Repeat win for Carruthers at Canad Inn’s Men’s Classic

Reid Carruthers may have experienced a bit of deja-vu this weekend in Portage la Prairie, Man. For the second straight year, Carruthers and his Winnipeg foursome captured the championship at the Canad Inn’s Men’s Classic. Carruthers (along with Braeden Moskowy, Derek Samagalski, and Colin Hodgson) beat Toronto’s Glenn Howard 6-1 in the final, earning them $18,000 and 60.362 points on the World Curling Tour leaderboard, and the Canadian Team Ranking System. The victory capped off a perfect weekend for Carruthers, who ran through the event undefeated. He defeated American John Shuster in the quarter-finals, Kevin Koe (Calgary) in the semis, before forcing Howard to concede after six ends. Last year, Carruthers lost two games on his way to his first Canad Inn’s title. Howard, still without his regular third Richard Hart, moved his son Scott up to third, David Mathers to second, and brought in former CIS National Champion (now USport) Fraser Reid to play lead. They earned $10,000 and 47.427 points for their runner-up finish. Semifinalists Mike McEwen (Winnipeg) and Koe took home $6,000. Down the road in Winnipeg, Darcy Robertson defeated Barb Spencer in the final of the Atkins Curling Supplies Classic. Robertson earned $2,500 while her fellow Winnipegger took home $1,800 for the runner-up finish. The 23.055 points actually moves Robertson into first place on the CTRS rankings for the season. On the men’s side, another all-Winnipeg battle took place in the final. David Bohn took down Jordan Smith to take home the $2,000 prize. Smith earned $1,500. In Innisfil, Ont., Wayne Tuck Jr. (Strathroy, Ont.) took home the top prize at the Stroud Sleeman Cashspiel, beating Brandon Tippin (Barrie, Ont.) in an extra-end final. Tuck and his squad earned $4,000 while Tippin took home $2,100. On the ladies side of the Stroud Sleeman Cashspiel, Susan Froud continued her hot season with another victory. Froud, who reached the final in two previous events in Oakville and Waterloo, Ont., finally won the big one and earned $2,400 and 19.996 points. The runner-up was Toronto’s Ashley Waye, who took home $1,300. Also in women’s competition, South Korea’s EunJung Kim took home $12,521 after defeating Shannon Kleibrink ($6,629) in the championship final of the Paf Masters in Aland, Finland.