Simmons’ challenge for provincial title halted by loss to Brandon’s Steve Irwin

By: Jason Bell Posted: 6:24 PM CST Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018

WINKLER – Pat Simmons’ illustrious men's curling career might have concluded the moment his final yellow stone ground to a halt a metre before the paint Saturday morning.

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WINKLER – Pat Simmons’ illustrious men's curling career might have concluded the moment his final yellow stone ground to a halt a metre before the paint Saturday morning.

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WINKLER – Pat Simmons’ illustrious men’s curling career might have concluded the moment his final yellow stone ground to a halt a metre before the paint Saturday morning.

Brandon’s Steve Irwin was gifted a steal of three in the eighth end for a 9-6 lead – game over, for all intents and purposes.

Simmons’ challenge to a win a title in three difference provinces concluded with the misfire, as he and the trio of former Manitoba and Canadian junior champions he skips bowed out of the Viterra provincials at Centennial Arena.

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES "Our last two games, we were very poor. Just unusual. (We) we didn't read the ice really well, we weren't throwing the right weights for anything... missing on the wrong side of just about everything," said Simmons.

It was the Granite team’s second straight defeat, after getting thumped 9-5 by J.T. Ryan of Assiniboine Memorial Friday night.

“Our last two games, we were very poor. Just unusual. (We) we didn’t read the ice really well, we weren’t throwing the right weights for anything… missing on the wrong side of just about everything,” Simmons said.

The 42-year-old chiropractor from Moose Jaw, Sask., and his teammates, all 22 – third Colton Lott, second Kyle Doering and lead Rob Gordon — had been seeded fourth this week. It was an early exit, one the World Curling Tour’s 15th ranked men’s crew didn’t anticipate.

Now, the future of the foursome is murky at best. Gordon noted his skip had previously indicated the 2017-18 competitive campaign would likely be his swansong.

“We’ll digest this loss and then sit down and discuss further,” said Gordon. “I know at the start of the year Pat said this was probably going to be his last year, so we can’t really put any pressure on him to keep going. But who knows. We’ll see.”

Simmons was reluctant to address his future in the game.

“I’m not going to think (about it). We’ll try and lick our wounds from today. It’s disappointing.”

The abrupt ending in Winkler won’t mar the positives of playing alongside and learning from one of Canada’s best players, said Gordon.

“The way we went out here is not indicative of our season. Playing with Pat we’ve gained a wealth of knowledge, in our first year completely playing a men’s schedule,” he said. “The little intricacies of the game and you don’t really know until you’re there in the thick of things, and he’s helped us through all that.”

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Travis Bale’s Fort Rouge team had a terrific run but won’t have fond memories of the manner in which the week ended.

Up 5-1 over Brandon’s Steve Irwin after six ends Saturday afternoon, Bale gave up a deuce in the seventh end, flung one through the rings in the eighth to surrender three and then coughed up two more in the ninth to lose 8-5.

Bale began the Viterra with four straight victories but ran into Reid Carruthers’ powerful West St. Paul squad Saturday morning and fell 8-4, before the afternoon collapse.

Separately, Bale and his third, Andrew Irving, skipped teams to Manitoba junior titles in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Together now, with front-enders Geoff Lang and Brad Van Wallegham, they’ve got loads of talent, yet haven’t poured as much time and energy into curling as many of their provincial counterparts the last decade.

“You get busy with work and life and you can’t devote as much to it as we used to,” he noted Friday. “We play in events on the weekends and try to make it (to the Viterra) every year.”

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Elevated a position because of Mike McEwen’s illness, B.J. Neufeld has embraced the role this week. He was named the Viterra’s all-star skip Saturday by the local curling media.

The other all-stars are: third Jacques Gauthier from the J.T. Ryan team; second Travis Brooks from the Steve Irwin team; and lead Colin Hodgson from the Carruthers team.

Legendary curling broadcaster Bob Picken and former Sun curling reporter Jim Bender were honoured as the first life members of the Manitoba Curling Media Association.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell