By winning the Ontario Tankard in early February, Team McDonald earned a spot in the 2019 Tim Hortons Brier in Brandon, Manitoba coming up March 2 –10, 2019.
That will give the team of skip Scott McDonald, third Jonathan Beuk, second Wes Forget, and lead Scott Chadwick a taste of what to expect when the Brier comes to Kingston and the Leon’s Centre in 2020.
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McDonald hails from London, Ontario but Beuk and Forget are Kingston curlers while Chadwick is from Napanee.
Should they qualify for the 2020 Brier, Team McDonald will be as close as it gets to a hometown team competing for the Limestone City in the national curling championship.
Chadwick and Beuk have played together for nine years and met while attending Queen’s University. They won the USports Curling Championship in 2010 playing with two other teammates and represented Canada at the World University Championship the next year.
The team also trains for their competitions on the curling ice at the Cataraqui Golf and Country Club in Kingston.
As of now, Team McDonald’s attendance at the 2020 Brier in Kingston is not guaranteed. They’ll need to win the Brier this year against some of the top curling teams in the world and earn a bye to Kingston 2020 as Team Canada.
If they’re not successful, they’ll have to go through the whole process again by qualifying for and winning the Tankard in 2020.
At February’s Tankard in Elmira, Team McDonald held a hot hand and went undefeated at 9-0, outscoring their opponents 70-32. They beat Ontario curling legend Glenn Howard, a 15-time Ontario champion, in the round robin portion, and defending Ontario champion John Epping three times in a row including an easy 8-2 win in the final.
Two members of Team McDonald, skip Scott McDonald and lead Scott Chadwick, can’t help but look past Brandon in 2019 to Kingston in 2020.
“Especially for those three guys. To have a Brier in their backyard, and to be able to participate in that, would be a dream come true. Even for me, I’m not from Kingston, but the support that I’ve felt from the Cataraqui Club and the Kingston community throughout the year has been outstanding,” McDonald said. “So, it would be like a hometown Brier for me, too. It’s still a long way away but, when we go out, and we play in the Brier this year, we’re going to be that much more motivated to get back to it next year.”
Even if they don’t win the 2019 Brier, McDonald said the team would be trying their best to win next year’s Ontario Tankard to qualify for the 2020 Brier in Kingston.
From left, Scott McDonald, Jonantha Beuk, Scott Chadwick and Wes Forget. Photo credit Curling Ontario
“There’ll be no lack of motivation from us to continue to play well and hopefully make a repeat appearance,” McDonald said.
“Now that we’re going to Brandon, we’re going to try everything we can to be Team Canada back here next year, and not only represent Kingston but represent the whole country at the 2020 Brier,” Chadwick said.
“The support from our club, and from the whole community we’ve got over the whole season, but especially over the last week, has been pretty amazing.”
