Shawn Joyce Wins Unity and a SaskTel Tankard Berth
Saskatchewan Men’s teams had a successful weekend in three major events on the curling circuit. Starting with Steve Laycock’s impressive showing in Truro, Nova Scotia the team made a semi-final appearance in the Masters of Curling Championshp. They were denied an appearance in the Final as the Jim Cotter team handed them an 8-3 loss. With a tie-break win over Glenn Howard and then a quarter final victory over Brad Gushue, the Laycock team earned $9,000 and 50 valuable CTRS points. Most notably, Dallan and Kirk were applauded in the social media world for requesting the cameramen to stay away from the fallen Brad Gushue when Brad suffered that horrible fall.
In Medicine Hat the annual World Curling Tour event was well populated by Saskatchewan teams chasing the $7,000 first prize. The four last teams standing were Shaun Meachem, Randy Bryden, Scott Bitz and Jason Jacobson all from Saskatchewan. When the dust settled, so to speak, Shaun Meachem came out on top with a hard fought 6-3 victory over Randy Bryden.
Meachem, along with teammates Catlin Schneider, Brady Scharback and Aaron Shutra have only been together for a few months and are off to a hot, hot start. This is the second WCT victory for the Meachem squad as they won a bonspiel in Edmonton in September. The team will likely be in the WCT Top 15 for money earnings when the figures are released on Tuesday. The Bryden team along with Troy Robinson, Kelly Knapp and Trent Knapp earned $4,000 for their second place finish.
The Unity Curling Club hosted the Saskatchewan Curling Tour Compass Minerals event this past weekend. The Shawn Joyce team of Mike Carrs, Jason Barnhart and Tyler Matheson played every draw, qualified through the C event on Sunday morning and kept their streak going with two more wins on Sunday afternoon. In the Final they played Brad Heidt’s senior Men’s team of Mark Lang, Glenn Heitt and Dan Ormsby and prevailed with a 7-3 victory. Most importantly, the Joyce team has now earned the second berth in the 2016 SaskTel Tankard in Kindersley, joining Randy Bryden who with his victory at Rocktoberfest in Regina, can make plans to be curling in February at the Saskatchewan Men’s Championships.
Note: for those curious types – Brad Heidt was listed in Medicine Hat but it was Drew Heidt, playing with Chris Schille, Mitch Heidt and DJ Kidby that actually played. The team qualified but lost in the quarter finals.
Source: curlsask.ca