Dunbar chases Westman Superleague repeat

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This article was published 10/10/2024 (606 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cale Dunbar is hoping to break a 10-year drought.

The Taylor Jackson Financial Westman Superleague of Curling champion has not repeated the following year since Terry McNamee in 2013-14. While the team, including third Shayne MacGranachan, second Kyle Sambrook and lead Chris Campbell, has won two of the last three championships, it’s a testament to the parity in the 12-team league.

They opened the season with a 7-4 loss to Alyssa Calvert in Wednesday night’s feature game at the Brandon Curling Club — a rematch of last season’s final.

“The record of the defending champs in the last couple of seasons hasn’t been very good so we’re hoping to break that trend,” Dunbar said.

“We didn’t really do that tonight but there’s never an easy game out here. You go and play and hope for the best. It was the first time on the ice so everything’s a little shaky.”

Dunbar beat Calvert in the final last year after the league’s lone women’s team entered the playoffs as the No. 5 seed and upset Virden’s Jay Kinnaird and the top-ranked Steve Irwin squad en route to the final.

Dunbar had a bye as the No. 2 seed and beat third-ranked Kelly Marnoch after he ousted last year’s new squad led by Travis Gregory of Hamiota.

There were a few shakeups as Shawn Taylor backed out, but his team joined veteran skip and Brandon Curling Club president Sheldon Wettig to keep the team going, and Virden’s Graham Freeman left.

While it’s never a sure thing, Dunbar, also the league president, was certainly pleased to look around the rink and see 12 strong teams in action once again this year.

“To get 12 teams in our area willing to commit to a round-robin season is great and we’ll keep doing it as long as we can and keep bringing young guys in and young teams in as long as we can,” he said.

“We all play in other leagues and clubs and the competition just isn’t there. We all love to play in this because you come out and you have to make every shot.

“A lot of our teams do make it to provincials at the end of this because we’ve been tuned up to make those shots and you do well when you get to provincials.”

Boissevain’s Andrew Kempthorne pulled a team together to replace Freeman. They were greeted, along with other newcomers, with a warning that rang true when Ed Barr delivered them a 9-5 defeat on opening night — “If you miss a shot, you’re going to pay for it.”

“We’re definitely looking forward to it,” Kempthorne said. “It makes you better when you play against really good teams and the ice surface here is fantastic so we’re definitely looking forward to it, that’s for sure.

“The first game was a little bit nerve-racking. We definitely had opportunities that we left on the table but that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Kempthorne has played with second Ryan Martens for a while, and used to play with lead Kyle Lougheed. They’ve teamed up with Brandon’s Ethan Marshall to round out the group.

“We just met Ethan here now, he seems like a pretty good kid. A little younger than us but pretty good kid and pretty good curler,” Kempthorne said.

“We’ve played a lot of club curling and a lot of club bonspiels and we’ve done well so we want to try once a week playing against some better teams and see how it goes.”

In the other games, Duane Payette beat Chris Bridges 7-4, Marnoch downed Kinnaird 6-3, Jeff Stewart topped Wettig 7-4 and Steve Irwin’s squad beat Gregory 3-2 with the skip sidelined due to injury. The teams all play each other once, with the top six advancing to the playoffs. All games are at the Brandon Curling Club on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., with one feature game on Sheet 7 broadcast on Westman Communications Group TV.

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