SPORTS FLASHBACK 1993: Vic Peters foursome wins second Manitoba Tankard
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This article was published 24/03/2024 (402 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Although Altona’s Harold Sawatzky caused quite a stir at the 1993 Manitoba Tankard Men’s Curling Championship in Selkirk, in the end the best team prevailed.
Vic Peters, along with fellow former Steinbacher Chris Neufeld at second, with third Dan Carey and lead Don Rudd, defeated the Altona rink 6-4 and 7-5 in the A-B finals to win the Manitoba title for the second year in a row.
The Peters team will now attempt to duplicate their dramatic win at last year’s Brier at the 1993 Canadian Men’s Curling Championship in Ottawa, March 6-14.
Peters, as the defending Manitoba and Canadian champion, came into the 32-team Manitoba Tankard as the number one ranked team. It was Peters’ ninth trip to the Tankard, and the fifth time he has made it to the final.
The winning of back-to-back provincial titles by the Peters foursome is only the third time it has been done in Manitoba curling history. The first Manitoba team to accomplish the feat was Gordon Hudson in 1928 and 1929, followed by two-time world champion Don Duguid in 1970 and 1971.
The Sawatzky rink, seeded 19th in their second trip to the event, was truly the story of the Tankard.
The Altona foursome blazed through the field with seven straight victories in the first three days of the competition, to turn a few heads at the media bench. Sawatzky derailed Brian Moffat, Ken Stewart, Scott Brown, Dale Duguid, Brian Fowler, Doug Harrison and Greg McGibbon.
Peters, on the other hand, had to battle back up through the B-side of the draw. Peters opened the competition with an 8-4 win over Brent Irwin of Carberry, then sidelined Stan Walker of Victoria 8-3 in two relatively easy games.
But he lost his third game, 6-5 to Greg McGibbon, leaving him alive on only one leg in the double-knockout competition.
Just as it was a year ago, Peters faced the same arduous task of coming back up through the B-side. After that loss to McGibbon, the defending Canadian champions reeled off five wins in a row, including a 10-3 victory over John Usackis of Lac du Bonnet and a 4-2 win over Dale Duguid.
In the B-side semi-final, Peters dodged a bullet in the game when Doug Harrison’s final draw attempt sailed through the house, leaving Peters with a 5-4 victory to advance to the final against Sawatzky.
The Peters rink needed to beat Sawatzky twice to win the Tankard championship. Although the Sawatzky foursome acquitted themselves very well all week, there was little doubt which was the better team Sunday.
The Manitoba curlers will open the Brier in Ottawa against none other than Ontario’s Russ Howard, the team Peters defeated in the Brier final in Regina in 1992.