The Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling will come to an end this week in Regina as the KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup gets underway at the Co-operators Centre on Tuesday.
12 of the best Men’s rinks in the world along with 12 of the best Women’s teams around the world will be competing for the championship. All of the teams claimed titles on the tour in order to advance to final event of the circuit.
Both divisions are divided into two groups of six teams for pool play. The best six teams overall qualify for the quarterfinals with the top two earning byes to the semifinals.
Up for grabs this week a $210,000 CAD total purse, split equally between the men’s and women’s divisions. The winning teams each collect $25,000.
Men’s Division
Team (Hometown) Qualifying Event
Team Bottcher (Calgary, AB) 2023 Co-op Canadian Open
Team Carruthers (Winnipeg, MB) 2022 PointsBet Invitational
Team Dropkin (Duluth, USA) 2022 HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 2
Team Dunstone (Winnipeg, MB) 2022 DEKALB Superspiel
Team Edin (Karlstad, SWE) 2022 World Championship
Team Ferris (Grimsby, ON) 2022 Stu Sells Brantford Nissan Classic
Team Gushue (St. John’s, NL) 2022 KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup
Team Knapp (Regina, SK) 2022 SCT Players Championship
Team Mouat (Stirling, SCO) 2022 Princess Auto Players’ Championship
Team Retornaz (Trentino, ITA) 2022 WFG Masters
Team Shuster (Duluth, USA) 2023 USA Curling National Championships
Team Whyte (Stirling, SCO) 2022 Original 16 Men’s Cashspiel
Women’s Division
Team (Hometown) Qualifying Event
Team Einarson (Gimli, MB) 2022 KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup
Team Fujisawa (Kitami, JPN) 2023 Co-op Canadian Open
Team Gim (Uijeongbu, KOR) 2022 Autumn Gold Curling Classic
Team Grandy (Vancouver, BC) 2022 HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 2
Team Hasselborg (Sundbyberg, SWE) 2022 Princess Auto Players’ Championship
Team Homan (Ottawa, ON) 2022 HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 1
Team Jones (Winnipeg, MB) 2022 PointsBet Invitational
Team Ladouceur (Dundas, ON) 2022 North Grenville Fall Curling Classic
Team Lawes (Winnipeg, MB) 2022 Stu Sells 1824 Halifax Classic
Team Peterson (Chaska, USA) 2023 USA Curling National Championships
Team Roervik (Oslo, NOR) 2023 Sun City Cup
Team Tirinzoni (Aarau, SUI) 2022 World Championship
One local rink that will be competing this week is the rink led by Kelly Knapp. The team from the Highland Curling Club won the 2023 Tankard and competed at this year’s Brier.
Another former Tankard champion in the field is Matt Dunstone.
The 2022 KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup winners, the Brad Gushue rink will also be competing another title.
On the women’s side, while there are no local rinks in action, they are plenty of familiar names competing including the Kerri Einarson team. Other notable names that will be competing include the rink led by Rachel Homan, Jennifer Jones team and the Kaitlyn Lawes squad will be among the 12 teams for the championship.
The Pinty’s Cup has been already been claimed ahead of this week’s event. The Gushue and Einarson teams claimed the 2022-23 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling points title in their respective divisions.
Each club earned a $75,000 bonus for topping the standings.
Action gets underway this morning at 11:30. Among the games in the opening draw is the Knapp rink squaring off with the team led by Brendan Bottcher.
Round-robin action wraps up on Friday, with the playoffs getting underway on Saturday.
The Men’s Final is set for 11:00 and the Women’s Finals goes at 3:00.
