Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame & Museum President Peter Nicholls is pleased to announce that Sunrise Credit Union will be the Presenting Sponsor of the 2023 Induction Banquet when it is held at Brandon’s Victoria Inn on May 7, 2023.
“We very much appreciate the support of Sunrise Credit Union in our efforts to celebrate the five champion teams, the two curlers, and the two builders who will be honoured at our 2023 Induction Dinner,” Nicholls said. “It is our first time hosting the event in Westman since 1995 and we are pleased to have such as s strong western Manitoba institution join us in the celebrations.”
The 2023 inductees will include: TEAM: Martin Bailey (Heather) – 2004 Canadian Masters Champions TEAM: Doug Armour (Souris) – 2005 Canadian Masters Champions TEAM: Ray Orr (Minnedosa) – 2009 Canadian Masters Champions TEAM: Joyce McDougall (Brandon) – 2011 Canadian Masters Champions TEAM: Kelly Robertson (Neepawa) – 2011 Canadian Senior Champions (World Silver) CURLER: Doug Harrison CURLER: Ruth Wiebe BUILDER: Bob Flock BUILDER: Dave Petursson
The sponsorship by Sunrise Credit Union expands their support of curling Manitoba which began with support of CurlManitoba’s livestream broadcast program in 2022 and again in 2023.
“The history and heritage of curling in Manitoba have strong roots in rural Manitoba. We are pleased to see the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame dinner returning to Western Manitoba and Brandon for the first time in 28 years,” said Sunrise Credit Union President & CEO Tim Klassen. “We are happy to expand our sponsorship commitment to curling in Manitoba by supporting this event. We congratulate all the 2023 inductees on their achievements.”
Dinner details are being finalized with planned start times of 4:30PM (cocktails) and 5:30PM (dinner). Ticket purchases ($100 OR Table of 8 – $720) will be through the CurlManitoba office. Interested persons are invited to contact info@curlmanitoba.org to request information on exact timing and ticket purchases.
Randy Neufeld and his LaSalle team (Peter Nicholls, Darren Oryniak, Dale Michie) have won CurlManitoba’s Manitoba’s Credit Unions Masters Men’s championship with a 4-3 win over Mike Mahon and his Granite CC team.
The win for the LaSalle team mirrors the accomplishment of Laurie Deprez and her LaSalle team who won the Masters Women’s championship Sunday. It is the first time in the Manitoba’s Credit Unions sponsorship years that the two championships have been won by teams from the same club.
Randy Neufeld, Peter Nicholls, Darren Oryniak, Dale Michie
The Neufeld foursome was the top seed coming into the event and will have a chance to win a second Manitoba title in two weeks time when they compete as the defending champion in CurlManitoba’s Strathcona Seniors in Dauphin (with Dean Moxham replacing Oryniak).
The championship gives Nicholls, who won the 1994 Labatt Tankard in Thompson with Dave Smith, his seventh Manitoba “buffalo” championship crest as he also won the 2018 Manitoba Mixed to go with four Manitoba Senior Men’s.
Neufeld, Nicholls and Michie won the 2015, 2016, 2021, and 2022 Manitoba Senior Men’s titles. Michie also won the Manitoba Mixed in 2001. Oryniak is also a former Manitoba champion, having won the 2013 Manitoba Senior Men’s championship.
Randy Neufeld and his team had reached the final undefeated in the seven game round robin, to finish atop the Asham pool, and with a 7-5 victory over Team Mahon in the Page 1 vs 1 playoff game.
Mike Mahon (Bill Menzies, Blair Smith, Larry Borus) posted a 6W-1L record in round robin play to top the Asham Express pool. They had eliminated defending champion Murray Warren (Brandon) in the Monday morning semi-final when they won a last end measure and a steal to win 4-2. The Warren team had beaten Allan Gitzel (Miami) 6-4 in the Saturday evening Page 3 vs game.
