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MAKE HOMEPAGE
There have been some great events played in Brandon – two Briers – Olympic Trials – Labatt Tankards and Safeway Selects – National Scotts – and numerous lesser provincial championships.
Each of them has created great memories. Each of them had something very special about them but I’m thinking maybe only the 1997 Trials had as even a field as will be on the ice at the upcoming Strathcona Senior Men’s Championship at the Brandon Curling Club.
The championship includes no fewer than six former Senior Men’s champions. Including the defending champion Brent Strachan and his Hamiota team, they include Vic Peters, Clare DeBlonde, Ron Westcott, Carl German, and Lionel Walz.
There’s a rookie team of Bob Sigurdson and Peter Nicholls, two who are still very competitive at the men’s level. Nicholls, like Peters, missed the recent Safeway Championship while Sigurdson was there.
There is a pair of Westman teams, skipped by Jim Renwick and Kelly Robertson, who are so well regarded by the other competitors they are seeded higher than most of those former champions.
The field in the competition is so deep in talent that last year’s finalist, Bob Bartley and his Carman team, is seeded #11 in the draw.
At last week’s Safeway Championship, I talked with several of the competitors. They all said two things in common. First they are excited to be a part of what they expect to be a great curling championship competition. Second every one of them said they thought they were in the tougher of the two competition groups.
The real winners are the Brandon curling fans who take in the championship. There will always be a game on the ice that has the potential to be the best game of the event.
You decide who you think has the tougher competition group.
Group #1: Former Canadian champ and Senior champ Vic Peters, Kelly Robertson, Jim Renwick, former Manitoba Senior champ Ron Westcott who subbed in to skip a World Senior Men’s Silver medal team, former Manitoba and Canadian Senior champ Carl German who was too young to play at the worlds and was replaced by Westcott, Henry Klassen, Jim Todoruk, and Dean Laval.
Group #2: Defending Manitoba Senior champ Brent Strachan, Bob Sigurdson, former Brier rep and Manitoba Senior champ Clare DeBlonde, former Manitoba champ Lionel Walz, Rob Ramage, Bob Bartley, Keith McLeod, and Brian Darling.
And lest I be accused of having blinders on, it should be noted the Senior Women’s championship is taking place at the same time. While it doesn’t have the depth of competition which the men’s has, the competition will be fierce none the less. In particular, the competition between Brandon teams skipped by defending champion Lois Fowler, 3-time (2004-2006-2007) Manitoba Senior Women’s champ Joyce McDougall, and twice (2001-2005) Manitoba Senior Women’s champ Linda Van Daele. The only Manitoban to win the Canadian Seniors is Brandon’s Mabel Mitchell in 1983. All three of this year’s Brandon reps would like to be the next to accomplish that task. Standing in the way, particularly of Van Daele and McDougall who are in the same competition pool, is Chris Scalena.
Scalena has won Manitoba and Canadian Juniors; Manitoba, Canadian, and World Women’s; and Manitoba Mixed. The only Manitoba championship she can win but hasn’t yet is the Senior Women’s and she wants to complete the set.
Each draw, beginning Thursday, February 25, there will be four Senior Men’s and four Senior Women’s games on the ice at the Brandon Curling Club. There are four draws a day Thursday, Friday and Saturday plus two on Sunday followed by playoffs. The finals, unless the draw gets complicated by tiebreakers (and that is a very good possibility) are set for 1:30 Monday.
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Defending champion Brent Strachan and his team have added considerable pressure to themselves for the championship. Brent’s brother Dallas has ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and the team has been wearing shoulder crests all year promoting awareness of the need for research funding. They made the offer to contribute $50 per win at the provincials to ALS . That has grown through pledges from friends, businesses and even fellow competitors in the championship to where each Strachan win is now worth about $500 – and it is growing.
If you’d like to make a contribution – either as a cash donation, a pledge per win, or as some have done a pledge per loss to ensure there is a contribution flow no matter what the outcome of each game – please send me an email at resby@thecurler.com. We’ll let you know how to make the contribution.
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For an update on the progress of the ALS Research fund-raiser AND for the most complete coverage of this week’s Manitoba Senior championships, visit my website – www.thecurler.com. To share your opinion on this or other topics, contact me at myopinion@thecurler.com.
