Dunbars duel in Superleague contest

Experience paid off in a matchup between the Dunbar brothers in the third week of Taylor Jackson Financial Services Inc. Westman Superleague.

Reigning champion Cale Dunbar and his team of second Shayne McGranachan, third Kyle Sambrook and lead Chris Campbell beat Justin West’s new squad of second Travis Dunbar, lead Russell Levandoski and third Austin West 8-2 after seven ends on Wednesday.

“(I) never got the chance to compete against (Cale) growing up. We always seemed to be at different levels,” said Travis. “They’re a great team to play against. I curled with them last year as a fifth man and now, curling with Team West, it’s been good. We hope to compete against him in the finals this year.”

He added that this is just the third time the two have curled against one another. One of the other meetings happened on Saturday, when the two teams met during the Manitoba Curling Tour Curling Cup.

As a new team in the Westman Superleague, Team West is adjusting to one another while jumping up to a higher level of play.

They are 1-2 after three weeks, which is not bad, all things considered.

“It’s going alright … we’re starting to get into our groove,” said Justin. “We’ve only got about five games as a team, so I think as the season goes on, we will figure out how each other throws.”

This is a higher level of curling than most of the team is used to, and that will also take some adjusting.

“The game is played differently; cleaner, it’s a lot more open game, and you’ve got a lot of guys out there that don’t miss a lot of shots,” said Justin. “Here, if you have an off night, you’re going to have a tough time keeping it together.”

The matchup against Team Dunbar started well enough. Dunbar stole a point in the first end, which West matched in the second end before an empty third end left the two teams tied nearing the halfway mark in the game.

However, Dunbar broke things open in the fourth end, scoring three to take a 4-1 lead. Team West found a response in the fifth end, scoring one more point before Dunbar wrapped the game up by scoring two in the sixth and seventh ends, causing West to concede.

Travis commented that moving forward, the team will be OK if they “compete a little bit better than we did tonight” and “just improve on our precision a little bit and continue from there.”

The Dunbars weren’t the only siblings in the game. Justin’s sibling Austin is the third for their team.

“We’ve curled together for multiple years in funspiels,” said Justin. “We’ve always curled well together. (We) call a similar game and coexist pretty well, so we just thought we’d make good partners in it, and so far, it’s been good.”

While the team would prefer to have a better record through two weeks, they’ve already noticed a lot of improvement.

“We’ve come a long way since our first game of questioning calls, so if we just keep going and everybody is on the same page, we will start making a few more, and everything should come together,” said Justin.

Next week, West faces Payette with the opportunity to return to a .500 record.

IRWIN STAYS HOT

One sheet over, Steve Irwin and his team of Travis Brooks, Brayden Stewart and Travis Taylor stayed in the win column by defeating Andrew Kempthorne.

Irwin is one of three undefeated teams through three weeks of play, having also beaten Chris Bridges and Justin Anderson. The other two undefeated teams are Derek Samagalski and Jeff Stewart.

“It’s really good because we started without hammer in all three of those games,” said Irwin. “Those ones are always tough to turn the hammer around, and we’ve done well positioning rocks and had control of all three games.”

Irwin added that the team’s success comes in part because of their rock placement. They consistently stay at the top of the house, forcing their opponents to manoeuvre around their rocks or move them.

Irwin’s team won a Superleague championship in 2024-25. They also made it to the semifinals last year, where they fell to Cale Dunbar.

“I threw one away last year for the team … I had a gimme shot to beat (Dunbar) in the extra end,” said Irwin. “It was just a wide open shot and a shot I usually don’t miss, but I did … I felt I let the team down, so definitely hoping to make up for that this year.”

Irwin won’t get his chance for redemption against Dunbar until the final week of the season. The two teams will play one another on Jan. 6, right before the start of the playoffs.

Until then, Irwin and his team hope to stay in the win column. He says it’s much easier to play with confidence when you aren’t chasing the standings.

“Hopefully the whole year. The goal every time you step on the ice is to win,” said Irwin with a laugh about how long the team can stay undefeated. “There’s a lot of good teams out here; we know that’s not going to happen, but hopefully we can keep it going.”

Next week, Irwin faces Alyssa Calvert, whose team has yet to pick up a win through three weeks of play.

EXTRA ENDS: Brandon University picked up their first win of the season, defeating Duane Payette 5-4 in a nail-biting contest that went down to the final end.

The game between Kelly Marnoch and Jay Kinnaird did not take place as Marnoch was in Halifax for a World Curling Tour event. The league intends to reschedule the game.

» rmccarthy@brandonsun.com