A pair of local curling rinks with strong Sudbury connections enjoyed a very good start to the 2026-2027 competitive season, with both foursomes competing at the Hogged Rock KW Fall Classic in Kitchener-Waterloo.

On the women's side of the draw, the Kira Brunton team of Kendra Lilly, Jamie Smith and Lauren Rajala made their way to the final before bowing out to the Xenia Schwaller rink from Switzerland by a score of 7-2.

Trailing 2-1 after six ends, Team Schwaller scored a pair in the seventh and stole four in the eighth as Brunton and company settled for second place. The Northern Ontario crew downed Grace Lloyd of Whitby 9-6, lost 8-6 to Rhonda Varnes of Winnipeg but closed out pool play with victories over Team Langford from Uxbridge (6-3) and Grace Cave of Winchester (7-4).

Come the playoffs, the newly-formed Brunton squad stopped the Corrie Huerlimann Swiss rink 6-1 in the quarter-finals and were equally stingy in eliminating Danielle Inglis (Whitby) 5-1 in the semis.

Team Brunton is back in action again later this week, in Oakville for the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard, with play beginning on Friday.

Also in the field in K-W was Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School graduate Clara Dissanayake, playing lead for the Brooklyn Ideson rink from London. Ideson is also a known commodity among fervent Sudbury curling fans after she and partner Owen Henry captured the Canadian U21 Mixed Doubles championship hosted at Countryside Arena last March.

Meanwhile, Megan Smith was throwing third stones for the Sherry Middaugh entry while several other young women from across the province who have been teammates on Sudbury rinks dotted lineups in the 20-team field.

On the men's side, the Brendan Bottcher Alberta entry that now includes Sudbury siblings Jake and Tanner Horgan also fared better than most, posting an undefeated mark in the preliminary round, advancing through QF action before being knocked out in the round of four.

Bottcher and mates downed the Italian side skipped by Alberto Zisa 7-2 to open play on a winning note, edging Scott McDonald (Waterloo) 6-5 in an extra-end before tripling Robert Desjardins of Québec 6-2 on the strength of back to back three point ends in the third and fourth.

The lads closed out round robin play with an impressive 6-1 win over Sam Mooibroek and ironically drew the very same opponent in quarter-final play, completing the sweep with a 9-2 win.

Ironically, Team Bottcher were also ousted by a Swiss quartet as Kim Schwaller advanced to the final thanks to a 5-3 triumph, winning it all by besting Stefano Spiller of Italy 6-5.

The Jordan Chandler Little Current based rink also made their way to the playoffs, posting a 3-1 record in Group B before coming up short against Schwaller by a final count of 6-1 in the quarter-final round.