New Brunswick’s Abby Burgess building towards a gold-medal moment at 2023 Everest Club Championships

Last year, New Brunswick’s Abby Burgess was so close to a national championship that she could nearly taste it. This year, she and her team are two games away from becoming Canadian champions at the 2023 Everest Canadian Curling Club Championships in Winnipeg.

It is a tale of redemption, and so far, the results at the Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club have tasted sweet for Burgess. The team from the Gage Golf and Curling Club in Oromocto earned an A-side berth into the semifinals with a 6-2 win over Manitoba’s Team Kara Balshaw on Friday afternoon.

This comes after Burgess tasted the bitterness of defeat at last year’s provincial club championship final. Burgess fell one game short of qualifying for the 2022 Everest Club Championships in Edmonton. Instead, she watched the team she lost to – New Brunswick’s Team Shaelyn Park – win the national event.

That win serves as some inspiration for Burgess. If Team Park could do it, so could she. So, the 33-year-old skip started assembling an A-team that could win the province and make a deep run at the national event hosted by the Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club.

“I wanted to come back firing, so I built a team to perform at the national, and it all worked out. We played against great teams from our province to prepare for this, but we’ve been working hard since last March and all over the summer to make this happen,” Burgess said.

Burgess is a certified curling coach and guided New Brunswick’s Under-21 team to the quarterfinals at the 2022 national championship. That team included her current vice-skip, Brooke Tracy, who she recently “snatched up” after she graduated from juniors to compete in women’s.

The team also has second Samantha Crook and the youngest competitor in the field, 17-year-old Hannah Williams, at lead. Jeremy Tracy rounds out the team as coach.

“We’re getting along really well, and – as teams know – a national can be tough on four people. It’s just a matter of hitting the broom a bit sharper and getting the rocks in the right spot. That should do it, we hope,” Burgess said.

New Brunswick aims to continue the path to the gold-medal game with a semifinal match against Atlantic neighbours Nova Scotia and Team Tanya Phillips of CFB Halifax Curling Club. Nova Scotia beat Manitoba’s Team Kara Balshaw 6-4 in one of the B-side qualifiers.

In the other semifinal, Ontario’s Team Lindsay Thorne of the Rideau Curling Club in Ottawa won its A-side berth earlier to book its spot and will take on British Columbia’s Team Roselyn Craig of the Duncan Curling Club. British Columbia defeated Quebec’s Team Cindy Dallaire of Sept-Îles Curling Club 6-5 in the B side of the draw.

In men’s competition, Saskatchewan’s Team Mitch Criton of the Highland Curling Club in Regina added to its five-game win streak with an 8-4 win over British Columbia’s Team Tyler Orme of the Vernon Curling Club.

Criton’s three-player lineup – including players Kyle Cherpin and Brett Murray, along with coach/alternate Bob Sonder – scored three-enders in the first and third ends to take early control of the game and didn’t relent.

“It’s been going really well. We got the hang of the ice pretty early but kind of lost the feel for it for a couple of games. We’re back in the swing of things, feeling good and playing good. The guys in front of me are playing great,” Criton said. “We came into this with the expectation that we could win, and that’s the goal. We have a couple of games left and hopefully we are the last one standing.”

In the semifinals, Saskatchewan will play Nova Scotia’s Team Shea Steele of the Halifax Curling Club after defeating Manitoba’s Team Derrick Anderson of the Gimli Curling Club by a score of 5-4 to wrap up a semifinal berth via the B side.

Alberta’s Team Dan Sherrard of the Beaumont Curling Club was the second men’s team to qualify for the semifinals shortly after. Team Sherrard defeated home province favourite Team Derrick Anderson of the Gimli Curling Club with a 7-3 win.

The team is now on a seven-game win streak after sweeping the round-robin portion of the competition and is the only undefeated team in both the men’s and women’s fields. The team consists of two two-time winners Sherrard and Klassen (2012, 2013) and a one-time winner in Reynold (2012).

Quebec’s Team David Maheux of the Mont-Bruno Curling Club will be tasked with ending that win streak in the semifinals. Quebec bested British Columbia’s Team Tyler Orme of the Vernon Curling Club 11-3 in a B-side qualifier.

All semifinal games (men’s and women’s) are on Saturday at 10 a.m. (all times CT). The winners advance to the gold-medal games and the losers will play in the bronze-medal games at 2:30 p.m.

Live-streaming coverage of selected games at the 2023 Everest Canadian Curling Club Championships will be available on Curling Canada’s streaming platform, Curling Canada + as well as on TSN+.   

Scores and standings from the event will be available at by CLICKING HERE.    For draw times, team lineups and other event info, CLICK HERE.