Grande Prairie Curling Centre, AB
Ralph Nespor and Rob LaCombe (Stonewall CC) have won Manitoba’s third national Open championship in the last four years.
Nespor & LaCombe went unbeaten through the 5-game round-robin and won four games on the final Sunday.
Their opening playoff game was a 4-3 win, followed by a quarterfinal 3-1 victory, and a semi-final 3-2 win – all over Alberta foursomes.
The final saw Nespor & Lacome matched against Paul Landry and Keith Bennett (Lakeshore CC, NS), the 2023 Canadian Open Champions. An opening three gave the Manitobans a near-insurmountable lead in the 6-end game. They led 4-2 after three ends and blanked the fourth. A single on the fifth end gave the Stonewall duo a three point lead coming home and they simply ran their opponents out of stones on the last end.
Nespor & Lacombe join 2024 champions Warren Johnson & Dan McDonald – St. Vital (2024) and Norm Magnusson & Resby Coutts – Fort Rouge (2022) as recent champions. Earlier in the past decade, Tom & Rae Campbell – Killarney (2018) and Jim Rouse & Ross MacMillan-Warren (2015) also won the championship.
In the Women’s division Bronze Medal game, Gwen Smith & Lynne Rehbein (St. Vital) won their second bronze medal in three years, scoring three coming home for a 5-4 win over Berthe Richard/Paulette Girvan representing New Brunswick.
Of the nine Manitoba teams in the two championship divisions, Magnusson & Coutts and Britta & Fred Spiring both advanced to the playoffs before losing in the quarter-finals.
Huge thank you to managers and volunteers of Grande Prairie CC for a well organized event and to the team of umpires led by Christina Wards.
Credit R Coutts
Submitted B Spiring.2025Apr10