Gord Mackay (Pembina) and Ray Baker (Dauphin) had also advanced past the round-robin stage but were eliminated in the first round of playoffs by Gitzel and Warren respectively.
(Sunday, March 12) PLAYOFFS SET IN MANITOBA MASTERS MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP IN THOMPSON Randy Neufeld’s LaSalle team have completed an undefeated run through the round-robin portion of the CurlManitoba Master’s Men’s Championship. The Neufeld team beat Jim Renwick (Brandon) 8-6 Saturday afternoon thanks to a big five-ender on the sixth end.
Trailing 6-4 at the time, Neufeld made a last rock triple kill for the five and a one-point lead enroute to the victory.
Ray Baker’s Dauphin team finished 5W-2L with a final game win over Butch Mouck (Minnedosa) and Gord MacKay’s Pembina team also finished 5W-2L with a final game win over Neil Schmidt (East St. Paul). Baker is awarded second place in the pool thanks to his round-robin win over MacKay.
In the other pool, Mike Mahon (Granite) defeated Allan Gitzel (Miami) on the morning draw to earn first place at 6W-1L while Gitzel dropped to 5W-2L and second place. Defending champion Murray Warren (Brandon) defeated Dale Brooks (Hamiota), giving both a 4W-3L record but Warren gets third spot in the standings thanks to the win.
Mahon and Neufeld advance to the Page 1-1 playoff game on Sunday evening. Baker will play Warren and MacKay will play Gitzel at 4PM Sunday with the winners advancing to the Sunday evening Page 2-2 game.
(Sunday, March 12, 2PM)DEPREZ WINS MANITOBA MASTERS WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP IN THOMPSON Laurie Deprez and her LaSalle team have won the Manitoba’s Credit Unions 2023 Masters Women’s Championship. Deprez, Deb McCreanor, Lori Pelissier, and Bev Atkins defeated Sandra Cowling’s Hamiota team 5-3 in the Sunday morning final in Thompson.
The Deprez foursome completed the championship with five wins and a loss. Their loss came in the round robin to Team Cowling who were unbeaten with four wins in the five-team round robin. The perfect record gave the Hamiota team a bye to the Sunday morning final.
In the Saturday afternoon semi-final, Team Deprez had an 8-7 win over defending champion Judy Colwell and her East St. Paul team.
A stolen two on the fifth end gave Deprez a 4-3 lead and another stolen single on the seventh, when Cowling rolled out facing two, gave the champions a 5-3 lead coming home.
The seventh steal was set up by a pick on Cowling’s first rock hit attempt on the only stone in the rings. The miss allowed Deprez to put a second stone in the rings. Cowling rolled out on her second hit to give up the steal.
Cowling, playing in their fourth consecutive final, ran out of stones coming home.
For Deprez and Atkins, it is a second Manitoba championship. Deprez skipped the 2012 Manitoba Senior Women’s champion team while Atkins played second on the 1984 Manitoba Mixed Champion team.
For McCreanor, it is a third Manitoba title. She previously skipped the Manitoba Club champions teams in 2018 & 2021.
For Pelissier, it is a fourth Manitoba championship. She was the second on Mixed champion teams in 1995 and 2000 as well as skipping the 2012 Club champions.
(Saturday, March 11)NEUFELD, COWLING LAST UNBEATEN TEAMS AT MANITOBA MASTERS IN THOMPSON Randy Neufeld (LaSalle), with five straight wins, and Sandra Cowling (Hamiota), with four wins, are the last two unbeaten teams in CurlManitoba’s Manitoba’s Credit Unions Masters Championships.
The last two unbeaten teams in both divisions met on the early draws Saturday at Thompson’s Burntwood Curling Club.
Cowling, whose team played as a wildcard Manitoba entry in last fall’s Canadian Masters Championship at the Pembina Curling Club, was last year’s finalist in this championship. The Saturday morning win over Laurie Deprez (LaSalle) earned the Hamiota team a return trip to the provincial final game.
