The weeklong event in Moncton, New Brunswick, featured some of the top 50-year-old-plus curlers in the country participating in a round-robin plus playoff event.
Saskatchewan was represented on the men’s side by Regina’s Randy Bryden. His Queen City foursome wrapped up the round-robin portion of the week with an 8-2 record, which put him in a three-way tie for first place heading into the playoffs.
Through the last rock measurement tiebreaker, Bryden was given the third seeing entering the playoffs, where he would take on Manitoba’s Randy Neufeld in a semi-final.
Bryden and Neufeld traded shots throughout the game until Neufeld broke the game open with three in the fourth end. Bryden would respond with a deuce in five and a steal in six. Neufeld responded with a deuce of his own in seven and then forced Bryden to take one in the eighth end, sending the game to an extra end. In that ninth end, Bryden could again steal one to advance to the final.
Awaiting Bryden in the final was Alberta’s James Pahl, who upset the host team from New Brunswick 8-5 in the other semi-final.
By Bryden’s 8-2 round-robin record compared to Pahl’s 6-4 record, the Regina skip would get the last rock advantage in the first end.
After blanking the first end, Alberta turned up the pressure in the second end and came away with a steal of one.
Bryden would respond, though, with a deuce in three to take his first lead of the game, 2-1.
Saskatchewan would force Alberta to take one in the fourth end, tying the game 2-2 at the break.
In the fifth end, Bryden’s foursome came out of the break firing and put another two on the scoreboard, 4-2.
Pahl’s Alberta team would not go away, though, finding a way to score a pair of their own in the sixth to tie the game 4-4.
To the seventh end, most thought that Regina’s Bryden might look for a blank end to retain the hammer heading into the final end. However, his team capitalized on some openings and found a way to score three big points to take a 7-4 lead heading to the eighth.
In the final end, Bryden’s team would not miss, running Pahl out of rocks to capture the 2024 Canadian Senior Men’s title.
Bryden’s team of Troy Robinson, Russ Bryden and Chris Semenchuck will now represent Canada at the World Senior Men’s Curling Championship in Fredericton, New Brunswick, in April 2025.
