Andrew Irving and his Fort Rouge team have won their second consecutive Manitoba Open bonspiel championship. The Fort Rouge team defeated Dean Dunstone (Granite) 4-1 Monday evening at St. Vital. It makes the Irving foursome the first back-to-back bonspiel champions in the years since the Manitoba Open format was implemented.
Irving’s ASHAM Event winning team this year includes Brad Van Walleghem, Ronan Gueret, Roy Janz, and Alex Forrest. In addition to the bonspiel championship, the Fort Rouge team also earns an invitation to compete in the Viterra championship in Stonewall, February 6-11.
The Dunstone team, which includes Greg Melnichuk, Al Purdy, Bruce Wyche, and Scott Kidd will be invited to compete in Stonewall as the winner of a Manitoba Open berth.
The third Manitoba Open Viterra invitation belongs to Brad Micholson – Deer Lodge (Ian Campbell, Rayan Lagace, Paul Nielands, Norm Gautron) after a NOTT AUTOCORP Event final game 7-6 win over Paul Scinocca – St. Vital (Ed Barr, Joel Marcon, Joel Newberry, Logan Schirmeister)
The Dunstone berth became available because the finalists in the ORIGINAL 16 Event, Corey Chambers (Portage) and Steen Sigurdson (Deer Lodge) could not use the bonspiel berth. Sigurdson’s team is already qualified for Stonewall and Chambers’ Mixed team would not be eligible for the Viterra Men’s championship.
For the record, the Original 16 final game was won Team Sigurdson (Josh Claeys, Scott Bruce, Scott Peterson) with a 6-4 win over Chambers ( Lisa McLeod, Julien Leduc, Jolene Callum).
The winners of the minor events in the bonspiel were:
ATKINS: Lucas Pedersen (Arden) defeated Tom Cameron (Pembina) 12-7
MANITOBA HYDRO: Michael Zacharias (Roland) defeated Tom Scott (Hibbing, MN) 9-4
DYNASTY: Kristy Mackie (St. Vital) defeated Andrew Wickman (Fort Rouge) 5-4
BITUMINEX PAVING: Craig Nicholl (Stonewall) defeated Alex Stanley (Pembina) 9-2
MANITOBA PORK COUNCIL: Rob Keough (Deer Lodge) defeated Evan Gillis (Morden) 9-4
CURLMANITOBA: Ken Ringaert (Fort Rouge) defeated Greg Bartley (Pembina) 7-3
MCMUNN & YATES: Mike Mahon (Granite) defeated Jeremy Sundell (Holland) 7-6
SPORT MANITOBA: Harvey Levitt (Pembina) defeated Justin Reischeck (Carberry) 9-8