The final game opponent, Sunday morning at 9AM, will be the winner of a semi-final game between Deprez and defending champion Judy Colwell (East St. Paul). Colwell finished the round-robin with only one win in four starts but came out on top of a three way tiebreaker with the other two teams.
In the Masters Men’s, Randy Neufeld’s foursome took on Ray Baker (Dauphin). A first end three, and a 5-1 lead after four ends, led to seven end victory for La Salle team which includes three members of the reigning Manitoba Senior Men’s champion team.
In their pool, Neufeld (5W-0L) and Baker (4W-1L) lead the way. Gord MacKay (Pembina) and Butch Mouck (Minnedosa) are both still very much in the chase for the third playoff spot at 3W-2L. With a record of 2W-3L, Jim Renwick (Brandon) still has an outside chance of making the playoffs.
In the other pool, Dale Brooks (Hamiota), Allan Gitzel (Miami), and Mike Mahon (Granite) lead the way with 4W-1L records. Defending champion Murray Warren (Brandon) has a 3W-2L record and Gerry Haight (Brandon) with a 2W-3L record can still make the playoffs.
Matt Dunstone and his Team Manitoba came up a shot short in their Tim Hortons Brier final game – a 7-5 loss to Brad Gushue’s Team Canada. Their 10-2 record included an unbeaten 8-0 round robin and two playoff wins over Brendan Bottcher’s wild card entry – but two playoff losses to Team Gushue.
Matt Dunstone, BJ Neufeld, Colton Lott, Ryan Harnden, Adam Kingsbury Curling Canada Photo: Mike Burns
The Western Canadian Blind Curling Championships will return to Manitoba March 8-11 when seven teams from British Columbia, Alberta, and Host Manitoba will compete in a round-robin tournament.
Organized Blind Curling first took place in 1972 as an awareness activity but soon grew into a competitive gathering of curlers. Alberta and Saskatchewan were joined by British Columbia and Manitoba in 1979. The Western Canadian Blind Curling Association, involving the four western provinces, was established in 1982, the same year that the event was hosted in Beausejour, Manitoba.
The game is played just like any other curling game with the exception that each team has an on-ice Coach who may provide needed help to the athletes. In particular this might involve holding a broom near to the person in the hack OR shining a light to give the thrower an idea of the required line of delivery.
The local host committee regrets that, due to health concerns, Saskatchewan is unable to be represented in what is being billed as a celebration of FIFTY PLUS YEARS of Western Blind Curling. The ‘flexible’ billing acknowledges the impact of the recent covid cancellations on the blind curling event.
British Columbia will be represented by teams from Vancouver and Prince George with the first time addition of a team from the Campbell River. Alberta will have the two representatives from the Edmonton Blind Curling league and Manitoba’s representatives are from the Manitoba Blind Sports Association.
The Manitoba teams are:
SKIP: Darren Hawkins Norm Lyons THIRD: Hunter McLaughlin Bill Liggins (from Ontario) SECOND: Debbie Martinuzzi Jennifer Moreland LEAD: Miriam Hesslebart Lucy Chase COACH: Brian Fredrickson Matt Hesselbart
Events at Charleswood will begin Wednesday, March 8 at 6:30PM with opening ceremonies followed by the first draw. There will be two draws a day (at 9:30AM & 1:30PM) on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Of special note, Manitoba’s Scotties champions, and former World Junior Champions, Mackenzie and Emily Zacharias, will participate in the Opening Ceremony. Mackenzie Zacharias has a relationship with Manitoba’s Blind Curling community going back to 2019 when, as part of a U of Manitoba studies practicum, she was involved in blind curling as an observer, coach, and participant (blindfolded) to better understand the sport as blind curlers experience it.
Good luck to all of the Manitobans chasing the Tim Hortons Brier championship this week in London, ON. Of course, the curler.com is cheering for a Dunstone-Carruthers rematch of the final we had a couple weeks ago in Neepawa. Failing that, there are several Manitobans in the field who we’d like to see in the final game.
