By Jonathan Brazeau
This weekend, the GSOC Satellite Events series continues with the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard happening in Oakville, Ontario.
If you haven’t heard, the Grand Slam of Curling has teamed up with established tour events this season to create more ways for teams to qualify for the top-level circuit.
The first event of the GSOC Satellite Series was last month’s Euro Super Series tournament in Stirling, Scotland, where semifinalists Team Carson and Team Zardini Lacedelli secured spots for the CO-OP Invitational.
The Stu Sells Oakville Tankard is the second stop on this journey, offering one men’s team and one women’s team a chance to qualify for the GSOC Open set for Dec. 1-6 at Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Even though it’s still September, curlers are already thinking ahead to December.
You can watch live streaming of the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard on Curling Zone from now until Monday at the Oakville Curling Club.
Here’s a look at some key storylines and teams to keep an eye on this weekend in Eight Ends.
FIRST END: The reigning Brier champions Team Dunstone will take to the ice for their first game with new second Mark Nichols.
After legendary skip Brad Gushue retired at the end of last season, longtime teammate Nichols joined Matt Dunstone’s Winnipeg-based squad. He’ll be stepping in as second, taking over from E. J. Harnden, who also left competitive curling after the Olympic cycle.
The big question is how will Nichols mesh with Team Dunstone? Although he’s spent most of his career playing third and is from St. John’s, N. L., let’s not forget his experience at lead and second under another Winnipeg skip: Jeff Stoughton.
Mentioning Nichols’ past teammates Brendan Bottcher and Geoff Walker-who have stuck together-they’ve added brothers Jake and Tanner Horgan (previously part of Team Epping) to form a fresh squad based out of Edmonton. Five-time Grand Slam winner Bottcher returned as skip last weekend when his team debuted at the Hogged Rock KW Fall Classic in Waterloo, Ontario. They ended up with a solid 5-1 record but lost in the semifinals against eventual champion Kim Schwaller. This strong start is something they’ll look to build on as they head into Oakville.
An additional Canadian men’s team worth watching is John Epping’s club making its season debut with third B. J. Neufeld, second Ryan Wiebe, and lead Ian Mc Millan. The Oakville Curling Club holds fond memories for Epping; he clinched victory at the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard back in 2019 and has his name among championship banners hanging from earlier days competing in mixed curling there.
SECOND END: In women’s competition among Canadian teams, Kayla Mac Millan and Christina Black have secured spots for their teams at a home-province Grand Slam while aiming to earn another berth.
Mac Millan was selected as one of twelve teams invited to participate in her hometown’s CO-OP Invitational held in Victoria. Her team’s ace is new third Val Sweeting-a five-time Scotties Tournament champion-and she brings along eight Grand Slam titles which should really enhance their chances. Sweeting won her own title at Stu Sells Oakville Tankard back in 2018 during her inaugural season with Team Einarson.
Black received a sponsor’s invitation for GSOC National taking place in Sydney, N. S., after her Halifax-based team finished as runners-up during Canadian Olympic trials this year; they’ve made some changes upfront too! Marlee Powers has taken up a full-time role as second while Lindsey Burgess joins them as lead-the former second Jenn Baxter stepped away leaving Karlee Everist moving from lead into an alternate position.
THIRD END: Could we witness another showdown between Xenia Schwaller and Alina Pätz? These two top Swiss squads recently competed against each other during Euro Super Series women’s final where Team Pätz claimed victory by an impressive scoreline of 8-5.
That final marked only loss last week for reigning world champ Schwaller-which happens also be her sole defeat thus far into current season! Ranked No.3 globally , Team Schwaller achieved perfect seven wins without any losses while dominating throughout Hogged Rock KW Fall Classic.
