Flipping through the pages of the history book you’ll find that Gordon M. Hudson was our province’s first back-to-back British Consols champion.

Hudson accomplished the feat in 1928 & 1929.

Since then only Ken Watson, Don Duguid, Vic Peters and Jeff Stoughton have won consecutive provincial men’s championships.

Stoughton won his back-to-back titles in 1999 & 2000, 2006 & 2007 and 2013 & 2014.

There was also a string of three straight Safeway Championship victories in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

The two-time World Champion and 11-time provincial men’s champ, is the only Manitoba skip to win three consecutive titles.

Mike McEwen has a chance to join the Hall of Famer in that category this week in Winkler.

“I haven’t really thought about it because his number is so high so I haven’t really given it much thought,” said McEwen after his practice session at the Centennial Arena on Tuesday afternoon. “I figure maybe I can beat him in how many finals I’ve been in. I think that’s the one I can match or beat because I’m pretty high up there in finals and that’s the goal at the end of this week is to get into the final.”

After years of heartbreak, McEwen, BJ Neufeld, Matt Wozniak and Denni Neufeld finally broke through and won the Viterra Championship in 2016 in Selkirk.

The Fort Rouge foursome then successfully defended their title the following year in Portage la Prairie.

“We’ve got a contingent of well deserving teams here so we want to to be playing on Sunday to give ourselves a chance to win,” added McEwen. “If we can do that then we’ve met pretty much all our goals this week.”

Earlier this winter McEwen was one win away from representing Canada at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Kevin Koe beat McEwen 7-6 in the final of the Roar of the Rings Olympic Curling Trials in Ottawa this past December.

“We’ve seen everything and done just about everything,” McEwen replied when asked how he feels about being the hunted and not the hunter. “We’re pretty comfortable. We’ve taken different roles in this event over the years. We’ve been the targeted one when we had great seasons and other seasons we kind of come in as the underdog. We did a little bit last year – not much under the radar but a little bit so we’re pretty comfortable in just about every role.”

“Our team has really good perspective. We’ve been through a lot, obviously the Olympic Trials, so I think we can just about handle anything out there.”

Mike McEwen and his rink has been either the first of second seed for the Provincial Men’s Curling Championship for a long time.

And he’s faced the media at CurlManitoba’s press conference to announce the top five seeds and the draw, and always answered the question....is this your year?

Except in 2016 & 2017 when his teammates told their skipper to stay home and they’d look after the media.

Sure enough McEwen, Neufeld, Wozniak & Neufeld won the last two Viterra Championships.

Did Mike McEwen attend last week’s press conference to announce the 2018 top five seeds and the draw?

Of course not.


Tanner Lott delivers a rock during practice on Tuesday


2018 Viterra Provincial Men's Curling Championship
@ Winkler
January 31st
Draw #1   8:30 a.m.
Reid Carruthers, West St. Paul 8 Rob Fisher, Dauphin 1
Terry McNamee, Brandon 6 Riley Smith, Fort Rouge 2
David Bohn, Assiniboine Memorial 8 Cale Dunbar, Riverview 6
Julien Leduc, Granite 5 Sean Grassie, Deer Lodge 4
Travis Bale, Fort Rouge 7 Graham Freeman, Virden 5

Draw #2   12:15 p.m.
Jason Gunnlaugson, Granite 11 Travis Graham, Thompson 1
Darryl Friesen, St. Vital 9 Braden Calvert, Deer Lodge 2
Daniel Birchard, Pembina 10 Kelly Marnoch, Carberry 6
Randy Neufeld, La Salle 8 Andrew Wickman, Fort Rouge 7 (EE)
Pat Simmons, Granite 10 Brandon Radford, Swan River 2

Draw #3   4 p.m.
Mike McEwen, Fort Rouge 9 Merv Satterthwaite, St. Vital 2
William Lyburn, Assiniboine Memorial 8 Brett Walter, Elmwood 7 (EE)
Tyler Drews, Fort Rouge 8 Steve Irwin, Brandon 1
Richard Muntain, Pinawa 7 Tanner Lott, Winnipeg Beach 6 (EE)
Dennis Bohn, Assinibioine Memorial 6 Ryan Thomson, Morden 3

Opening Ceremony 7:15 p.m.

Draw #4   8:15 p.m.
Kyle Foster, Arborg 6 JT Ryan, Assiniboine Memorial 4
"B" Side
Fisher 12 Smith 4
Dunbar 8 Grassie 5
Freeman 10 Calvert 3
Marnoch 8 Graham 2