Team Manitoba: Matt Dunstone, BJ Neufeld, Colton Lott, Ryan Harnden (Photo: Michael Burns – Curling Canada)Manitoba Wild Cards: Reid Carruthers, Connor Njegovan, Rob Gordon (Photo: Michael Burns – Curling Canada)Team Ontario skipped by Mike McEwen with Ryan Fry at third (left & second from left) (Photo: Michael Burns – Curling Canada)TEAM British Columbia skipped by Jacques Gauthier (left) (Photo: Michael Burns – Curling Canada)Alberta Wild Cards Team Sturmay with Kyle Doering at second (centre) (Photo: Michael Burns – Curling Canada)Team Nunavut skipped by Jake Higgs with Sheldon Wettig at third (second from left) (Photo: Michael Burns – Curling Canada)
(With the busy schedule of Scotties and Viterra commentary and playing in the Manitoba Stick Championship, I have been delinquent in not posting this story which has been in my files for a while! My apologies for the delay.)
Paige Smith-Heisler and Alasdair Buchanan, both Fort Rouge junior curlers, were the recipients of the inaugural Winnipeg Curling Club Association (WCCA) Youth Curler Awards. The award, in the form of a keepsake plaque and reimbursement of league fees, is an annual award. Recipients must be under 18 and exhibit exceptional attendance, significant improvement, and commendable sportsmanship within their youth program.
Fort Rouge organizers Kara Balshaw and Mike Granove had nominated the two award recipients. Nominations by organizers of any WCCA club junior program are encouraged to make nominations for 2022/23 awards by a deadline of April 15, 2023.
Prospective award recipients will have been enrolled in their home club’s youth program for at least three full years.
The WCCA comprises participating Winnipeg Region curling clubs and was established some years ago to provide the clubs with a common voice when liaising with CurlManitoba, as well as to share information and coordinate regional events.
Currently the President is Jason Shymanski and the Secretary is Paul Batchelor. Information is available at your club or by contacting Paul Batchelor at dpbatch823@gmail.com
CurlManitoba is pleased to announce that Seagram’s Whisky is expanding its support of curling and curling clubs in Manitoba as the new provincial title sponsor of CurlManitoba’s Curling Club Championships.
CurlManitoba’s relationship with Seagram’s Whisky began with their sponsorship of this season’s live-streaming of championship events in Portage, East St. Paul, and Neepawa.
“As a sponsor of our live-streaming program, Seagram’s Whisky helped provide exposure to over 650,000 viewers for this season’s Viterra Championship, Scotties Tournament of Hearts and TELUS Juniors,” said CurlManitoba Executive Director Craig Baker.
“When we talked with Seagram’s representatives about expanded opportunities to support curling here in Manitoba, our Curling Club Championships was an obvious excellent fit.”
Seagram’s is looking forward to our sponsorship with CurlManitoba as well as our Sponsorship of the Men’s and Women’s Provincial Curling Club Championships for the next 3 years and hopefully beyond that. Seagram’s has been a staple in curling clubs across our province for decades and we are happy to be able to give back to the curling community that has supported us for many years,” said Dean Clayton, Regional Marketing Manager for Charton Hobbs Inc., who are the provincial representative for Seagram’s Canadian Whisky.
The Seagram’s Whisky Curling Club Championships three-year agreement includes this year’s regional qualifying events in March across the province and the provincial championship at the Fort Rouge Curling Club location in the early fall of 2023. The Seagram’s Whisky Provincial Men’s and Women’s champions will represent Manitoba at the national Everest Club Championships at the Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club in November.
GOOD LUCK to the Manitoba teams in the Canada Games Men’s and Mixed Doubles competitions underway today in Prince Edward Island.
Mixed Doubles competitors Mackenzie Arbuckle and Aaron Macdonell start play at noon today (Central) while the Jace Freeman’s Men’s team (Elias Huminicki, Jack Steski, Rylan Graham, and Coach Graham Freeman will begin play tomorrow morning.
