MANITOULIN—Skip Jordan Chandler and his curling rink, who came within one win of qualifying for the Brier Canadian Men’s Curling Championship earlier this year, seem to have an even stronger focus on getting there this year. The team is going to play more events this fall, against very stiff world competition.
“We will be playing five world team events this fall, and then the play downs for the Briers after Christmas,” Mr. Chandler told the Recorder this past Monday. “We are looking to play a lot more this year and hopefully get the consistency we need against real tough competition to get better and ready for the Brier play downs.” His rink also includes Matt Dumontelle, Sandy MacEwen and Lee Toner.
“We played this past weekend at the Gatineau World Tour event,” explained Mr. Chandler. “We beat a good team from China, and then beat the Nova Scotia Mark Dacey skipped rink, as well as the Manitoba team that won the national junior championships last year.”
The Chandler rink posted a four win, two loss record in the preliminary round, “which got us into the playoffs. We played the Brad Gushue rink in the quarter-finals, and unfortunately they beat us,” said Mr. Chandler. “They started off getting four points in the first end and we got a triple (later in the game) and we kept it close but they won. They are the number one team right now.”
This was the third event the Chandler rink has participated in this season. He explained, “one of the main reasons we are being able to take part in these events is due to the sponsorship we have this year, which is allowing us to take part,” said Mr. Chandler. He explained Manitoulin Transport is the team’s title sponsor for this season, along with other local sponsors Northern Credit Union, McQuarrie’s, along with Maple Leaf Ice and Jakubo Accounting (the latter two based out of Sudbury).
“Having these sponsors in our corner is allowing us to play more in these type of events. It is awesome to have them on board and will make a huge difference for our team this year,” said Mr. Chandler.
The Chandler rink will be playing in Cookstown the first week of November in a similar world tour event.
