Randy Neufeld’s Master Men defending champion team from La Salle and the Winnipeg beach Mixed Doubles duo of Kadriana & Colton Lott are repeat winners of their CurlManitoba championships which were staged this weekend in Portage and Beausejour. Team Karen Fallis (Fort Rouge), which won the Master Women championship Sunday, included Maureen Bonar who was also a member of last year’s senior women’s championship team.
Monday afternoon in Portage, in the Manitoba’s Credit Unions Master Men’s Championship, Neufeld’s La Salle team (Dean Moxham, Peter Nicholls, Darren Oryniak, Dale Michie) defeated Murray Warren – Brandon (Brian Barker, Terry Warren, Reg Warren, Gary Barker) to retain the title they won a year ago in Thompson.
The final was a close affair, tied 4-4 coming home. Neufeld had the last stone but didn’t have to use it. Neufeld’s double kill with his first stone left him lying two behind a centreline guard, with shot stone biting the four-foot circle. Attempting to bury, Warren contacted the shot stone and left Neufeld the winning point.
The Warren team had been undefeated going into the final game of the 16-team event. They were unbeaten in the round robin and beat Neufeld 6-3 in the Page 1 vs 1 Playoff game. The defending champion Neufeld team set up the re-match with an 8-2 win over Stan Struthers – Pembina in the semi-final. Struthers had eliminated former champion Mark Franklin – Granite in the Page 2 v 2 Playoff game.
Earlier on the weekend in Portage, Karen Fallis and her Fort Rouge team (Maureen Bonar, Lynn Fallis-Kurz, Laurie Ellwood) lost the opening game of the double round-robin in the 4-team Master Women’s championship but never lost again. They ran off six consecutive wins, including a final game victory 7-4 over Judy Colwell’s East St. Paul (skip Wendy Nykoluk, Lynn Sandercock, Kathy Isaac) team.
All four members of the winning team are former Manitoba champions. Most recently, former world senior champion Bonar won the 2023 Manitoba Senior Women’s while Fallis & Fallis-Kurz won the 2018 senior women’s and Ellwood won the 2012 senior women’s. All four are also former Manitoba women’s champions as well.
In Beausejour on Monday afternoon, the 18-team Dynasty Mixed Doubles Championship was won by defending champions, and 2018 champions, Kadriana & Colton Lott (Winnipeg Beach) with a final game shutout win over Darcy Robertson and James Kirkness (Assiniboine Memorial).
To reach the final, Lott & Lott defeated the father-daughter duo of William & Mikaylah Lyburn (Granite) 11-5 while Robertson & Kirkness were 7-5 winners over Thomas Dunlop & Katie McKenzie (Stonewall).
Lott & Lott finished the event with a 5W-1L record, losing only an “A” semifinal to Colton Lott’s brother Tanner & Randine Baker (Selkirk).
The two Master Champion teams earn the invitation to compete at the Canadian Masters championship in Chicoutimi, Quebec in early April. The Canadian Mixed Doubles championship is in Fredericton, NB in mid-March.
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