Dunstone ready to rock on home ice

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This article was published 10/11/2017 (3174 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dean Dunstone’s team will be feeling the love next week at the Canadian mixed curling championship.

Dunstone’s East St. Paul foursome is representing Manitoba at the event beginning Sunday in Swan River, located about 500 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

The community is a first-time host for a Curling Canada championship.

It’s also Dunstone’s first chance to wear the buffalo crest. He’ll lead the way, while Natalie Claude Harding plays third, and Peter Nicholls and Renée Fletcher take care of front-end duties.

“I’ve lost a junior men’s final, and I lost the Manitoba men’s final — me and Pete — to Jeff Stoughton in 2007,” Dunstone said. “Winning the mixed came so unexpectedly. It wasn’t really in my plans. I hadn’t curled competitively for about four or five years. So, it’s really, really exciting to be in the Canadians.”

His parents, Jim and Carol, captured the 1980 provincial and Canadian mixed titles.

“It would be pretty special to repeat what my parents did, 37 years later. I never imagined being in this position, but it has now become a huge source of motivation for me,” said Dunstone, finance manager with Manitoba Public Insurance. Nicholls, Claude Harding and Fletcher work together at Emerson School.

Fourteen teams are in the Canadian mixed, and Manitoba is in a pool with Saskatchewan, Quebec, Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Newfoundland-Labrador and Nunavut.

Dunstone’s crew begins its quest for the crown Sunday at 7 p.m. against Quebec’s Robert Desjardins.

Dunstone said it’s extra special competing so close to home.

“I went on the website the night we won, and it said the 2017 Canadian mixed was in (Nova Scotia). I was pretty excited. Then I realized they had already played it (in November 2016),” he said. “Then I looked further, and saw it was Swan River. I took a moment, and then I chuckled, because what a cool (thing) this is going to be to represent Manitoba, in Manitoba, in a great curling community.

“It’s going to be great to play in that environment, and get cheered on by the home crowd. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Dunstone beat Winnipeg’s Sean Grassie — the 2009 Canadian mixed winner — in an extra end in the provincial final in March, in Stonewall.

Dunstone’s son, Matt, a two-time Canadian junior men’s champion, filled in at the second spot on playoff Sunday, because Nicholls had to jet off for a winter getaway.

“For me, it was very exciting because I won a provincial championship with my son, and I also got it with Pete, who I curled with for many years,” Dunstone said. “I was pretty emotional after we won. Any chance you get to represent Manitoba, which is one of the most passionate curling communities in the world, and realize your dream of getting that buffalo, is pretty special.” 

Nicholls has a substantial curling resumé. He won a provincial men’s championship with skip Dave Smith in 1994, and won back-to-back Manitoba senior titles in 2015 and ’16 with Randy Neufeld of La Salle. Neufeld’s quartet won the national title in ’15 and came second at the world championship.

Claude Harding won a provincial junior title in 1990.

Other participants in Swan River include Northwest Territories skip Jamie Koe, a veteran Brier competitor, along with his third (and sister) Kerry Galusha, a multiple Scotties Tournament of Hearts competitor, Tom Buchy of B.C., Alberta’s Warren Cross, Saskatchewan’s Bruce Korte, Charlie Robert of Northern Ontario, Ontario’s Mike Anderson, New Brunswick’s Charlie Sullivan, Nova Scotia’s Brent MacDougall, Chris Ford of Newfoundland-Labrador, Dennis Watts of Prince Edward Island, Ed MacDonald of Nunavut and Yukon’s Robert Smallwood. 

Round-robin play wraps up Thursday, with a championship round and playoffs set for Friday and Saturday. The last team standing will don Canadian colours at the 2018 world mixed curling championship, with a site and dates to be announced soon by the World Curling Federation.

In Swan River, residents are pumped up about welcoming the big mixed curling event.

“It’s unbelievable for the community. We were so thrilled Curling Canada would give us the opportunity to host this event,” said Murray Mullin, host committee chairman. “We know we’re not getting a Brier or Scotties. But, for us, this is our Brier. The community is ready to show Canada a small community can put on a great event, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

 jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell