THUNDER BAY – John Epping’s represented Ontario at the Brier on three occasions in his curling career.
So what is it like for the 41-year-old to be competing in his first Northern Ontario men’s curling championship at the Port Arthur Curling Centre this week?
“It’s as weird as you can imagine,” Epping said.
“It’s very strange to not be in southern Ontario for the tankard, but everyone here has been so welcoming to me thus far. It’s been really nice.”
Epping, who reached the semifinal round in his first trip to the Canadian men’s curling championship in 2018, kicked off his week in Thunder Bay with a 9-3 win over Port Arthur’s Gary Weiss in his opening ‘A’ event game on Wednesday afternoon.
Holding a 5-3 lead after six ends, his Sudbury-based rink broke the game open with a three-ender in the seventh.
“We played pretty good for the first draw,” Epping said.
“We’re just trying to get used to the ice, the rocks and the atmosphere here, so we’ll take the win for sure."
Epping has joined forces with last year’s provincial runner-up and 2022 champion Tanner Horgan, who now plays second.
The rest of the rink features Tanner’s younger brother Jacob at third and Ian McMillan at lead.
With five wins on the cashspiel circuit this season, the team is considered to be the favourite to represent Northern Ontario at the Montana’s Brier in Kelowna, B.C. later this winter.
“Going into the year, we really didn’t have any expectations on how many events we wanted to win,” Epping said. “We wanted to play well enough to put some points on the board and make our way up the world rankings.
“I think we were a little surprised that we ended up winning five events.”
Epping’s main challenger this week is expected to be defending provincial champion Trevor Bonot.
His Fort William Curling Club squad, which includes third Mike McCarville, second Jordan Potts and lead Kurtis Byrd, outlasted North Bay’s Jeff Brown 9-5 to start the tournament on a winning note.
Brown took a 3-2 lead after a three-ender in the third end, but Bonot bounced back by scoring three of his own in the fourth and held the advantage for the rest of the game.
“It was a bit of a struggle for me out there today but the boys kept me in it so that was pretty good,” Bonot said. “Hopefully we’ll be a little more sharper tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, Sandy MacEwan’s Sudbury squad opened up their week with a 10-2 romp over Fort William’s Zach Warkentin in seven ends after stealing six points in the final three ends.
“We caught on to the ice early and that was the biggest thing for us,” MacEwan said. “Our main goal today was to learn what the ice was doing and I think we accomplished that.”
In other ‘A’ quarterfinal action, Dylan Johnston’s Fort William squad defeated Port Arthur’s Brian Adams Jr. by a score of 10-6
Johnston will square off with Epping in an ‘A’ semifinal, with the other contest seeing MacEwan going up against Bonot. Both matchups take place at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
Meanwhile, Kenora’s Dustin Kroeker picked up his first win of the tournament after beating Matthew Hunt of Sault Ste. Marie in a wild 9-8 ‘B’ event matchup.
The seven-team women’s provincial playdowns begins at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
The men’s competition resumes at 8:30 p.m. with ‘B’ event contests.
