Randy Neufeld and Terry McNamee have thrown their fair share of rocks over the years at the Provincial Men's Curling Championship.

They've suffered early exits and they've had lengthy stays.

Both competed against the best and still do.

Case in point – Friday afternoon at the Selkirk Recreation Complex.

The two veteran skips met the two best teams in our province.

McNamee, Shayne MacGranachan, Geordie Hargreaves and Travis Gouldie put up a three-spot in the fifth end and trailed Mike McEwen 5-4 at the break.

McEwen blanked the sixth and seventh and then got a key deuce in the eight end to grab a 7-4 lead.

“Against a team like Mike's you can't make many mistakes and I missed a couple of shots later on in the game that cost us deeply,” said McNamee who gave up a steal of four in the ninth end. “But the team played pretty good.”

Time to play the what if game.

Terry McNamee played in is first Tankard in 1987.

Would a young Terry McNamee in his prime liked to have played Mike McEwen?

“For sure,” answered the Brandon Curling Club skip. “There were teams back then that were pretty solid like Kerry (Burtnyk) and Vic (Peters) and those guys. It was nice to play Mike today. It was too bad we gave up that deuce in eight because we could have been good coming home.”

Randy Neufeld, Dean Moxham, Devon Wiebe and Brett Moxham faced the defending champions on Thursday.

Reid Carruthers stole one in the fifth end to take a 4-1 lead and got two in the seventh and steal of three in the eight.

The La Salle skip who is competing in his 13th Provincial Men's Championship, says the defending champions are the real deal.

“They're good. They don't give you a whole lot of chances to score and you've got to play well otherwise they're going to take it to you. They're as good as anyone out there.”

Would Randy Neufeld liked to have played Reid Carruthers back in the day.

“Probably not,” said Neufeld. “At that time we were seeded 32 and we played Vic Peters our first game. We played well and gave them a good game and people kind of go, 'Who's that?' I'm usually against Jeff (Stoughton) in this setup and I've always enjoyed that. I get up for it. There's no pressure. You're not expected to win. You go out there and play your best.”

A trip to the Brier eluded both Randy Neufeld and Terry McNamee.

But McNamee has won five provincial mixed titles and was a finalist at the 2010 Canadian Mixed Championship in Morris.

And Neufeld along with Dean Moxham, Peter Nicholls and Dale Michie captured the 2015 Canadian Senior Men's Curling Championship and will compete at the World's in Sweden this April.

 

Randy Neufeld

2016 Viterra Championship
Friday, February 12th
Draw # 9  8:30 a.m.
“A” Side Qualifiers
Scott Ramsay, Thistle 9 Reid Carruthers, West St. Paul 7
Mike McEwen, Fort Rouge 5 Dennis Bohn, Granite 3
Daley Peters, East St. Paul 6 Alex Forrest, East St. Paul 3
William Lyburn, Granite 7 Matt Dunstone, Granite 6

Draw #10 12:15 p.m.
“B” Side
David Bohn, Granite 9 Rylan Young, Springfield 7
Hayden Forrester, Fort Rouge 8 Jared Kolomaya, Stonewall 4
Taylor McIntyre, Granite 7 Kelly Marnoch, Carberry 1
Steve Irwin, Brandon 9 Trevor Loreth, Granite 6

Draw #11  4 p.m.
"B" Side Qualifiers
Reid Carruthers, West St. Paul 6 Hayden Forrester, Fort Rouge 5
Matt Dunstone, Granite 5 Taylor McIntyre, Granite 3
Dennis Bohn, Assiniboine Memorial 5 David Bohn, Granite 3
Alex Forrest, East St. Paul 7 Steve Irwin, Brandon 5

Draw # 12  7:45 p.m.
Playoff Round
"A" Side quarterfinals
Mike McEwen, Fort Rouge vs Matt Dunstone, Granite
Reid Carruthers, West St. Paul vs Daley Peters, East St. Paul
William Lyburn, Granite vs Dennis Bohn, Assiniboine Memorial
Scott Ramsay, Thistle vs Alex Forrest, East St. Paul