Craig’s crew rock solid on opening day in mixed curling championship

ASSINIBOIA — Miles Craig of Victoria had a successful opening day at the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship with a pair of hard-fought wins at the Assiniboia Curling Club.

Craig, with vice-skip Steph Jackson-Baier, second Chris Baier and lead Sara Loken beat Jessie Hunkin of Edmonton 5-3 in Sunday’s first draw, then edged Brent MacDougall of Halifax, N.S., 6-5 in the evening draw.

“Biggest key so far has been the team having a lot of experience playing together,” said Jackson-Baier of her Victoria Curling Club foursome. “And knowing how to have fun out there.”

The Craig crew leads the seven-team Pool B with a 2-0 record, with MacDougall at 1-1. Rene Comeau of Fredericton, N.B., is third at 1-0 after knocking off Eddie MacKenzie of Cornwall, P.E.I., 6-4. Sean Grassie of Winnipeg, Man., Hunkin and MacKenzie are all 0-1. Scott Williamson of Whitehorse, Yukon did not play Sunday.

Jason Ackerman of Regina, Sask., Yannick Martel of Chicoutimi, Que., Sam Mooibroek of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., and Rod Feltham of Gander, Nfld., are all 1-0 on top of the seven-team Pool A. Betti Delorey of Hay River, N.W.T., and Peter Van Strien of Iqaluit, Nunavut, are both 0-1, and Charlie Robert of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is 0-2 after Day 1.

Teams are split into two pools of seven for round robin play, which ends Wednesday. From there, every draw counts as teams keep their records and re-enter new pools on Thursday.

From each pool, the top four teams advance to the Championship Pool to play the four teams from the opposite pool. This stage of the event runs until Friday.

Action continues Monday with three draws.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 2, 2025.

The Canadian Press