Seventeen curling clubs from across Manitoba will be represented when the Seagram’s Whisky Manitoba Curling Club Championships take place April 3-6 at the St. Vital Curling Club. Four clubs (Thompson Burntwood and Fort Rouge, Fort Garry, and St. Vital clubs in Winnipeg) will be represented in both the Men’s and Women’s Championships.
In addition, the Seagram’s Whisky Men’s Curling Club Championship will include teams from rural clubs in Gilbert Plains, Gimli, La Salle, Portage, Selkirk and Virden along with representatives from Riverview in Brandon and Pembina in Winnipeg.
The Seagram’s Whisky Women’s Curling Club Championship will also feature teams from Dauphin and East St. Paul, the Brandon Curling Club, and the Assiniboine Memorial and Granite clubs in Winnipeg.
The team lists include five former champion skips with a combined nine Manitoba Curling Club Championships.
In the Women’s Championship, Kara Balshaw (Fort Rouge), the 2023 champion, and Stacey Irwin (Brandon), the 2010, 2013 and 2017 champion, will be among the teams to beat.
On the Men’s side, 2023 champion Derrick Anderson (Gimli), 2017 champion Mark Anderson (Riverview), and 2016-2018-2020 champion Andrew Wickman (Fort Rouge) will be strong contenders.
The 2024 championships were won by teams from Pembina and La Salle Curling Clubs. Under the rules of eligibility, the 2024 Manitoba champion teams skipped by Zach Wasylik and Deb McCreanor are not eligible to compete in 2025.
The championship will be played in a round-robin format with two pools of six teams each. Six teams will advance to the weekend playoffs. The second and third place teams in the pools will play a crossover game, with the winners advancing to play the first place teams in the semifinals.
The champions at St. Vital will represent Manitoba at the Canadian Curling Club Championships which will be played Nov. 18-23, 2025 at Winnipeg’s Granite Curling Club.
Stacey Irwin (formerly Fordyce) has skipped two of the four Canadian championships won by Manitoba teams. Her 2025 line-up of Christy Erickson, Stacey Irwin, and Pam Gouldie is the same as won the Canadian title in 2013 and 2017. The other Manitoba wins at the national event came in 2011 (Meghan Armit – Granite) and 2016 (Tracey Andries – Fort Rouge). No Manitoba Men’s team has yet won the national title.
