HOG LINE: Irwin captures MCT tour championship

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This article was published 13/12/2022 (645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Steve Irwin and his rink from Brandon came away with two big wins on Sunday in Carberry,

Irwin, who is joined on his team by third Travis Taylor, second Travis Brooks and lead Travis Saban, came away with the Manitoba Curling Tour (MCT) Tour Championship title with a 7-4 win over Ryan Wiebe’s squad from the Fort Rouge Curling Club in Winnipeg.

They also nabbed a spot for the 2023 Viterra Championship at the Yellowhead Centre in Neepawa. That event runs from Feb. 8-12.

“We didn’t even get to play on any of the MCT stops prior to this weekend so it’s nice to know that we can still compete with the top teams in Manitoba,” Irwin said. “We had been playing pretty well this year in the Super League but we had gone 2-2 at the Viterra Berth Bonspiel in Minnedosa about a month ago.

“Our goal going into Carberry was to try and get into a spot where we could earn a berth to the Viterra and avoid having to go to the regionals in Rivers this weekend. We got a few breaks along the way … and we played pretty well also.”

The Irwin rink officially clinched a spot in the Viterra by making the playoffs. The other three teams that had qualified for the semifinals — Wiebe, Corey Chambers and Braden Calvert — had already nabbed their berths to Neepawa.

Irwin avenged an earlier loss to Calvert to earn a spot in the championship game with Wiebe.

“All of us had pretty good draw weight all weekend and it felt like we could put a rock wherever we wanted it,” Saban said.

“We all did a great job of judging our weight and the guys made big shots whenever we needed them. It didn’t matter if it was a double peel, a runback or an angle raise, the whole team was curling well.”

The turning point in Sunday’s final came in the fourth end with Wiebe holding a 1-0 lead.

On his last shot with the hammer, Irwin made a double angle-raise pick to score a four-ender and move out in front 4-1.

“There were lots of rocks in play in the fourth and Travis (Taylor) and I ended up calling a shot that I don’t think many people thought was there,” Irwin said. “We said ‘let’s try it,’ and it ended up working out for us.”

After Wiebe got two points in the fifth, Irwin scored a three-ender in the sixth to put the game out of reach.

February’s Viterra will mark the first time that the Irwin rink has competed in the event in three years.

In 2020, they qualified for the playoff round in Winnipeg but missed out on a spot in the 3 vs. 4 Page playoff game after losing an 8-7 affair to William Lyburn.

They failed to make last year’s provincials in Selkirk after dropping a wild 10-8 affair to Graham Freeman at the regional playdowns in Rivers.

“From what we heard though, that might have been an okay year to miss it,” Saban said. “With all of the COVID protocols that were in place and everything else that was going on back in February, a lot of the guys said that it didn’t really feel like a provincial.

“Now with everything back to normal again, it is pretty special for us to be going back there, especially since it is close to home.”

The women’s event was won by Lisa McLeod’s Portage la Prairie quartet.

She defeated Carberry’s Alyssa Calvert, who qualified for the final with a win over Darcy Robertson.

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Calvert’s rink has another chance to earn a spot at next month’s provincial Scotties in East St. Paul this weekend, as she’ll face Neepawa’s Terry Ursel in a best-of-three regional qualifier in Rivers.

The first game gets underway at 7 p.m. Friday. A second contest starts at 2 p.m. Saturday, with a third game, if needed, beginning at 6 p.m.

Meanwhile, three spots at the Viterra will also be up for grabs this weekend in Rivers.

Riverview’s Cale Dunbar, Rivers’ Chris Bridges, Brandon’s Ethan Marshall, Carberry’s Rob Van Kommer and Virden’s Graham Freeman, Jace Freeman and Jay Kinnaird are taking part in the event, which starts Friday and finishes on Saturday.

Three rinks — Greg Todoruk of Dauphin, Jeff Stewart of Gladstone and Ray Baker of Dauphin — are also competing in a regional playdown this weekend in Minnedosa.

The draws for that event had not been announced as of press time.

EXTRA ENDS: Kerri Einarson’s Gimli rink captured the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling’s World Financial Group Masters women’s title in Oakville, Ont., on Sunday after a 6-5 extra end affair with Rachel Homan. Jennifer Jones, Chelsea Carey and Kaitlyn Lawes’ rink — which was skipped by third Selena Njegovan and saw Laura Walker filling in as a spare — all qualified for the quarterfinals but lost to Eun-Ji Gim, Tabitha Peterson and Einarson respectively. Joel Retornaz became the first Italian skip to win a Grand Slam of Curling event as he defeated Scotland’s Bruce Mouat by a score of 6-2. Matt Dunstone lost a tiebreaker game to Brad Gushue, while Reid Carruthers missed out on a playoff spot.

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