Walter wins ‘spiel, Freeman nets Viterra berth

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/01/2018 (2800 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brett Walter’s Winnipeg-based foursome and Graham Freeman’s Virden-based team exceeded their expectations at the 127th Brandon Men’s Bonspiel.

It was the first event for Walter’s squad of Thomas Dunlop, Zachary Wasylik and Chase Dusessoy as they prepare for under-18 men’s regionals and they just hoped to qualify for the playoff round in the competitive division. They did that by topping Cale Dunbar, Sean Grassie and Shawn Taylor to qualify through the B event. They kept on rolling afterwards and won the bonspiel by defeating Freeman 6-4 in the final.

“We thought we could do quite well this weekend,” Walter said. “We were just hoping to qualify was our main goal. After we qualified we just kept going.

“We started off pretty slow, we just didn’t pick up on the ice right away, but I feel like we started making more shots as a team and working well together and kept it going.”

Meanwhile, Freeman was a late entry into the bonspiel after Braden Calvert dropped out on Tuesday.

The Virden squad, which includes Brooks Freeman, Cory Barkley and Dwayne Barkley, hadn’t played together this year but that didn’t stop them from qualifying for the playoffs through the A event before beating Kyle Foster 7-4 in the quarter-finals and Steve Irwin 5-4 in the semifinals to earn a spot in the final and a berth to the Viterra Championship later this month.

Walter already had a spot through Winnipeg regionals.

Getting the berth at this year’s provincial men’s curling championship, which runs from Jan. 31 to Feb. 4 in Winkler, means even more to Graham Freeman because he gets to play in it with his son.

“This year is kind of cool that my son Brooks is curling with us,” said Freeman, who lost A-event and B-event finals at Westman men’s regionals when he had Kevin Barkley throwing third stones. “He maybe doesn’t appreciate how hard it is to get there, but at this point in my so-called curling career, I never know what Manitoba men’s will be my last one.

“It’s good to curl once in a while and get out and compete. It’s nice to know you can still do it and it keeps you sharp a little bit. We kind of look forward to our one or two times a year when we play competitively.”

Although he doesn’t play competitively very often, Freeman showed that he can still make the big shots during Sunday’s final at the Brandon Curling Club.

He made a pair of runbacks in the first end to score a single point. He came through a small port for hits in the second end, although his final stone rolled too far allowing Walter an open hit for two. Freeman rebounded from that by making a triple takeout for two in the third end.

“Maybe not rightfully so, but we still have a lot of pride and expectations in ourselves,” said Freeman, who coaches Brooks’ junior team. “We like to compete. We play once a week at home and expect to make as many shots as we can.

“It was nice to stay in it with those guys and that’s a good young team. You can’t take anything away from them. But we had a chance to win that game too. A couple of different shots, actually I kind of screwed that game up in the last two ends.”

With the score 4-4, Freeman was without the hammer in the seventh end and had a chance to lay two with his first, but he came up a couple of feet short with a draw. That allowed Walter to make a double takeout to lay a pair. Freeman then threw too much weight on his double attempt, jammed it and left a draw for two, which Walter made.

Freeman, who was under pressure a lot during the first half of the game, missed a difficult raise double takeout with his first in the eighth end, leaving Walter a hit for the win.

“That was big,” Walter said of Freeman’s draw in the seventh end. “We would have had a really tough shot for one and he might have stole. It was a really good chance to get two.”

For Walter, who topped Butch Mouck 6-3 in the quarter-finals and Taylor 9-5 in the semifinals, the Brandon Men’s Bonspiel was huge for his team. It gave them important games playing together and confidence after beating some solid men’s teams from around the province.

“It was a great time and we had a lot of fun playing men’s teams rather than juniors,” Walter said. “It’s a little different strategy in the game, which is nice.”

Meanwhile, in the recreation division, Mark Anderson took the A-event title with a 6-5 win over Dale Brooks, while Devin Moore edged Gord Neal 7-6 in the B-event final. Tim Weber secured the C-event crown with a 5-4 victory over Wes Gregory, with Cory Lawson sliding by Nate Andrews 8-7 in the D-event final. Cam Toews topped the E-event by defeating Brian Donald 11-7.

» cjaster@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @jasterch