curling Club beginning March 19-24.

The defending, and five-time champion, Neufeld team has been seeded #1 in the 16-team field by the other competing teams.

Petersfield’s Dave Boehmer, who has won four senior championships with two different line-ups and can move into a number-of-wins tie with Neufeld, skips the #2 seeded team. The Boehmer line-up is the same which won the 2023 championship (Dale Lott, Sean Bracken, George Hacking).

Dean Dunstone’s Granite team (Greg Melnichuk, Al Purdy, Bruce Wyche) is the number three seed with 2017 champion Murray Warren’s Brandon team (Jim Renwick, Terry Warren, Ray Tomiak) ranked number four by the teams.

The listed alternates on the four top seeded teams are Larry Borus (Neufeld), Scott Szydlik (Boehmer), Scott Kidd (Dunstone), and Reg Warren (Warren).

Neufeld and Warren headline the Asham Pool in the 16-team round robin format event. Their group includes Wayne Ewasko (Beausejour), Sam Anitla (Burntwood), Paul Scinocca (Charleswood), Barry Swain (Granite), Butch Mouck (Minnedosa), and Gord MacKay (Pembina).

Boehmer and Dunstone lead the Asham Ultra Force pool which also includes Lawrie Hogg (Assiniboine Memorial), Mark Anderson (Brandon), Dean North (Carman), Mike Mahon (Granite), Lawrence Daniel (Hamiota), and Colin Grenkow (Pembina)

Competition begins at 9AM, Thursday, March 20 and continues through to the final at 1PM on Monday, March 24.

Since the Manitoba Senior Men’s championship began in 1965 Neufeld leads the way with five championships while Boehmer and Lloyd Gunnlaugson both have four titles. Kelly Robertson and Barry Fry each skipped three champion teams.

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In the Pharmasave Senior Women’s, three-time former champion Kim Link and her East St. Paul team (Colleen Kilgallen, Renee Fletcher, Pam Namaka) have been rated the #1 seed by their competitors.

The second seed is the Fort Garry team of Jennifer Clark-Rouire (Karen Klein, Susan Baleja, Michelle Shields Buchanan, Coach Howard Restall) while the third seed is 2023 champion Joelle Brown and her Fort Rouge team (Maureen Bonar, Allyson Bell, Natalie Claude).

Defending champion Kathy Isaac’s Hamiota team (Lynn Sandercock, Sheila Gregory, Sandra Cowling) are the fourth seed in the ten-team event.

Link and Isaac are joined in the Asham pool by Laurie Macdonell (Beausejour), Marlene Lang (St. Vital), and 2012 champion Laurie Deprez (Stonewall).

With Clark-Rouire and Brown in the Asham Ultra Force pool are Lori Pelissier (East St. Paul), Terry Ursel (Portage), and Marla Boyd (St. Vital)

Listed alternates for the four top seeded teams are Karen Fallis (Link) and Kim Horne (Brown).

Competition begins at 9AM, Thursday, March 20 and continues through to the final at 4PM on Monday, March 24.The Manitoba Senior Women’s began in 1969. Ursel, who is already a four-time champion skip, can set a record with a fifth win in 2025. With a win on home ice, East St. Paul’s skip Kim Link can move into a tie at the top of the number-of-championships list with Joan Ingram and Elaine Jones and Ursel who each won four championships. Dorothy Mackenzie, Mabel Mitchell, Joyce McDougall, Linda Van Daele, and Lois Fowler each skipped three champion teams.