Cool, calm Calvert cruising at provincials

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This article was published 08/02/2025 (301 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE – Carberry’s Braden Calvert became the second team to qualify for the playoff round at the Viterra Championship with an 8-3 win over Deer Lodge’s Sean Grassie Friday morning.

Calm, cool and collected as always, Calvert put singles on the board in the first three ends before taking advantage of late mistakes from Grassie.

“We got a couple breaks with Sean’s last rocks,” said Calvert.

“We’ve played them a lot this year and they’ve played really well against us each time, so we just put the pressure on them so they had to make tough shots and it worked out for us.”

Calvert and his team of Brendan Bilawka, Kyle Kurz, and Corey Chambers out of the Fort Rouge Curling Club, although young, are playing like a group of experienced vets.

As the pressure and intensity of the tournament increases, they play with even-keeled intensity as though they’ve been there thousands of times.

“We have a little bit of experience playing games at this level and we know that every game is going to be a little bit tougher. We know that every game we need to be a little bit better and a little bit sharper and just take it one shot at a time,” said Calvert.

It doesn’t get any easier, but knowing they’re into the weekend takes off some of the pressure, but don’t expect them to take their foot off the gas anytime soon.

“In this format you never want to drop a game. You can’t make a big mistake in these games, so that’s the mindset,” said Calvert.

“We start with hammer, so start with two before they score. Control the scoreboard. That’s what our team is really good at doing, so managing the score in even ends and play our best.”

Calvert, the number three seed, played Jordon McDonald, the number two seed in Friday’s opening of the playoff round at 7:45 p.m. That game was still underway at press time.

Meanwhile, Jeff Stewart’s rink out of the Gladstone Curling Club had its toughest test early Friday.

With a spot in the playoff round up for grabs, but the top seed in Reid Carruthers was sharp in a 10-6 victory.

Carruthers had a strong start, jumping to an early 4-1 lead before Stewart chipped away and a measurement in the seventh end gave Stewart the deuce and tied things 6-6.

Carruthers answered with four in the eighth to regain control.

“BJ (Neufeld) made two perfect run backs, so not much you can do against that,” said Stewart’s third Eric Zamrykut of Brandon.

“We were right in it. We had a tough couple ends to start. They gave us a couple opportunities to score, and we made a couple and missed a couple. That’s the way it goes.”

“Take it one end at a time. We’ll just try to forget about the bad ones, move past it, and just get back to playing our game and making shots,” Zamrykut added.

Stewart faced Jordan Peters in the 4 p.m. draw, facing elimination, and came up with a massive 10th end of four points to win 10-5.

That moved Stewart into the playoff round and set up a match against Assiniboine Memorial’s Brett Walter in Friday’s late draw. That game was still underway at press time.

The two Carberry rinks had their championship pursuits come to a close Friday.

Kelly Marnoch’s rink lost a nail-biter in Friday’s mid-day draw to have the week come to a close, as Jordan Peters put up two in the 10th end to win 7-6.

Meanwhile, Ed Barr forced an extra end by scoring three in the tenth to tie it 8-8 before Marcus Titchkosky answered with four in the 11th to win 12-8 and advance.

» mpackwood@brandonsun.com