Manitoba teams Buffalo proud at Canadian Curling Club Championships

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This article was published 21/11/2023 (1048 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s representatives at the Canadian Curling Club Championships have certainly paid their dues to compete on behalf of the buffalo with home-ice advantage this week.

Women’s team skip Kara Balshaw is in her 35th year in the game and doing her best to soak it all in at Assiniboine Memorial.

“I’ve never had a Manitoba jacket ever,” said Balshaw, 45, who has played in four junior provincials, two mixed provincials and four at the club level.

Balshaw, lead Cathy Gingera, second Sandra Carson, third Heather Carson and alternate Kim Merasty, playing out of Thistle/Fort Rouge, captured the Manitoba title in their eighth season together, going 7-0 in the 12-team tournament and punching their ticket to this week’s national event.

“It is so amazing. I’m so proud of us for getting here because it’s hard to get out of Manitoba. We have a lot of good curlers here,” said Balshaw, who heads Fort Rouge’s weekend junior curling program.

“It’s really, really special to finally have this. When we were given our jackets to try them on for sizing after the finals — and it happened at Fort Rouge Curling Club (Balshaw’s childhood club) as well, so that was just extra special… it was just very surreal.”

The championships began Sunday with 14 women’s and 14 men’s teams, and will wrap up Saturday.

Balshaw, who dropped to 1-2 in Pool B after a 6-4 defeat to Alberta on Tuesday morning, is trying to add to the province’s record four titles on the women’s side and become the first Manitoba squad since Stacey Fordyce of Brandon (2017) to do so.

“It’s really special,” said Heather Carson, who is playing alongside her sister, Sandra. “We’re really close and to be able to compete at a national event together is really exciting, especially for Sandra. This is kind of her first big thing with curling.”

Heather has curled since she was eight but stepped away from the game to pursue water polo, which she played professionally in Italy for a year. She returned to curling in 2007 and played second on Deb McCreanor’s team at the Manitoba Scotties in 2013.

“(It’s special) to be able to do it with my sister and Kara and Cathy, who I’ve played with for so long, but also just being here with curlers who are of a similar mindset — we’re all competitive but we all maybe have other things going on in our lives that we can’t quite commit to the level of the Scotties,” added Heather.

“So, to be able to be in an atmosphere that is with so many like-minded people who are just here because they love curling and to have a good time is really fun.”

Meanwhile, the Derek Anderson team from Gimli, with lead Chris Sigurdson, second Mitch Einarson and third Justin Hoplock, is making its debut on the national stage as well.

“It was kind of even surreal and a surprise after we did it, that we managed to pull it off,” said Anderson, 33, who’s been curling for 25 years. “It’s such a big thing for Manitoba just to win the buffalo and represent Manitoba as a province because there’s so many strong curlers from here. It’s kind of been amazing to be here and do it.”

Anderson (2-1) was tied atop the Pool B standings as of Tuesday afternoon and is trying to Manitoba’s first men’s title.

Anderson, Sigurdson and Hoplock formed a team four years ago and finally won the provincial championship with their usual second, who could not attend the championships this week. So, the group picked up a childhood friend in Einarson to fill the gap, and he brought a special spectator as a result.

Einarson’s sister-in-law is four-time reigning Canadian women’s champion Kerri Einarson, who stopped by to cheer on the Manitoba squad in Monday’s action. The team suffered a 7-3 defeat to Prince Edward Island, and Mitch received a quick pep talk from the world-class skip.

“She told us to be better,” Mitch said, with a chuckle.

They did just that, posting a 7-6 triumph over Saskatchewan in their lone contest Tuesday.

Similar to Balshaw’s viewpoint, Anderson also emphasized the importance of embracing the opportunity the childhood friends have earned this week.

“Since we were kids, the three of us grew up in Gimli and Justin grew up in Inwood, but we still played,” he said. “(We) spent time in juniors, spent the time upstairs playing shuffleboard as kids while everyone else is closing down the rink.

“After school throwing rocks and school leagues and everything, we’ve spent a lot of time (together) and I think that’s the big thing with curling is just the social atmosphere and mixing with your players and the other teams.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

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