Brandon to host 2023 Manitoba Curling Hall ceremony

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This article was published 10/01/2023 (714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was an easy decision for the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame and Museum to hold its upcoming banquet in Brandon.

With a heavy-Westman influence in this year’s induction class, the 2023 dinner and induction ceremony will take place at the Victoria Inn on Sunday, May 7. Tickets will be available through the CurlManitoba office. Further details, including the time of the event are coming in the next few weeks.

This marks the second time that the Hall of Fame has held its ceremony in Brandon. The last was in 1995, in conjunction with the World Curling Championships.

“We definitely noticed a Westman flavour as we looked at this year’s slate of inductees, so we thought to ourselves ‘Why not have the event in Brandon?’” Hall of Fame president Peter Nicholls during a Zoom press conference on Wednesday.

“There’s no better place to have it. Brandon’s always been supportive of curling and it’s going to be an exciting evening with so many people from the area going in.”

This year’s class features five teams, two curlers and two builders.

Four of the enshrined rinks captured Canadian Masters championships.

Those squads were skipped by Doug Armour (Souris), Ray Orr (Minnedosa), Joyce McDougall (Brandon) and the late Martin Bailey (Heather).

Armour, who was previously inducted as an individual in 2006, will also be enshrined as part of Kelly Robertson’s Neepawa-squad that won the 2011 Canadian Seniors and captured a silver medal at the 2012 worlds.

In 2005, Armour led his rink — which featured Ken Sabad, Don Barr and the late Frank Gudz — to a national title at the Riverview Curling Club in Brandon.

“Everyone on the team was instrumental in us winning,” Armour said.

“We all played in a variety of super leagues over the years either with or against each other and if it wasn’t for that stiff competition … I wouldn’t be here today talking about our team.”

Robertson’s senior squad, which also featured Peter Prokopowich and Bob Scales, is the first rink from the Neepawa Curling Club to be inducted.

They won three provincial senior men’s titles in 2011, 2012 and 2014, captured a national title in 2011 and lost a thrilling extra-end affair to Ireland’s John Jo Kenny at the 2012 worlds.

“We lost some games early in our senior careers, but then in 2011, everything just clicked and we had some good years there,” Robertson said.

“To go into the Hall with my teammates and to represent Neepawa is pretty awesome.”

Orr’s rink — which included Dennis Peckover, Bob Manns, John Mendrikis and Brian Manns — won the provincial title in 2009 on their home ice in Minnedosa and followed that up with a national title in Saskatoon.

The quintet is the first team from Minnedosa to be enshrined.

“It was very humbling and proud to put our community on the curling map, so to speak, that year,” Mendrikis said. “Everyone was following what we were doing, which was a pretty big thrill.”

Bailey — who passed away in 2009 — was born in Stockton and started curling out of the Glenboro Curling Club.

He joined forces with John Helston, Brian Taylor and the late Gary Smith, who was originally from Isabella, and ran the table on his way to capturing the national masters title in 2004 in Kelowna, B.C.

“I think with how big Martin was, he probably intimidated a lot of people with how smooth his delivery was for a guy his size,” Helston said.

“It’s a shame that Gary and Martin aren’t here for this, but Brian and I are honoured to have our team inducted.”

McDougall’s rink, which included Linda Van Daele, Cheryl Orr and Karen Dunbar, rattled off three straight provincial titles from 2011 to 2013 and captured Manitoba’s only women’s masters national title to date in 2011 at the Assiniboine in Winnipeg.

They are also one of four teams in provincial curling history to win the Buffalo on three consecutive occasions with the exact same lineup.

This year’s individual inductees are curlers Doug Harrison and Ruth Wiebe, along with builders Dave Petursson and Bob Flock.

Harrison competed in 21 provincial men’s curling championships and skipped his own rink to a title in 1978 at the Keystone Centre with an 8- 2 triumph over Gary Ross.

He also won the MCA Bonspiel Grand Aggregate that year and was the third for Mike Riley’s rink that came out on top in the 100th edition of the event in 1988, which featured 1,280 teams.

“I can tell the number of games that I played over the years when I look at my hands and still have the calluses from when I was using a corn broom to sweep,” Harrison said with a grin.

“That’s okay … I really enjoyed those memories of playing the game back in the ‘70s and ‘80s.”

Wiebe, who spent most of her career as a front-end player, was part of two provincial senior women’s and nine masters women’s championship teams.

Her 11 titles have Wiebe in a tie with Elaine Jones, Jennifer Jones and Jill Officer for the third-most in Manitoba history.

Petursson spent 40 years as a national-level umpire, with his final competition coming at the 2019 Tim Hortons Brier in Brandon. He was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame during that event.

Flock, who was a police officer in St. James-Assiniboia and the city of Winnipeg, was mainly involved with the police curling championships during his career.

In addition to serving executive roles with the Manitoba and Canadian Police Curling Association, he skipped a rink to the 1981 national police curling title in Dawson Creek, B.C.

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