Altona’s Dayna Wahl team had a slow start in the Women’s division but advanced to the playoffs before being eliminated in the quarter-final by Saskatchewan. Nova Scotia defeated Alberta in the gold medal game.
Jace Freeman, Elias Huminicki, Jack Steski, Rylan Graham (Photo: Peter Nicholls)
TEAM CANADA -Kerri Einarson, Val Sweeting, Shannon Bichard, Brianne Harris, Krysten Karwacki, Coach Reid Carruthers defeated Jennifer Jones’ Team Manitoba in the 2023 Scotties final. It was a remarkable fourth win in a row for the Einarson foursome.
(Friday, February 17) FOUR TEAMS MANITOBA IN NATIONAL SCOTTIES Good luck to all four of the Manitoba teams playing this week in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Play began Friday evening with Kerri Einarson’s Team Canada winning 11-8 over Quebec and Kaitlyn Lawes’ Wild Card team coming from behind to beat Alberta 8-5. Lawes plays Nova Scotia and Einarson takes on British Columbia on the last draw Saturday.
Jennifer Jones’ Team Manitoba plays Northern Ontario and Meghan Walter’s Wild Card Manitoba team plays the the Alberta Wild Cards (Casey Scheidegger) on the afternoon draw.
The first Manitoba meeting is between Jones & Walter on the Sunday morning draw. Einarson and Lawes face off on Sunday afternoon.
Team Canada: Einarson (Photo Curling Canada/Andrew Klaver)Team Manitoba: Jones (Photo Curling Canada/Andrew Klaver)Team Wild Card: Lawes (Photo Curling Canada/Andrew Klaver)Team Wild Card: Walter (Photo Curling Canada/Andrew Klaver)
Colton & Kadriana Lott (Winnipeg Beach) have won the 2023 CurlManitoba Dynasty Mixed Doubles Curling Championship. The couple, who had previously won the Manitoba Mixed Doubles title in 2018, defeated Lisa McLeod & Lyall Hudson (Pembina) Monday afternoon at St. Vital Curling Club to complete an undefeated run thorough the championship.
Kadriana & Colton Lott with Dynasty rep Aaron Tycoles
For Colton Lott, this year’s second Mixed Doubles victory is a second provincial championship of the season and his sixth lifetime Manitoba curling title. He won the 2023 Viterra Men’s Championship at second for the Matt Dunstone team and previously won Manitoba Junior Men’s titles in 2012, 2013, and 2016. For Kadriana Lott (as Sahaidak) the only previous championship was the 2018 Mixed Doubles.
After opening the games with single steals in each of the first two ends, Colton Lott’s big weight hit ability paid dividends with a slash double to remove a buried McLeod-Hudson shot stone. McLeod’s draw was behind the button and Kadriana’s last shot draw was good enough for a single point. They stole two deuces in the next two ends.
Trailing 5-2 after five ends, McLeod-Hudson used their power play on the sixth. It worked to produce a two to pull them within one point. Lott-Lott used their power play on the seventh and ended the game when they were able to put a five on the scoreboard.
Lott-Lott were unbeaten “A” qualifiers to advance to the playoffs and were riding a five game winning streak going into the final game. McLeod-Hudson had reached the final as “C” qualifiers with five wins in their first seven games.
In the Sunday afternoon semi-finals, McLeod-Hudson defeated Thomas Dunlop & Katie McKenzie (Stonewall) while Lott-Lott ousted Mikaylah & William Lyburn (Granite).
The four playoff qualifiers who were eliminated in the first round Sunday were Sarah-Jane Sass & Lucas Van Den Bosch (Granite), Stacey & Steve Irwin (Brandon), Lauren Rajala & Cyrus Brandt (St. Vital), and Janelle Lach & Corey Chambers (Fort Garry).
A total of 20 teams participated in the triple knock-out championship attempting to advance to the Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship in Sudbury, ON in lat March.
