News General News

Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen returned to the winner’s circle in Morris, Man.

McEwen earned his first tour title of the season topping William Lyburn 9-4 in an all-Winnipeg final Monday at the DEKALB Superspiel.

Consider the championship game a bit of revenge. McEwen finished with an impressive 8-1 record with the only blemish being a 6-4 loss to Lyburn during the A-qualifier of the triple knockout round.

It might seem a bit uncharacteristic as at this point last year McEwen already had three titles to his name and if you look at his team’s stellar tour season two years ago that number’s five.

McEwen struggled earlier this season missing the playoffs in three consecutive events. The team started to turn the corner with quarterfinal finishes at the WFG Masters and Tour Challenge. Snapping their year-long tour title drought marked a huge step forward especially with the Canada Cup just around the corner and an Olympic Trials berth up for grabs.

1st End: Jones successfully defends DEKALB women’s title

It was a repeat on the women’s side with Jennifer Jones capturing her second consecutive DEKALB Superspiel title.

Jones outmatched Michelle Englot 8-3 in another all-Winnipeg team final Monday.

The win in Morris last season qualified Jones for the Humpty’s Champions Cup, however, the reigning Olympic gold medallist is already guaranteed a return to the season-ending Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event as the defending champ.

2nd End: Viva Las Vegas for Sinclair

American Jamie Sinclair’s semifinal finish in Morris helped her team clinch a spot to the Continental Cup in Las Vegas.

Sinclair earned enough points to springboard past Cory Christensen and Nina Roth and into first place in the U.S. year-to-date rankings just in time for the cut-off to qualify for the Team North America vs. Team World tournament taking place in January.

Heath McCormick will also represent the U.S. and joins Canada’s Kevin Koe and Chelsea Carey. The two remaining Team North America spots will be awarded to the Canada Cup winners.

Team World will feature Denmark’s Rasmus Stjerne, Sweden’s Niklas Edin, Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud, Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg, Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa and Switzerland’s Binia Feltscher.

3rd End: Koe claims Red Deer

Koe earned his second tour title of the season taking down the Red Deer Curling Classic.

The Calgary native outlasted Edmonton’s Ted Appelman 6-5 in an extra end during Monday’s final.

It’s a nice rebound for Team Koe following back-to-back disappointing Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling finishes missing the playoffs at the WFG Masters and Tour Challenge.

Koe went 8-2 overall through Red Deer and qualified for the playoffs through the C-side of the triple knockout preliminary round.

4th End: Chyz wins third tour title of the season

Calgary’s Nadine Chyz was victorious in the women’s division to claim the Red Deer Curling Classic.

Chyz doubled down Scotland’s Hannah Fleming 8-4 in Monday’s final.

It’s the third tour title of the season for Team Chyz and the most impressive of the bunch as it scored them 42.351 points to vault them up from 35th to 27th on the World Curling Tour’s Order of Merit and from 26th to 19th on the year-to-date rankings.

5th End: Muirhead on a roll at European Championships

The European Championships are in full swing in Scotland with Eve Muirhead jumping out of the gate on home ice to a 6-0 record.

Hasselborg, currently No. 1 on the WCT’s year-to-date rankings, was also a pre-event favourite and hasn’t disappointed either at 5-1 so far.

Reigning world champ Feltscher is in a bit of trouble at 3-3 with just three round-robin games remaining.

6th End: Edin atop standings for European Championships men’s division

Edin has been top of the charts on tour this season clearing five titles already, so it’s not a shocker to see him carry that success to a 6-1 record so far at the European Championships.

Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud and Peter de Cruz of Switzerland are right behind at 5-2. De Cruz dropped an 8-1 decision to Edin during Tuesday’s late draw.

Coincidentally all three have lost to Scotland’s Tom Brewster, but they account for the only three wins for the Scottish side as they’ve slipped to a 3-4 record.

At the bottom of the table are Stjerne (2-5) and Finland’s Aku Kauste (1-6). They now look to avoid relegation sitting on the bubble ahead of the final day of round-robin play.

7th End: Double update for mixed doubles

Fresh off of the Tour Challenge in Cranbrook, B.C., several top players stuck around in nearby Kimberley for a few days to compete in the Wall Grain Mixed Doubles Classic.

Rachel Homan and John Morris picked up their second mixed doubles title of the season defeating their respective regular tour teammates Emma Miskew and Tyrel Griffith 7-1 in the final this past Wednesday.

Morris and Homan had already qualified for next season’s Olympic Trials with their earlier title victory in Portage la Prairie, Man., thus a Trials spot was awarded to Griffith and Miskew as runner-up.

Team Morris/Homan posted a perfect 8-0 record including a 7-6 win over last season’s national champs Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant during the semifinals.

Meanwhile overseas, Scotland’s Gina Aitken and Bruce Mouat defeated Sven and Tamara Michel of Switzerland 9-2 to capture the Bern Mixed Doubles CCT championship Sunday. Aitken and Mouat, who finished fourth at the world mixed doubles championship, are making a serious push towards the Olympics as the discipline makes its debut at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea.

8th End: Boost National draw schedule released

The Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling announced Monday the full match-up schedule for the Boost National, running Dec. 6-11 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., featuring local favourite Brad Jacobs taking on Brendan Bottcher in the opening draw.