With day one of competition complete at the Viterra Manitoba Men’s Curling Championship at Eric Coy Arena in Charleswood, the initial assessment is that the seeding of the draw, undertaken only by the competing teams, has been a success.
The top eight seeds all won their single game on opening day of the competition. The A-Side of the opening double knock-out round allows those teams to play a game a day to qualify for the next round, so long as they don’t drop to the B-Side.
Dropping to the B-Side with losses in the first game means four teams are bounced from the event on the late draw opening day. This year, luck of the draw timing and a second loss mean that Steen Sigurdson-Gimli, Gerry Janz-Baldur, Randy Neufeld-LaSalle (skipped by Dean Moxham), and Shaun Parsons (Burntwood) are the four teams able to use their competitor passes to get through the doors of the arena without having to play any more games.
The first elimination survivors, now with 1W – 1L records were Ray Baker – Dauphin (over Sigurdson 10-6); Jeff Stewart-Gladstone (over Janz 7-1), Darren Perche-Charleswood (7-6 over Neufeld), and Mark Lukowich-Granite (5-4 over Parsons).
First game results for the top 8:
1- Mike McEwen (West St Paul) defeats Paul Scinocca (St Vital) 11-2
2- Jason Gunnlaugson (Morris) defeats Darren Perche (Charleswood) 10-5
3-Tanner Horgan (Winnipeg Beach) defeats Shaun Parsons (Burntwood) 10-3
4- Braden Calvert (Assiniboine Memorial) defeats Allan Gitzel (Morris) 11-1
5- William Lyburn (Granite) defeats Jay Kinnaird (Virden) 8-4
6- Corey Chambers (Thistle) defeats Gerry Janz (Baldur) 9-4
7- JT Ryan (Assiniboine Memorial) defeats Ray Baker (Dauphin)11-3
8- Dennis Bohn (Assiniboine Memorial) defeats Cale Dunbar (Brandon) 12-3
