East Selkirk’s Lott leading new curling team at Men’s Provincial Curling Championship

By JIM BENDER

SELKIRK – Last year, East Selkirk’s Tanner Lott was part of a three-man team called the ‘Motley Curling Crew’ that took the Manitoba provincial championship by storm.

Lott had joined a quickly-formed squad comprising of Jacques Gauthier and Derek Samagalski, which qualified for the event in its last chance, then made it all of the way to playoffs before finally bowing out.

Gauthier is now playing third for Assiniboine Memorial’s Jordon McDonald and Samagalski is skipping a Brier-bound team out of Nunavut.

Lott is now skipping another new team that has had such a surprisingly good year that it was named the fifth seed for the newly-named Bunge Manitoba men’s championship.

“We qualified in the majority of our events and we won one, so it’s been kind of a gradual up-slope,” said Lott, supported by third Riley Smith and front-end twins Adam and Sean Flatt. “So, it’s been pretty good.”

Lott, 33, had been without a team after parting ways with Gauthier and Samagalski.

“The guys reached out to me in June and asked if I’d be interested in playing,” said Lott, who had moved to East Selkirk with his family from the Winnipeg Beach area. “Me and Riley had talked on and off for years now about eventually getting together. I didn’t have anything on the go, so it was a pretty easy sale for me. So, I jumped on.”

Smith, 35, is glad he did.

“We reached out to each other over the years – probably me more than him,” said the former skip. “The timing was never really right. I figured we’d end up at some point and everything just lined up this year. Then, we found the Flatt brothers – great sweepers, good, young guys and with our small sample size, I think we’ve done well together, and I think we can win this event.”

The Fort Rouge foursome lost 11-6 to Assiniboine Memorial’s Brett Walter on Thursday afternoon but is still alive in the event.

“We’ve got a couple of lives,” Lott said. “We’ve just got to rebound back and play like we can, and get on the right side of the inch this time.”

Smith was undeterred.

“We’ve got some work to do right now,” he said. “We made it a little harder on ourselves, but I think we’ve got a lot of potential.”

Smith had also reached out to the Flatt twins and Justin Twiss, who is listed as the fifth but has been rotating into the lineup all season.

“Last year, we had kind of a slower year with different work commitments,” said Adam, 26. “Then, Riley reached out and there was an opportunity for Sean and I to play front end again. Then, we bring in Justin, who was playing with Riley forever. So, we have a five-man team for the flexibility to play a bit more.”

It’s been working so far.

“It’s been a good first year,” said Sean. “We’ve had some highs and lows just working it through as a group and trying to build for this provincial event.”

Twiss, who hails from St. Claude, said the rotation has worked out because both Lott and Smith have young families and Sean is in school.

So, Lott has now gone from a three-man crew to a five-man one.

BROTHER ENVY

Tanner Lott’s brother, Colton Lott, won back-to-back Canadian Mixed Doubles with his wife, Kadriana Lott, and is playing third for Manitoba’s Brier-bound Matt Dunstone.

“A little envious but there is determination there, for sure,” Tanner said. “He works hard, he’s earned it. I did try Mixed Doubles last season. We played in a couple of tour events (with Dauphi’s Randine Baker) but there’s not really much in the way of tour events in Manitoba, so we didn’t play too much.”

LONG TIME COMING

Gimli skip Derrick Anderson qualified for this year’s championship after about 17 years of trying.

“For two of us, it’s our first time here, so I have quite a bit of family coming out to watch,” said Anderson, who referred to lead Chris Sigurdson.

When Anderson discovered that the provincials were going to be held in nearby Selkirk, they had added motivation to make it.

“Sometimes, we’re not sure if we’re going to play in zones, depending on what’s going on in different years,” said Anderson, 35. “But this year, we definitely wanted to play in it to have a chance to be here.”

With third Wade Ford and second Justin Hoplock, Anderson won his spot at a regional qualifier in Beausejour.

“Yeah, it was (exciting),” the carpenter said. “We played pretty good that weekend and it was nice to know that this was close to home, so it’s easy to come out.”

Ford drills wells for a living, Sigurdson is in sales and Hoplock works for the Town of Arborg.

Anderson lost his second game of the event 8-3 to Sean Grassie of Deer Lodge on Thursday but, thanks to the new triple-knockout format, he was still alive to play Friday.

IN THE HACK

Walter will face Granite’s top-seeded Reid Carruthers while McDonald will take on Heather’s Braden Calvert on Friday morning, with the two winners advancing to the playoffs … Justin Richter has replaced Sean Grassie at skip for this event because Grassie is under the weather.