Category Archives: Mixed Events

HAYWARD MAKES MANITOBA CURLING HISTORY WITH MIXED WIN

Posted on by
Reply

Carman’s Shaela Hayward made Manitoba curling history as third for Ryan Wiebe’s Fort Rouge team when they won the Chicken Chef Mixed last weekend in Neepawa.

(l-r) Ryan Wiebe, Shaela Hayward, Ty Dilello, Jennifer Clark-Rouire (CurlManitoba photo)

Hayward became the first person in Manitoba’s long curling history to win THREE Manitoba championships in the same curling season. Earlier, she had skipped her teams to the Manitoba U-18 Women’s and U-21 Women’s titles.

The young Carman curler added to this year’s championships total by winning Curling Canada’s U-18 Championship and she can add to the total again when she competes in the U-21 Nationals, March 24-31, in Fort McMurray.

Team Wiebe (Shaela Hayward, Ty Dilello, Jennifer Clark-Rouire) had a 6W-2L record in the Neepawa event. They lost “A” and “B” qualifiers to former champions Braden Calvert (Carberry) and Sean Grassie (Deer Lodge) respectively. They won their “C” qualifier with a win over Michael Siwicki (Granite) to advance to the Page Playoff 3-4 game.

In the playoff round they had a 7-3 win over Kevin Paramor (Arden) and then defeated Grassie 6-3 in the semi-final and Calvert 4-3 in the final.

The Fort Rouge team will represent Manitoba at the Canadian Mixed in November of 2024.

Prior to winning her third championship of the season, Hayward had been one of only 20 Manitoba curlers to have won a pair of titles in a single season. The first to accomplish the feat was Lloyd Gunnlaugson who won the Men’s and Seniors Men’s in 1983. Most recent to do it was Rylan Campbell who won this year’s U-20 Mixed Doubles after earlier winning the U-18 Men’s.

The complete list includes:

1983 Lloyd Gunnlaugson (Men, Senior Men)
1986 Barb Spencer (Women, Mixed)
1986 Darcy Robertson (Women, Mixed)
1991 Jeff Stoughton (Men, Mixed)
2001 Winston Warren (Sr. Men, Masters)
2002 Elaine Jones (Sr. Women, Masters)
2003 Elaine Jones  (Sr. Women, Masters)
2003 Ruth Wiebe  (Sr. Women, Masters)
2014 Kyle Kurz (Jr. Men, Mixed Doubles)
2017 Gwen Wooley  (Sr. Women, Masters)
2022 Elias Huminicki (U18, Jr. Men)
2022 Jordon McDonald  (U18, Jr. Men)
2023 Colton Lott (Men, Mixed Doubles)
2023 Deb McCreanor  (Sr. Women, Masters)
2023 Elias Huminicki  (U18, Jr. Men)
2024 Shaela Hayward (U18, Jr. Women, Mixed)
2024 Keira Krahn  (U18, Jr. Women)
2024 India Young  (U18, Jr. Women)
2024 Rylie Cox  (U18, Jr. Women)
2024 Rylan Campbell (U18, U20 Mixed Doubles)

TEAM KURZ 10W-2L & SILVER MEDAL AT CANADIAN MIXED

Posted on by
Reply
(R-L) Kyle Kurz, Beth Peterson, Ian McMillan, Melissa Kurz Photo: Curling Canada/Jenny Hagan.

The run for Manitoba’s Team Kurz ended a win short at the Canadian Mixed in Swift Current. A semi-final victory over Team Ontario gave the Fort Rouge team a shot at the championship but for the second time in two games, they lost that gold medal game to Shaun Meachem’s Saskatchewan team. The Manitobans trailed by two twice in the final game but fought twice cam back to tie. A two on the seventh end gave Saskatchewan the hammer, tied, coming home. Saskatchewan won the gold medal while Manitoba earned the silver medal with their 10 wins in 12 games.

(Nov 10) TEAM KURZ 9W-1L & ON TO THE PLAYOFFS: The unbeaten string for Kyle Kurz and his Manitoba team ended at ten at the Canadian Mixed in Swift Current, SK. The only undefeated team through the preliminary round round, the Manitobans won their opening game of the championship qualifying round – a 4-3 win over Ontario’s Scott McDonald.

When the unbeaten run ended, it ended with a thud. The young team from Fort Rouge gave up an opening end four enroute to a blow-out loss to Saskatchewan’s Shaun Meachem.

To win the title, the Manitoba champions will have to win two today. They play McDonald at 10AM and the winner between Meachem and Nova Scotia’s Paul Flemming at 2:30PM.

(Nov.8) TEAM KURZ UNBEATEN INTO MIXED CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND: Six wins, the only undefeated team in the competition, have moved Kyle Kurz and his Manitoba champions into the Championship round at the Canadian Mixed championship in Swift Current.

Kyle Kurz, Beth Peterson, Ian McMillan, and Melissa Kurz are trying to become the first Manitoba team to win the Canadian Mixed since Kyle’s brother Colin Kurz skipped his team to Canadian and World Mixed titles in 2019.

Kyle Kurz, Beth Peterson, Ian McMillan, Melissa Kurz Photo: Curling Canada/Jenny Hagan.

In Swift Current, from the Kurz pool, Jamie Koe’s NWT team advanced with a 5W-1L record along with 4W-2L Alberta (Evan Van Amsterdam) and 3W-3L New Brunswick (Charlie Sullivan).

