They’ll be competing on ice, but the team representing Newfoundland and Labrador at the 2018 Canadian junior men’s curling championship, beginning Saturday in Shawinigan, Que., might have an advantage that was fashioned on softer surfaces.
The rink out of the Corner Brook Curling Club includes four players who are all accomplished golfers, so much so that they each has represented the province in national golf championships at least once.
Andrew Bruce, the team’s second, is the defending provincial junior men’s golf champion, has competed in four national golf championships and was part of the NL golf team at the 2017 Canada Games in Winnipeg.
His brother, Daniel Bruce, who is the team’s skip, has played in one national golf championship, as has lead Nathan King, also of Corner Brook.
The third is Ryan McNeil Lamswood of Stephenville, and like Andrew Bruce, he has participated in four national golf competitions.
But it’s not just the experience of national competition — albeit in a different sport — that they’ll bring with them to Shawinigan, but also the bonds they’ve built as friends on fairways and tee boxes and greens.
Even the team’s spare — Torbay native Nathan Young — is a curler/golfer.
And while there is just one player— McNeil Lamswood — with a national curling background, it’s an extensive one that he can share with his teammates in Shawinigan. The 17-year-old (the other three are 18) was a member of Greg Smith’s provincial junior champions in 2015 and 2016 and teamed with his sister, Sarah, to take the provincial mixed doubles title last year, in each case moving on to Canadian championships.
The Bruce rink won all four of its games at the provincial junior (U21) championship last month in Gander.
“We’ve been working really hard for the past couple of years, so it’s nice to see it pay off,” said Daniel Bruce.
The Newfoundland junior women’s representative for this week’s competition in Shawinigan was also decided in Gander last month.
That title went to the Mackenzie Glynn rink out of the Re/Max Centre in St. John’s.
Glynn, third Katie Follett, second Sarah Chaytor and lead Camille Burt had a 5-1 record in double round robin play at the provincials in Gander, the same as two-time defending champion Brooke Godsland of St. John’s. In the final, Glynn and Co. downed Godsland 8-5.
While the Glynn rink is exceptionally young — Chaytor is 15 and the other three are 17 — they have been to a national curing championship before. That was at last year’s Canadian U18 event. And the team is coming off an impressive performance at the recent Scotties provincial women’s championship, where it made it to the playoffs after finishing third in a field of seven teams and was only bested by rinks skipped by Stacie Curtis (the eventual winner) and Heather Strong, who have 17 NL Scotties titles between them.
The 2018 national junior championships sees 14 entries in both the women’s and men’s divisions, which have been, in turn, divided into two seven-team pools. After the conclusion of the preliminary round robin, the top four teams from each pool advance to the playoff round.
Both Newfoundland and Labrador teams open with games against the Northwest Territories and Nunavut today.
Dennis Bruce is coach of the junior men’s team, while Dave Trickett handles the coaching duties for the women.
