Best in west shot it out at McCain SuperSpiel

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/11/2021 (1783 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

From 1989 to 2004, the best male curling teams in Western Canada hoped to be in Portage la Prairie on the last weekend in October.

An invitation to the McCain SuperSpiel West in Portage guaranteed a shot at some of the biggest prize money available during that period.

An even bigger plum was the spot in the televised McCain TSN Skins Game that went to the winner.

McCain Foods sponsored a curling competition in New Brunswick for teams from Eastern Canada called the McCain SuperSpiel. The company felt it would be an excellent idea to mount the same type of event in the home of its Western potato processing plant, so the SuperSpiel West was born.

Portage had the perfect facility for this type of event, with an eight-sheet curling rink attached to the Canad Inns Destination Centre where the curlers were housed. The ice was always freshly installed, which led to some interesting action and the occasional complaint from an unsuccessful skip.
Portage is known for its volunteer base and a large number signed up to help the McCain crew, headed by the company’s public relations director from Florenceville, N.B., F.A. (Scoop) Fredstrom. The company went out of its way to publicize the SuperSpiel across the West and provided immediate results after each draw including voice reports to radio stations in the teams’ local communities.

In the first year, 32 teams competed in a double-knockout competition with eight teams qualifying for a straight knockout playoff and the first prize of $10,000. In addition to the best teams  from Manitoba to B.C., the field included the winner of the Eastern SuperSpiel. To generate local interest, McCain ensured that an entry from the Portage Curling Club would always be part of the field.

A young team from Saskatoon skipped by Mark Dacey, 23, was a surprise winner of the first SuperSpiel West. In the Skins Game played at the Granite club in Winnipeg, Dacey won $28,000 after first beating the current world championship team skipped by former Winnipegger Pat Ryan and then Superspiel East rep Dave Van Dine from Ottawa, who had knocked off defending champion Ed Werenich from Toronto. The Wrench, who will be inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in April 2022, got his curling start in Benito, Man., and went on to win world championships in 1983 and 1990.

In 1991, the Eastern Superspiel winner, skipped by Ontario’s Russ Howard, the 1987 world champion, beat the best in the West. In 1996, Howard’s second from the 1991 team, Wayne Middaugh, came West and skipped his own team to the SuperSpiel title. In 1998, his Ontario team won the world championship.

When you review the list of winners, you see that Manitoba curlers did not have much success in Portage, winning only four times in 16 years. Manitoba teams reached the final for the first time in 1992, when John Bubbs from Wildwood defeated Ron Gauthier of St. Vital. The province’s second victory didn’t come until 1997, when 1995 world champion Kerry Burtnyk of Assiniboine Memorial beat Dave Smith from St. Vital. Burtnyk won six straight games and third Jeff Ryan said that was more games than they had won in the five previous SuperSpiels. Vic Peters and his Granite team were the first back-to-back champions with victories the next two years.

Kevin Martin from Edmonton won his first of four SuperSpiels in 1994, beating 1986 world champion Ed Lukowich of Calgary in the final. Martin’s second win came in 2001 when the format was changed to triple-knockout and the playoffs were played on Monday instead of Sunday. He beat his former third, Kevin Park, in the final. After winning silver in the 2002 Winter Olympics, the Martin squad returned to Portage that fall and edged Winnipeg’s Dale Duguid 7-6 in the final.

The McCain TSN Skins Game returned to Manitoba in 2003 with Gimli hosting the event. Jamie Koe of Calgary won a spot by defeating Jeff Stoughton of Winnipeg in the SuperSpiel West final, but Middaugh was the big winner in Gimli, earning $88,000. Victory number four for Martin came in the last McCain SuperSpiel West in 2004 when his team beat Randy Ferbey of Edmonton 9-4. With former Winnipegger David Nedohin throwing last rocks, the Ferbey foursome won the world title in 2002 and 2003. McCain Foods ended its curling sponsorships after the 2004 events.