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The previous year saw Schwaller reach quarterfinals here but winning overall would mean earning return trip. On other hand Pätz ranked sixth worldwide has been finalist three times including run-up finish just four years ago working alongside Silvana Tirinzoni throwing final rocks!</
Both squads exist within separate triple knockout brackets preliminary stage which means if they’re fated meet again it shall transpire only playoff rounds – let’s keep our fingers crossed that occurs!</
FOURTH END: If you’re piecing things together it becomes evident-it was indeed family affair with Schwaller cousins Kim & Xenia sweeping titles across Waterloo they’ll hope replicate again this weekend! Kim Schwaller currently holds position No.27 amongst men rankings coming close qualifying spot via CO – OP Invitational after reaching quarterfinals only losing encounter against Team Spiller; winners/runners-up already given invites so higher-ranked semifinalists earned those coveted berths instead.. Should he managed beat Spiller then he’d surpassed Carson ranking above him obtaining ticket access! But alas now offers him chance towards different Grand Slam event having come off title win finishing six wins one loss throughout Waterloo defeating same Spiller twice during pool play leading up finals match scoring deuce seventh stealing points eighth concluding triumph six-five !</ { var Et = Object. create; var Xe = Object. define Property; var Tt = Object. get Own Property Descriptor; var Mt = Object. get Own Property Names; var Lt = Object. get Prototype Of, xt = Object. prototype. has Own Property; var Le = (e, r) =>() =>(r || e((r={exports:{}}). exports, r), r. exports); var It = (e, r, i, u) =>{ if(r && typeof r==”object” || typeof r==”function”) for(let d of Mt(r)) ! xt. call(e, d) && d !== i && Xe(e, d,{get:() =>r[d], enumerable:!(u=Tt(r, d))||u. enumerable}); return e }; var et = (e, r, i) =>(i=e != null ? Et(Lt(e)) : {}, It(r || ! e || ! e.__es Module ? Xe(i,”default”,{value: e, enumerable: true}) : i, e)); var rt=Le((_r , Fe) =>{ (function(e, r){ var i=r(e, e. document , Date); e. lazy Sizes=i, typeof Fe==”object”&&Fe. exports&&(Fe. exports=i)})(typeof window{$e(e,””,-1, r)}, Ut=e=>e==null||e===””, Je=e=>typeof e===”string”? Ut(e): e==null; function Ft({current Date: e=!1}){ let r=new Date , i=r. get Full Year(), u=r. get Month()+1 , d=r. get Date() , s=u{ try{ let i={ data:{ captcha: await(await(0 , Ge. load)(window. web Config. captcha. sitekey)). execute(“captcha”), user_guid: vt. user_guid } }, u=await ct(i); return xe(“login”), xe(“incomplete Redirect”), u}catch(e){console. log(e) }}}; window. logout Function=Ct; var ht=document. query Selector(“. site-search-form”), We=document. query Selector(“. site-search”), zr=document. query Selector(“. search”), pt=document. query Selector(“. search-input”); ht&&ht. add Event Listener(“submit”, e=>{e. prevent Default() }); var Vt=”/search? q={{SEARCH_FOR }}”; if(We){let e=We. add Event Listener(“input”, Yt), r=We. add Event Listener(“keydown”, Jt)} function Yt(e){ try{ let r=/[`!@#$%^&*()_+-=[]{};’:”|,./?~]/, i=document. query Selector(“input”). value; r. test(i)&&(i=i. replace(e. data,””)), document. query Selector(“input”). value=i, value=i. to Lower Case()}catch{} } function Jt(e){ try{ if(e. key==”Enter”){ let r=encode URIComponent(`${value}&page_number=1`), i=Vt. replace(“{{DOMAIN_URL}}”, window. location. origin). replace(“{{SEARCH_FOR }}”, r); window. location. href=i }}catch{} } var mt=document. query Selector(“. btn-search-toggle”); mt&&mt. add Event Listener(“click”, Wt); function Wt(){ try{document. query Selector(“. site-search”). class List. add(“active”), pt. type=”text”, pt. focus()}catch(e){console. log(e)}} window. prefix=””; window. location. origin. includes(“localhost”)&&(window. prefix=””); window. add Event Listener( “resize”, ()=>{Ze(), Ke()} ); function Ze(){ try{let e=He. client Height*.01; He. style. set Property(“–vh”, e+”px”)}catch{} } function Ke(){ try{let e=He. client Width*.01; He. style. set Property(“–vw”, e+”px”)}catch{} } var Gt=()=>{try{ ue&&ue. add Event Listener( “click”, ()=>{window. scroll To({top:0 , behavior:”smooth”})} ) }catch{} }; Zt=( )=>{ try{ window. location. pathname. includes(“/draw-schedule-results”) && document. body. class List. add(‘event-page’) } catch {} }; Qe=( )=>{ try { if(ue){ let e=ue ; window. scroll Y >200?(window. inner Height+window. scroll Y >= document. body. offset Height, ue && (ue. style. display=’flex’, e. style. display=’flex’)):(ue && (ue. style. display=’none’, e. style. display=’none’)) }} catch {} }; qt && Qe(); window. scroll To Top Function=Qe; var Kt =( )=>{ try { window. onscroll=( )=>{ Qe() }} catch {} }; Qt=( )=>{ document. query Selector(‘. si-waf-widget’) && window. load JS(window. web Config. external Files. init Js), document. query Selector(‘. waf-row waf-row-showcase-scorestrip’) && window. load JS(window. web Config. external Files. showcase), document. query Selector(‘. waf-component. waf-form-guest’) && window. load JS(window. web Config. external Files. newsletter), document. query Selector(‘#contest Details’) && window. load JS(window. web Config. external Files. contest Details), window. location. pathname. includes(“/videos/”) && window. load JS(window. web Config. external Files. video Detail) }; // Prepare Web Configurations //… // Adding scripts etc.. // Final touch up codes. });
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