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This article was published 29/01/2020 (2264 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RIVERS, Man. — If there was a clear a sign that this provincial field has changed, it came in just the second draw of the opening day, and the first of Kerri Einarson’s round robin. She’s the second-ranked skip in Canada, and at this Manitoba Scotties. She is also one of the deadliest shooters in the game. 

Usually, there aren’t many big upsets on Day 1, as top seeds face the lowest-ranked contenders. So what a twist when Einarson fell in a 6-5 thriller to Team Abby Ackland. It wasn’t just the loss, but the way it was played: it was a crowd-pleasing match, studded with fun shots, a tilt that went all the way to Einarson’s last rock. 

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“They played really great,” Einarson said, moments after throwing her last missed hit. “They made some big shots when they needed and put lots of pressure on us, so you can’t take that away from them. They played really well.” 

There is, to be clear, no reason to blow the loss out of proportion. One glance at the field at this Scotties, and it was clear that no team is likely to come out of it unscathed. It’s simply too deep, and there are a whole lot of rocks left to play. By the weekend, that loss is just as likely to be a distant memory as a heartbreaker. 

What it did show, though, is just how much a simple tweak to the event can change its whole tenor. This year, the women’s provincial field was cut down to 12 teams, from the previous 16. All the regional berths are still there, but Curl Manitoba removed some of the so-called floaters. The results speak for themselves. 

It just feels tighter, already more unpredictable. The nailbiter match-ups come sooner. Consider how veteran Darcy Robertson, with a record 172 provincial games to her name and still a perennial contender, is slated to battle both Jennifer Jones and Einarson on Thursday, in just the second and third draws of their pool. 

Normally, she wouldn’t see teams like that until the end of the week, she says. It changes everything. 

“We’d usually have a few more games under our belt,” Robertson says, chatting after her 11-3 Wednesday win over Brandon’s Janelle Vachon. “So now it’s very important. Tomorrow we have a huge day, we have to win at least one, and usually you have a couple practice games on arena ice. 

“For teams that don’t play on arena ice all the time, it was nice to have the 16 teams. You had more time to play before you hit the big guys.” 

The cut was, in a way, a long time coming. It may have been hastened by a twist last year, when junior phenom Mackenzie Zacharias won her first Manitoba junior title, which meant she had to pull out of the Scotties to go to the nationals. Curl Manitoba soon learned there were a scant number of eligible teams to replace her. 

Most importantly, though, was that the move was widely supported by the players. After last year’s Scotties, Curl Manitoba president Craig Baker says, the organization surveyed some curlers about making changes to how it’s played: an “overwhelming majority” was in favour of cutting the field, among other potential tweaks. 

Team Tracy Fleury second Liz Fyfe called it a “step in the right direction.” Jennifer Jones is also in favour, although she is less enthusiastic about the new format: she’d prefer to see a field small enough to eliminate pools, ditch the four-team championship round — which is larger at nationals — and allow a full round robin. 

Robertson, who was among those surveyed by Curl Manitoba, thought the changes might be even more sweeping, and include tweaks to the qualification process. With the way it unfolded, she sees the flipside of the shrunken field: the event itself may be tighter, but that comes at a potential cost to long-term development. 

“It’s a tough provincial, for sure,” she says. “It would be nice to include more teams in it, to get more representation from the other rural areas, but we need more teams playing off for those rural areas. That way you can also develop more teams, and I think that would make sense. 

“If you’re just looking at your top 12 teams, and that’s all you want to work with, then you’re really shrinking the amount of teams that get to develop in this competition.” 

Meanwhile, one question has floating around: if the women’s field got a cut, why not the 32-team men’s?    

At this, Baker lets out a half-hearted laugh; it’s not the first time he’s been asked. But let’s be honest, if the rationale for trimming Scotties is the lack of competitive teams, the men aren’t immune to that effect: every year some men’s berths have to travel down a few spots to find a taker who doesn’t already have one.  

So what’s the difference? One metric Curl Manitoba’s competition committee looks at is the ratio of eligible teams to berths available. At the Viterra the ratio is still higher than two-to-one, meaning there are more than 64 teams eyeing the 32 spots. Compare that to this year’s Scotties, which saw about 17 teams competing for 12 berths. 

Pinning down why is a tricky, and maybe unanswerable, question. It may simply come down to the culture of the events: the “uniqueness” of the Manitoba men’s championship, Baker says with a laugh, is second to none. For whatever reason, more men’s teams are game to sign up even as longshots to win. 

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And maybe it doesn’t matter, so long as most players like where it’s at. When Curl Manitoba surveyed the Viterra players, Baker says, the response was overwhelmingly in favour of keeping it the same size. Or, as he remembers one top Manitoba men’s curler telling him: “it’s awesome, and it still works.” 

This doesn’t mean it will stay that way forever. Curling is at a curious place in its development: the top teams are better than ever, and the high-end depth just keeps growing. But the number of teams playing in clubs is steadily decreasing, and there may well come a time that the men’s side also needs adjustment. 

“Absolutely, the discussions every year are there,” Baker says. “Is next year the year (to cut the Viterra)? I don’t know, it’s bigger than me. I’m not the one that makes the final say. Our competition committee will review it every year, and we survey the athletes. 

“From Curl Manitoba’s perspective, that’s one of the biggest things,” he adds. “We listen to the athletes.”  

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca 

Melissa Martin
Reporter-at-large

Melissa Martin reports and opines for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Every piece of reporting Melissa produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.