Gushue, Scheidegger secure spots to Humpty’s Champions Cup
Brad Gushue and Casey Scheidegger felt pretty confident about their chances of playing in the Humpty’s Champions Cup.
Both scored high-profile wins earlier this season on the World Curling Tour that had them in the running for berths to the season-ending Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event.
However, with Gushue and Scheidegger victorious at the Meridian Canadian Open they are now assured spots to the Humpty’s Champions Cup running April 25-30 at WinSport Arena in Calgary.
“We knew with the win in Calgary, the Autumn Gold, that we’d have a chance to get into the Champions Cup,” Team Scheidegger lead Stephanie Enright said with a smile. “For sure this will get us there so that’s pretty exciting. I’ve never curled that late into my season. Usually I’m done at the end of January.”
“We felt pretty comfortable with the Stu Sells win but it’s certainly nice now that it’s written in stone,” Gushue said. “It’s a great event and we’re looking forward to that as well. It’s a nice one to tick off. We haven’t won it before because it only started last year. It’s a nice bonus.”
Scheidegger also won tour events in Edmonton and Medicine Hat to begin the season and her hot start propelled her team high enough up the year-to-date rankings to qualify for the Meridian Canadian Open, her first career elite-level Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event. The Lethbridge, Alta., native didn’t just stick her foot in the door but kicked it right off the hinges as she remarkably won her first career Grand Slam title in her debut stealing a point in the last end of the final to stun Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland 5-4.
“We wanted to do Grand Slams for years but it’s sometimes hard to break through, so this is a great event when the year-to-dates get to come. That was huge for us,” Scheidegger said. “We knew we had to show well so we could possibly get into other Slams in the future.”
The Meridian Canadian Open was a return to top form for Gushue. The St. John’s, N.L., native was playing in just his second tournament of the season since returning from a hip/groin issue that kept him on the sidelines during the fall. Third Mark Nichols skipped the team in the interim and kept things on the level never missing the playoffs and claiming the aforementioned Stu Sells Toronto Tankard in October.
Gushue topped Niklas Edin of Sweden 8-3 in the Meridian Canadian Open final and scored a perfect 100 percent to capture his seventh career title in the series and start booking his tickets to Calgary.
“Any time you go out west to Alberta or Saskatchewan the events are well attended so I think it’s going to be a great crowd,” Gushue said. “It’s a nice way to end the season. It was a lot of fun in Sherwood Park last year and I’m sure it’ll be the same this year in Calgary.”
The Humpty’s Champions Cup features the top winning teams from the year in one final showdown to close out the season. Tickets are now available for the Humpty’s Champions Cup, click here for more details.
Below is a list of teams that have qualified for the Humpty’s Champions Cup and future events required for entry.
Note: In the event a team wins two of the events listed (e.g. a team wins the Masters and the National) the winner of the next ranked WCT event based on strength of field will be invited to complete the 15-team field.
