February 17….Veteran Kerry Burtnyk, a two-time Brier winner and former world champion, captured the Safeway Championship in Brandon on Sunday and will now be the hometown favourite for the Tim Hortons Brier, March 8-16 in Winnipeg.

Sunday afternoon, Burtnyk, the #2 seed in the 32-team competition, avenged his earlier loss to David Bohn in a big way, taking the provincial title with an 11-5 rout.   The 49-year-old Burtnyk came up with a knockout punch early, stealing four in the first end when the previously-unbeaten Bohn was heavy with a final draw. 

For all intents and purposes, it was over between the Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club teams.  Another single steal in the fourth made it 7-1, before Bohn took one in the fifth.   Bohn stole one himself in the sixth before the teams traded deuces in the next three ends, with Burtnyk’s ninth-end pair the dagger.

Burtnyk suffered only one loss during the week, an 8-5 decision to Bohn on Saturday night in the championship round.  That meant Bohn went directly to the final, while Burtnyk had to meet another clubmate, Mike McEwen, in the semi-final Sunday morning, a game which he won 7-5 in an extra end.

Burtnyk’s Brier record is pretty good.  He became the youngest winning skip in history, at age 22, at the 1981 Labatt Brier in Halifax, defeating Al Hackner of Northern Ontario, 5-4 in the final by taking three in the 10th end.  His team went on to finish third at the Air Canada Silver Broom world championship.

He then appeared in 1988 in Chicoutimi-Jonquiere, finishing 7-4, before winning the Brier again in Halifax in 1995 with an overall record of 12-2.   His team then went undefeated in Brandon, a perfect 11-0, at the 1995 Ford Worlds.  In 2001 in Ottawa, Burtnyk lost the Brier final to Edmonton’s Randy Ferbey.

Burtnyk is joined by third Dan Kammerlock, second Richard Daneault and lead Garth Smith.   Kammerlock, making his Brier debut, is the son of Ron Kammerlock, who played lead, then second, for Burtnyk at the 1981 and 1988 Briers, respectively.   Daneault and Smith are also Brier rookies.

Manitoba has won a leading 26 Briers since 1927, the last by Jeff Stoughton in 1999 in Edmonton.

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