From the other pool, Saskatchewan (Shaun Meachem), Ontario (Scott McDonald) and Nova Scotia (Paul Flemming) all advanced with 5W-1L records while Prince Edward Island (Tyler Smith) advanced with a 2W-4L record.

The first round records carry forward and accumulate with the 4-game championship round record to determine the final four teams for the Saturday morning semi-finals. The gold & bronze medal games take place Saturday afternoon.

The championship round features two games Thursday and two Friday (12:30pm & 7:30pm Manitoba time).

QUEBEC WINS CANADIAN MIXED; MANITOBA 5W-5L

Posted on by
Reply

Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard and his team will represent Canada at the next World Mixed Championship after winning the Canadian Mixed in Canmore, AB. Quebec defeated Ontario’s Michael McLean 5-4 in the final.

In the semi-finals, Quebec had beaten NWT’s Jamie Koe team 6-4 while Ontario was a 6-5 winner over New Brunswick’s James Grattan team. Koe beat Grattan 8-3 for the Bronze Medal.

Koe finsihed the championship round with a 9W-1L record while McLean, Grattan and Meanrd all had 7W-3L records.

Alex Forrest and his Manitoba team completed play with an even 5W-5L record. Having finished the first round of play at 3W-3L, they needed a sweep of the four championship pool games but lost to both Ontario and New Brunswick in those cross-over games against teams who played the first round in the other first-round pool.

(November 10) TEAM MANITOBA INTO CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND AT CANADIAN MIXED …. Manitoba’s Alex Forrest Team finished the opening round of play at the Canadian Mixed in Canmore, AB with a 3W-3L record, just good enough to advance to the championship round.

Curling Canada Photo: Team Manitoba in Canmore (l-r) Alex Forrest, Brandi Forrest, Tyler Forrest, Darcy Forrest

Team Forrest will have to go unbeaten in their next four games to have any real hope of moving on to the 4-team Page Playoff round. Four teams moved forward with 5W-1L record, three had 4W-2L records, and Manitoba’s Forrest is the eighth ranked team at 3W-3L.

In this second round of play, teams cross over and play the four teams from the other pool – with wins and losses added to the record brought forward.

Manitoba has already played three of the 5W-1L teams: Northern Ontario, Quebec, and Northwest Territories. So the hope for advancement depends on Manitoba going unbeaten against the four cross-over teams while the three all dominate, allowing Alex Forrest and his team to take the fourth and final playoff spot.

First up is Ontario who also have a 5W-1L record. That game is scheduled for 3PM (CST) today. Games at 8PM today and 3PM & 8PM Friday against Saskatchewan, BC, and New Brunswick. All three advanced with 4W-2L records.

Forrest Wins Manitoba’s Chicken Chef Mixed Provincial Championship

Featured

Posted on by

(CurlManitoba Release) Alex Forrest and his family team from Assiniboine Memorial have won the 2021 Chicken Chef Manitoba Mixed Championship. Forrest had his brother Tyler at second, wife D’Arcy at lead, and sister-in-law Brandi at third as they won the title Monday afternoon with a 9-3 win over former four-time champion Sean Grassie and his Deer Lodge team.

After a blanked first end, Grassie scored two and stole one to lead 3-0 but never scored again. Forrest and his team filled the rings with rocks, scoring a four, two and three over the next three ends and Grassie conceded with no chance of scoring a comeback end midway through the seventh.

Grassie (Sarah-Jane Sass, Daryl Evans, Calleen Friesen) earned the bye to the final by placing first, thanks to 7-6 round-robin win over Forrest. Team Forrest earned the re-match with a 7-6 win over Corey Chambers in the Monday morning semi-final.

For Alex Forrest, it is a third Manitoba ‘buffalo’. He skipped the Manitoba junior champion team in 2010 and was at third for Jason Gunnlaugson in winning the Manitoba men’s title in 2020. Tyler Forrest, his brother, won the Manitoba Juniors at second for Reid Carruthers, in 2003.

Grassie was attempting to win a fifth Manitoba championship. To go with a Junior title, a fourth Mixed Championship would allow him to join three others with a record of four (by a skip): Ernie Boushy (1964-65-66-67), Jeff Stoughton (1988-89-91-94), and Terry McNamee (2004-05-07-11). Grassie had previously won in (1999, 2009-12-14).

The champions will have an opportunity to represent Manitoba at the 2021 Canadian Mixed, November 7-14, in Canmore, AB. Manitoba teams have won the Canadian Mixed title on seven occasions.

Boushy (1964 & 1966) and Stoughton (1988 & 1991) won twice. Hal Tanasichuk (1977), Jim Dunstone (1980) and Grassie (2009) were one-time Canadian champions.

The early October championship event was originally scheduled for last March but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The early season playoff was scheduled as a part of the CurlManitoba effort to bring curlers and curling fans back into the clubs, as well as to identify a representative to attend the Canadian Mixed in Canmore.

The 2021-22 season Chicken Chef Mixed is tentatively scheduled for March 18-21, 2022 in Carman.

CurlManitoba will also be hosting a double set of championships this year for seniors and club champions.

The next Manitoba championships will be the Nature’s Bounty Men’s and Women’s Club Champions Championships in Brandon, October 28-31 and the Strathcona Trust Senior Men’s/CurlManitoba Senior Women’s November 5-10 at Pembina Curling Club.