Anderson ready for Travelers

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This article was published 18/11/2017 (3122 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mark Anderson has competed at one previous Curling Canada championship and he’s hoping that experience pays dividends next week in Kingston, Ont.

Anderson, now 46, teamed up with Ashley Ewasiuk at the 2016 national mixed doubles event in Saskatoon after topping the Winnipeg duo of Jason Gunnlaugson and Heather Maxted 8-6 for the provincial title, but the Riverview club team went winless in seven games at nationals.

Nineteen-plus months later, Anderson will be in the field at another national event, the men’s Travelers Curling Club Championship, and he’s bringing third Jeremy Short, second Bryce Granger and lead Riley Willows with him.

“I’m not going to let it pass me by,” Anderson said. “I want to really, really give it all I have and I know these guys are all going to play hard for us.”

The Manitoba representatives, who knocked off Scott Barth 8-2 in the provincial final last March, open the competition against Leo Stewart of Prince Edward Island on Tuesday.

“I have a totally different feeling going into this one. I feel the calibre is different and our team is playing well and with all the two-person curling I’ve done in the past I think I feel way more comfortable going into it,” Anderson said. “I’m actually happy I did all that two-person stuff so that when we go to this I think my mindset is going to be in the right place.

“I’m pretty confident with the guys I have, they’re all playing well … and they’re a tight bunch.”

Short and Willows will be making their first appearance at a Canadian championship, while it will be Granger’s first trip to this stage since he played second for Mike McEwen and helped them capture bronze at the 1998 junior men’s national championship in Calgary.

The Travelers begins Monday and Short is eager to hit the ice for the team’s opener a day later. He also has some lofty expectations.

“I’m pretty jacked up about it,” said the 29-year-old. “As much as I’d like to think it, I don’t think I’ll be beating McEwen anytime soon for provincials. I’m pretty happy to take a buffalo home and hopefully win nationals and add that to the collection.”

Manitoba has never captured a men’s Travelers title. Brandon’s Steve Irwin came close but settled for silver with a 7-6 loss to Alberta in the 2012 final. Tyler Drews and his Winnipeg rink also lost the national final two years ago, 6-4 to Newfoundland and Labrador.

Anderson and company will also go up against Ontario, Northern Ontario, Nova Scotia, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Andrew Symonds, who beat Drews for the title in 2015, is in the other pool.

Pool play ends Thursday with tiebreakers, if necessary, quarter-finals and semifinals taking place Friday. The top three teams in each pool make the playoffs, with the first-place teams earning byes to the semis.

The medal games will be played a week from today.

The Riverview foursome will be looking to recapture the form they showed en route to their provincial title and believe the playoffs is a definitely possibility.

“Playoffs for sure, which I think is very doable,” Short said. “At provincials we ran the table, so we didn’t lose. I think we are a pretty solid all-around team and it will depend what the competition is like, but we are ready for everything and we will give it 110 per cent for sure.”

Anderson admitted it’s odd to gear up for a national event several months after earning a ticket there, but he’s glad his team didn’t feel rushed.

“That part is weird but actually after going through all of the prep to go to this I’m glad,” he said. “We’ve been slowly getting ready for this and now that it’s here it doesn’t seem like it’s just happened.

“I think we are really grounded going into this. Eight months is a long time to prepare for it, so you’re off your high and you’re back level-headed going into it.”

Having two younger guys in Short and Willows to go with the experience Anderson and Granger bring to the team is something the skip hopes will prove beneficial as the week drags out.

Anderson also believes having 2013 women’s Travelers winner Stacey Fordyce and her team competing for Manitoba in the women’s event will prove beneficial. The two Wheat City products will play three of their six pool games on neighbouring sheets.

“I’m really looking forward to it and I think it’s a great advantage to have Stacey from the Brandon club coming,” Anderson said. “I know we are in a building full of strangers and when you see your local friends from just across town right beside you, I think it will be a lift for our team and them too.”

“We can learn a lot from watching them … and I also think the fact that a lot of their fans are friends of ours and a lot of our fans are friends of theirs, and we are playing side by side and you look behind the glass and see 50 people from Manitoba cheering for you, that’s got to lift you when you are having a bad end or the game is not going right. It will give you a boost I know it will. We’re pretty lucky that way.”

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