News Champions Cup

Eight Ends: All you need to know for Humpty’s Champions Cup

SHERWOOD PARK, Alta. — It’s a clash of the champions in one last showdown to close out the curling season.

The Humpty’s Champions Cup, starting Tuesday night at the Sherwood Park Arena Sports Centre, is the second of two new events on the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling circuit this year and serves as the grand finale of 2015-16. Fittingly an event of this nature launches just outside Edmonton, aka the City of Champions.

It’s been a long season that kicked off with the debut of the Tour Challenge in Paradise, N.L., in September. Since then the Pinty’s GSOC has travelled from the east coast to the west coast and all sorts of points in-between with all roads leading here.

Here’s the rundown of what you need to know ahead of the inaugural Humpty’s Champions Cup:

1st End: The 411 on the Humpty’s Champions Cup

The Humpty’s Champions Cup is the first of its kind for the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling series. Teams had to win an event over the course of the season in order to qualify. Leave your merit points at the door, runner-up and third-place finishers need not apply.

This has created a unique lineup of teams featuring not just Pinty’s GSOC winners but also world junior champions and others making their series debut. Teams from Sweden, Switzerland, Scotland, Japan, the U.S., and Canada will collide for the men’s and women’s titles.

Here are the teams set to compete and which event they won to qualify:

Men’s Teams Women’s Teams
Tour Challenge (Tier 1)
Kevin Koe		 Tour Challenge (Tier 1)
Silvana Tirinzoni
Masters
Mike McEwen		 Masters
Rachel Homan
National
Brad Gushue		 Players’ Championship
Eve Muirhead
Canadian Open
John Epping		 World Junior Championship
Mary Fay
European Championship
Niklas Edin		 Pacific-Asia Championship
Satsuki Fujisawa
World Junior Championship
Bruce Mouat		 Scotties Tournament of Hearts
Chelsea Carey
U.S. National Championship
Brady Clark		 DEKALB Superspiel
Jennifer Jones
Canad Inn Men’s Classic
Steve Laycock		 Colonial Square Ladies Classic
Krista McCarville
DEKALB Superspiel
Reid Carruthers		 Prestige Hotels & Resorts Curling Classic
Stefanie Lawton
Ed Werenich Golden Wrench Classic
Pat Simmons		 Tour Challenge (Tier 2)
Kerri Einarson
CookstownCash
Peter de Cruz		 Red Deer Curling Classic
Kelsey Rocque
German Masters
David Murdoch		 Karuizawa International
Ayumi Ogasawara
Red Deer Curling Classic
Mick Lizmore		 HDF Insurance Shoot-Out
Val Sweeting
Huron ReproGraphics Oil Heritage Classic
John Shuster		 Royal LePage OVCA Women’s Fall Classic
Jacqueline Harrison
HDF Insurance Shoot-Out
Shaun Meachem		 KW Fall Classic
Allison Flaxey

2nd End: The cherry on top

The Players’ Championship used to be the final event of the Pinty’s GSOC season and is seen as the crown jewel of the series with a lot at stake.

Brad Gushue completed a career Grand Slam (winning all four majors) by capturing the Players’ Championship in Toronto last week, and he also clinched the Rogers Grand Slam Cup en route. Altogether, his team from St. John’s, N.L., banked a grand total of $101,500. For them that was huge, however, so too would be having the chance to call themselves the first Humpty’s Champions Cup winners.

“It would certainly be nice to win the first Champions Cup too,” Gushue said following the Players’ Championship. “We’ll be ready to play but it definitely will be the cherry on top. This is the cake for sure for us this year. This is a big win and means a lot to us.”

Team Gushue have been on an incredible run through the Pinty’s GSOC series this season winning three titles and finishing runner-up at two other events. They enter the Humpty’s Champions Cup riding a Goldberg-esque 14-game winning streak in the series.

3rd End: Heather Nedohin wins the Internet

What a difference a year makes. At this point in 2015, two-time Canadian champ Heather Nedohin had just hung up the brush and stepped back from competitive curling while the rest of her team decided to stick together adding free agent skip Chelsea Carey.

The new Team Carey are now the reigning Scotties Tournament of Hearts champions while Nedohin has been a key member of the organizing committee in Sherwood Park for the Humpty’s Champions Cup. Nedohin has been hustling to spread the word with a collection of player cutouts in tow on a Flat Stanley-like journey through town.

Here’s just a short sample of Nedohin’s hilarious tweets:

4th End: Swan song for Team Simmons

The Humpty’s Champions Cup will be the final event for Pat Simmons’ team in its present form. Second Carter Rycroft and lead Nolan Thiessen are both stepping back from competitive curling, leaving Simmons and third John Morris as coveted free agents.

Morris will miss the event recovering from a hernia injury with Tom Sallows getting the call to fill in.

Simmons, Rycroft and Thiessen won the Tim Hortons Brier in 2014 with Kevin Koe. After Koe parted ways to form a new team, the trio stuck together, adding Morris to the fold, to become the first team to return to the Brier as Team Canada the following year. You may remember they successfully defended the title with Simmons making the clutch draw shot with his last in the extra end of the final against Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs (cue Simmons flipping his brush in the air).

For the Calgary-based team, ending their run in their home province has a storybook feel to it.

5th End: Hometown homecoming

Kelsey Rocque grew up just 15 minutes away from Sherwood Park and the rookie skip is thrilled to be playing in a Pinty’s GSOC event so close to home.

Team Koe was the first men’s rink to punch their ticket to the Humpty’s Champions Cup. It’ll be a “backyard Slam” for third Marc Kennedy, who has been looking forward to this event ever since winning the Tour Challenge Tier 1 event back in September to qualify.

6th End: Scottish teams finishing strong

Both David Murdoch and Eve Muirhead of Scotland enter the Humpty’s Champions Cup riding hot streaks through the tail end of the season.

Murdoch wrapped up the CCT season winning the EURONICS European Masters in Switzerland defeating Niklas Edin of Sweden 6-3 in Saturday’s final.

It’s Murdoch’s fourth title since mid-December and comes off of a Pinty’s GSOC career-best semifinal finish at the Players’ Championship a week ago.

Meawhile, Muirhead finished runner-up on the women’s side of the European Masters to Switzerland’s Binia Feltscher as the reigning world champion held on to win 6-5.

Muirhead entered the event winning back-to-back titles taking the City of Perth Ladies International and the Players’ Championship despite missing third Anna Sloan, who is out for the rest of the season due to an ACL injury.

Team Muirhead had Cathy Overton-Clapham as the super spare at the Players’ Championship in Toronto and have called upon Nadine Lehmann of Alina Paetz’s team for the Humpty’s Champions Cup.

7th End: Tickets to the Humpty’s Champions Cup

Experience a part of Pinty’s GSOC series history and watch the first-ever Humpty’s Champions Cup live. Tickets are moving fast, visit thegrandslamofcurling.com/tickets to get yours today.

8th End: Watch on Sportsnet

Can’t make it to Sherwood Park? Sportsnet will have you covered with live coverage starting Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. PT. Visit thegrandslamofcurling.com/tv-schedule for the full schedule.