More new look rinks made their debuts on the World Curling Tour this weekend with Winnipeg’s Team Kerri Einarson and Team Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge being the most notable winners.

Stu Sells Oakville Tankard (Oakville, Ontario)

Men’s Purse: $25,000
Women’s Purse: $25,000

Possibly the most intriguing rink heading into this 2018-19 season showed they just might be the real deal this weekend in Oakville.

In just their second event as a foursome, Winnipeg’s Team Kerri Einarson captured the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard with an impressive 6-0 victory over two-time defending champion Team Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland in the final.

Einarson, who was a finalist in last year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts as a skip of a different team, made headlines this summer when she formed a new squad of skips. The rare combination was met with intrigue and a few questions about whether it would work.

Einarson, Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard and Briane Meilleur went 2-2 in their opening event two weeks ago in Winnipeg but cranked up their play against a tougher field this weekend in Oakville. After dropping their opening game of the tournament, Einarson’s crew rattled off seven consecutive victories, including beating Northern Ontario’s Jacqueline Harrison in the quarter-final and the returning Suzanne Birt of Prince Edward Island in the semi-final.

Tirinzoni, who Einarson beat in the final, also added a former skip in Alina Patz to play third for her this season.

Hollie Duncan, last year’s Ontario representative at the Scotties, went 0-3 while Julie Tippin, who competed at the Canadian Olympic trials in 2017, fell in the quarters to Tirinzoni.

On the men’s side, a Swiss rink led by 23-year Yannick Schwaller were the last ones standing posting a 7-1 record in Oakville, capping the weekend off with an 8-3 victory over Wayne Tuck Jr. of Ontario in the final.

Their only loss of the week came by the hands of Toronto’s John Epping who welcomed a new front-end duo of Brent Laing and Craig Savill this off-season. The new foursome had won four straight before Team Tuck Jr. took them out in the semi-final. This was a solid start for Team Epping as the 35-year-old skip appears to be an early favourite to wear Ontario colours at the Canadian championship for a second straight season after these additions.

Other notable names include Regina’s Matt Dunstone, who’s skipping once again this season, and Sudbury’s Tanner Horgan, who added former skip Mark Kean to his team in the summer. Both lost in the quarters.

Olympic bronze medalist Peter De Cruz of Switzerland went 3-3, Ontario’s Glenn Howard, who has his son Scott playing third this season, went 0-3, Saskatoon’s Kirk Muyres posted a 3-3 record, missing the playoffs for a second straight event and finally Toronto’s Charley Thomas, who added Adam Casey and Patrick Janssen to the fold this off-season, also went .500 at 3-3.

 

HDF Insurance Shoot-Out (Edmonton, Alberta)

Women’s Purse: $32,000

Defending Alberta champions Team Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge kicked off their 2018-19 campaign on the right note with a victory at the HDF Insurance Shoot-Out, beating Team Alina Kovaleva in the final, 6-4.

The foursome of skip Scheidegger, third Casey-Anne McTaggart, second Jessie Scheidegger and lead Kristie Moore dropped their first game but got on track quickly by reeling off six straight wins, including over Chelsea Carey, 8-6, in the quarters and Kelsey Rocque, 7-6, in the semis before beating Team Kovaleva in the championship tilt. Both Carey and Rocque were playing with their new rinks formed in the off-season.

Edmonton’s Laura Walker, who is skipping a new team this season highlighted by five-time national champ Cathy Overton-Clapham at third, went 2-2 in the round robin and missed the playoffs.

North Battleford’s Robyn Silvernagle is playing with former skipper Stefanie Lawton this season. They should be pleased with their first event as they went a perfect 4-0 in the round robin before falling to Kovaleva in the semis.

Allison Flaxey will curl out of the tough curling province of Manitoba this season after years in Ontario. Her new team won their first two contests but then lost two in a row and were unable to make the playoffs.

Saskatchewan’s Sherry Anderson went 3-1 in the round robin before falling to Team Kovaleva in the quarters.