Rinks skipped by Greg Smith and Colin Thomas square off in Sunday afternoon’s final of the 2021 Tankard provincial men’s curling championship at the Re/Max Centre in St. John’s.
Smith, the 2018 Tankard champion, booked his spot in the 1 p.m. final by finishing first in the eight-team preliminary round-robin.
Smith and Ryan McNeil Lamswood had each finished with 6-1 round-robin records, but Smith earned top spot and the bye to the final with an 8-1 win in their head-to-head meeting in Saturday morning’s final preliminary draw.
Thomas took a longer route, having to win three times Saturday to get to the championship game.
First, he had to edge Nathan Young 5-4 in the final round-robin draw to give him a 5-2 record and a third-place tie with 2019 Tankard champion Andrew Symonds. After downing Symonds 6-4 in a third-place tiebreaker, Thomas followed up with a 7-3 victory over McNeil Lamswood in Saturday evening’s semifinal.
Smith, who had shaded Thomas 7-6 in their round-robin game, is looking for his second trip to the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian men’s curling championship; he had won the 2018 Tankard.
Thomas has yet to win a Tankard, but is a three-time provincial junior men’s champion.
Of the eight teams in this year’s Tankard, seven — including Smith’s and Thomas’s — are based out of the Re/Max Centre (St. John’s Curling Club). McNeil Lamswood, Symonds, Young (3-4), Trent Skanes (2-5) and Simon Perry (0-8) were the others.
The exception was Keith Ryan’s entry (1-7) from the Carol Club in Labrador City.
Today’s winner will represent the province in the Brier being held in Calgary March 5-1, where there will be two entries from Newfoundland and Labrador. As the defending Brier winner, Brad Gushue of St. John’s didn’t have to compete in the provincial playdowns to get a place in the national championship, where he and his rink will compete in Calgary as Team Canada.
