Battle royale

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This article was published 05/02/2016 (3722 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Reid CARRUTHERS and his West St. Paul foursome have proven with a strong cashspiel season this winter the Manitoba men’s curling championship they won last February was no fluke.

But that doesn’t mean Carruthers doesn’t still have something to prove.

On the contrary, the skip says he’s desperately hoping for a chance to get back to the Brier next month so he can prove the 4-7 record his team posted at that event last year — one of the worst records ever posted by a Manitoba team at the Canadian men’s curling championship — was an anomaly.

“We were close last year, but we weren’t quite where we needed to be,” Carruthers said Thursday after Curl Manitoba announced his squad had been named the top seed for next week’s Manitoba men’s curling championship.

“And I’d love to get back there. I know we’re better than a 4-7 record. We’re a team that very well could have been in the playoffs last year. Was it our year last year to win? Probably not. But we should have done better than we did and I’d love to prove that this year.

“But first things first — I’ve got to focus on this event first.”

“This event” is the 2016 Viterra Championship, which will be held Feb. 10-14 at the Selkirk Recreation Complex.

It’s the first year of a new naming-rights sponsorship for the Manitoba men’s curling championship. Safeway wrapped up a 20-year arrangement last year and Viterra becomes just the fourth title sponsor of the event since it began in 1925. The other two were Labatt’s and British Consols, an old cigarette brand.

As part of the new sponsorship, a new trophy was commissioned and the rings on the ice next week will be painted a dark blue and green colour to match Viterra’s logo.

Whether Carruthers — with third Braeden Moskowy, second Derek Samagalski and lead Colin Hodgson — can defend their title and get a chance at redemption at the Brier will be a dominant storyline next week, but it will likely take a back seat to an even more compelling question: Can Mike McEwen finally win his first Manitoba title.

McEwen has lost five Manitoba finals and a semifinal since 2010 and is the hard-luck poster boy in the curling world.

A dominant cashspieler — he’s third on the World Curling Tour money list right now, one spot ahead of Carruthers — McEwen is still looking for the validation that in Canadian men’s curling only comes with an appearance at the Brier.

Seeking answers and a better result, the McEwen team added Jon Mead — Jeff Stoughton’s longtime third and a two-time Brier champion — as a fifth player and coach for this season.

“He brings an element to the team we didn’t have in the past,” said McEwen third B.J. Neufeld. “He brings a lightheartedness to the team when we need it. And Jon’s a guy from outside who can look in and keep us accountable as well.”

With all the attention surely to be focused upon Carruthers and McEwen and a potential rematch of last year’s final, that’s going to leave a lot of room in the shadows for a guy such as third-seeded Willie Lyburn.

Lyburn made the semifinal of two of the last three Manitoba championships and could benefit by sliding up the middle while the spotlight is focused on the two heavyweights.

Lyburn’s team — third Jason Gunnlaugson, second Richard Daneault and lead Braden Zawada — has all kinds of experience but curled a much lighter schedule this winter than McEwen and Carruthers, who, Lyburn said, are almost professional curlers.

“They’re as close to full time at this sport as possible — and they’re great teams,” said Lyburn. “But it’s a fair fight — everyone has a choice about how much time they want to devote to this sport and how much they want to sacrifice…

“There’s going to be a lot of attention on them next week. And I kind of like that it won’t be on us.”

The fourth seed next week is Daley Peters and No. 5 is Alex Forrest, both curling out of East St. Paul.

The winners next week will represent Manitoba at the Tim Hortons Brier, March 5-13 in Ottawa.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek