Bohn comes out firing in dominant opening win

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This article was published 19/02/2009 (6381 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SELKIRK — If history is a predictor of the future, Assiniboine Memorial’s David Bohn could be a team to watch this week.

Bohn, who was the runner-up to Kerry Burtnyk at last year’s provincials, was a convincing 7-3 winner over Manitou’s Steve Pauls in his opener Wednesday at the provincial men’s curling championship.

Bohn’s run to last year’s final was one of the big surprises of that curling season and Bohn said Wednesday there are a lot of similarities between last year’s run and what his team has done this year.

"We didn’t have the greatest (cashspiel) year last year, but we really turned it around after Christmas," said Bohn, 33. "And that’s a lot like this year. We didn’t do much before Christmas, but since January, we’ve won our zone and made the semifinals of the MCA Bonspiel and the semis of the MCT Championship."

* * *

The 2010 Safeway Championship will be held in Steinbach, the Manitoba Curling Association confirmed.

This will be the second time the men’s provincials are held in Steinbach. The first time was in 2006, when Jeff Stoughton defeated a previously unheralded Reid Carruthers to win his fifth provincial men’s title.

The winner next Feb. 10-14 in Steinbach will go on to represent Manitoba at the 2010 Brier in Halifax the following month.

* * *

Kerry Burtnyk third Don Walchuk has had a chilly debut in the Manitoba provincials.

The former Alberta curler has abandoned his team vest because of the cool temperatures inside the Selkirk Recreation Complex and is wearing a teammate’s old jacket, even though the jacket is clearly emblazoned in the name of Burtnyk second, Richard Daneault.

Walchuk explained yesterday he doesn’t have a Burtnyk team jacket of his own and he’s found it too cool to curl wearing only his team vest.

* * *

Mike McEwen is discovering this week that the media handles you a lot differently when you’re a favourite instead of an underdog at this thing.

McEwen, the third seed and considered a legitimate threat to win it all this week, has attracted a large media presence already and was musing Wednesday on what a difference a year makes.

"I remember last year," McEwen recalled. "We lost our second game and you wouldn’t talk to me for four games."

* * *

It was going to be a very tough opening day for four teams yesterday.

The unusual 32-team draw that is used for this event and no other sees four teams who lost on the opening draw walk out for the opening ceremonies at 7 p.m. Wednesday night and then promptly get eliminated on the 8:15 p.m. draw.

* * *

Allan Lyburn wasn’t kidding on Tuesday when he said his team was here for a good time and quite possibly not a long time.

Lyburn came out in his opener here Wednesday morning and got drilled 10-1 by St. Vital’s Darryl Friesen in a game that saw Lyburn down 4-0 after just the second end, 8-1 after four ends and shaking hands down by nine after just the fifth end.

Lyburn was facing elimination Wednesday night but pulled out a 9-3 win over Portage’s Ryan Hyde.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Wednesday results

Draw 1

M. Woodward 6 Bob Sigurdson 5

Jeff Stoughton 9 S. Magnusson 1

Darryl Friesen 10 Allan Lyburn 1

Dave Boehmer 6 Ryan Hyde 5

Brendan Taylor 8 Scott Madams 2

Draw 2

David Bohn 7 Steve Pauls 3

Mike McEwen 7 Farrol Asham 2

Doug Riach 4 Kelly Skinner 3

Chris Galbraith 11 Brent Scales 8

Peter Nicholls 8 Rob Cosens 5

Draw 3

Reid Carruthers 8 Dave Smith 2

Randy Neufeld 7 Braden Zawada 4

Kelly Robertson 7 William Lyburn 5

Kerry Burtnyk 9 Brad Hyrich 1

Richard Muntain 7 Terry McNamee 2

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Draw 4

Daley Peters 8 Murray Warren 1

Allan Lyburn 9 Ryan Hyde 3

Kelly Skinner 10 Farrol Asham 2

Scott Madams 10 Steve Pauls 7

Bob Sigurdson 9 S. Magnusson 7