Gimli’s Team Anderson prevailed once again in their return to the 2025 Seagram’s Whisky Curling Club Men’s Provincial Championship.
The Anderson corner of skip Derrick Anderson, third Justin Hoplock, second Mitch Einarson, and lead Chris Sigurdson defeated Team Birchard 7-2 in the final on April 6 at St. Vital Curling Club.
The game lasted only seven ends as Team Anderson pulled ahead by three in the second. After Team Birchard brought the lead back down to two in the fourth, Team Anderson responded with two points in the sixth and one in the seventh to help secure their second provincial club title.
Their first win came in 2023, and they didn’t appear in 2024 due to their championship status.
They’ll now head back to Winnipeg for the 2025 Canadian Curling Club Championships from Nov. 18 to 23 at Granite Curling Club, last competing at nationals in 2023.
“It was a bit of a surprise,” said Derrick Anderson on Thursday. “Even though we’ve done it before, Manitoba’s so hard. Even at these club levels you have to be playing your best to win games and we’re excited, we’re going to nationals in Winnipeg again, and it was in Winnipeg the previous time we went so no trip for us but now that we’ve done it once.”
Team Anderson’s trip to the final did, however, come with its fair share of turbulence.
After dropping two of their first three Asham Pool games to Team Lowdon and Team Birchard, they needed to win back-to-back in their last two pool games on April 5 for a shot at a playoff berth.
They came up big in the first of the two, with a late come-from-behind win against Team Friesen that saw Team Anderson score three in the eighth for a 6-5 win.
They then put together a similar act in their Asham Pool finale against Team Lott, scoring one in the seventh and two in the eighth to prevail 6-5 once again.
The two wins brought their record to 3-2 in the tournament and they jumped into second in the Asham Pool to earn a playoff spot.
“Once we started winning on Saturday (April 5) everyone was feeling a lot better,” said Anderson. “We just kind of, that third game, everyone struggled a little bit and it went really bad but everyone played to where they could and we made all the shots that we really needed to if we were ever in a little bit of trouble and got ourselves out of it and that kind of just brings the other team down a little bit more to when they think they have a chance and we kind of make one to stop when they’re putting any pressure on us.”
Team Anderson continued to ride their momentum through the playoff round, knocking off Team McCullough late in the evening on April 5 by a score of 6-2, and then Team Hyde 7-3 in the semifinal on April 6.
Later that day, they officially capped off their incredible run with the championship win over Team Birchard.
Anderson spoke on the championship game.
“Right from the lead position for our team, we were just kind of outplaying them and a little bit ahead with rock positioning. They definitely in the fourth end had a chance to kind of put a lot of pressure on us. There was lots of rocks in play and it looked like they were going to get a steal and we were able to make a run back to score two. That kind of was a big swing to get two back after they had just scored, and go back up four points in that game.”
