Have broom, will travel

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This article was published 23/12/2021 (1641 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Scott McDonald considers himself a bit of a curling historian. He knows, for example, Manitoba has won 27 Canadian men’s curling championships.

He’s hoping to help boost that to 28.

The former Ontario champion has agreed to join William Lyburn’s team out of the Granite Club and will play third for the rest of the 2021-21 season, including the Viterra provincial championship in January. He’s the designated import, as it were, as Curling Canada rules allow teams to blend one out-of-province player into their lineup.

Manitoba’s long history as a rock-tossing powerhouse isn’t lost on the 35-year-old from London, Ont.

“You hear from players about the pride of wearing the buffalo on their back and it’s, obviously, very special,” McDonald, speaking by phone, said Thursday. “When I was growing up in junior programs, Jeff Stoughton was an iconic curler, and to see him wearing that yellow, white and brown uniform was so cool. There’s definitely an aura around Manitoba curling, and whoever comes out of the province they’re immediately one of the favourites to win the Brier.

“It’s a curling hotbed and it produces great curlers and great people, and I’m just excited to be a part of it. Just really excited for the playdowns and what the 32-team event looks like. Hopefully, we can play well that week and make some noise.”

McDonald replaces Daley Peters, who stepped away from the game in the fall. Lyburn and McDonald are joined by a rotation of Kennedy Bird and Bryce McEwen at the second position, and lead Wade Ford.

The team earned a Viterra berth by way of its standing on the Manitoba Curling Tour.

McDonald won the 2019 Ontario Tankard, defeating former world champion Glenn Howard in the semifinal and John Epping 8-2 in the final, and went on to compete at the Brier in Brandon, narrowly missing the playoffs. Two years later, he was invited to skip the Nova Scotia team — replacing Jamie Murphy — at the Brier inside the Calgary bubble.

Admittedly, ‘Have broom, will travel’ seems to be McDonald’s calling card lately.

“You gotta fill your bingo card, right?” he joked. “I didn’t really plan on competing in men’s this year. But Willy needed a player and it sounded like a good fit, so I jumped on it.”

The seed was planted for a potential union during a locker-room chat two weeks ago at a mixed-doubles event in Brantford, Ont. Lyburn, who lost the 2019 Manitoba final to Reid Carruthers and was a playoff team a year later, said the regulars are stoked about adding a two-time Brier competitor to the mix.

“He’s a super guy and I’ve always been impressed with his throwing,” said Lyburn, a former Scottish junior champion who crossed the pond with his family in the early ’90s to run a dairy farm in western Manitoba. “A guy of his calibre and his experience, I think it’s going to give us the spark we need to have a chance at the provincials again. I’ve already seen, just by us all talking together, a change in the tone of our communication. Everybody’s upbeat again and ready to rock ‘n roll.”

A first opportunity to join forces in mid-January was quashed when the Manitoba Open, dubbed ‘The World’s Largest Bonspiel’, was postponed. Instead, McDonald will arrive five or six days before the start of the Viterra — set for Jan. 25-20 in Selkirk — for some on- and off-ice preparations.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell