CurlManitoba held the 2022 Strathcona Trust Senior Men’s and CurlManitoba Senior Women’s Provincial Championship in Beausejour, MB from March 16-21, 2022.
Sixteen men’s teams participated in the round robin consisting of two groups of 8. The first place team in each pool advanced to the 1 vs 1 game and the teams with next two best records advanced to the 3 vs 4 game. Murray Warren and his team from Brandon were on top of the Asham Pool with a 6-1 record and the Richard Muntain team from the Granite Curling Club also had a 6-1 record to top the Asham Express Pool. There were three teams tied with 5-2 records. The 2021 Senior Men’s champions, Randy Neufeld’s team from La Salle earned the number 3 spot based on their Last Stone Draw totals throughout the competition. Rob Van Kommer (Carberry) and Allan Gitzel (Morris) played in a tiebreaker to determine who would advance to the 3 vs 4 game, with the Van Kommer team prevailing.
In the 1 vs 1 game, Richard Muntain’s team earned their spot in the final with a 4-2 win over Murray Warren. Warren’s team went on to play the Randy Neufeld team, who had beat Rob Van Kommer’s team in the 3 vs 4 game. Team Neufeld handed a loss to the Warren team to give themselves a chance to defend their title.
In the final game of the championship it was the Randy Neufeld team from La Salle that will represent Manitoba at the Everest Senior Championships, location to be announced. Randy and his team of Dean Moxham, Peter Nicholls, Dale Michie, fifth Andy Stewart beat Richard Muntain (Darren Oryniak, Alan Purdy, AJ Girardin, fifth Curtis McCannell) 9-4.
The senior women had 8 teams that competed in a single round robin. The top three teams would move onto the finals with the first place team earning a direct spot in the final with the second and third place team squaring off in the semi-final. Terry Ursel and her team from Neepawa with a 6-1 record advanced directly to the final. As with the men, there were three teams tied with a 4-3 record for the last two spots. Judy Colwell’s team from East St. Paul earned the second place spot based on their Last Stone Draw totals throughout the competition. Defending champions, the Kim Link team (East St. Paul) played Norma Purdy’s team (St. Vital) in the tie-breaker game. In the semi-final, it was the Judy Colwell team who won 5-3 over Link to earn a spot in the final.
The final had Team Terry Ursel, Wanda Rainka, Brenda Walker, Tracy Igonia and fifth Darla Hanke from Neepawa win the game 9-1 over the Judy Colwell team from East St. Paul (Wendy Nykoluk, Cathy Burtnack, Donna Smiley). Team Ursel will represent Manitoba in December 2022 at the National Championships.
