Jeff Stewart will be heading to Virden to take part in his third Viterra Championship overall, but his first as a skip.

Stewart will be representing the Gladstone Curling Club in the Men's Provincial Curling Championship where the winner represents Manitoba at the Tim Hortons Brier.

He has three Carberry curlers on his team: Dean Smith (Third), Austin Mustard (Second), and Jefferey Steen (Lead). The team is playing their first year together, and qualified for the event due to a strong showing at Dauphin Regionals. Stewart knows how tough the competition will be.

"I haven't curling Reid Carruthers before, I've played Mike McEwen a few times," says Stewart. "We're in the same group as those guys, so it'd be good to play them, I guess!"

McEwen is now throwing skip stones for Carruthers who is the current #1 seed. Carruthers will remain the skip. Should Stewart win his first two games (and Team Carruthers does the same) they will play in the third round. Stewart says he is not looking that far ahead.

"Just play well would be a good goal for the event, I think," says Stewart. "Usually we do all right if we play well. If we play poorly, we are not going to do well at all."

Stewart's first game is against Corey Chambers of the Lorette Curling Club at 4pm on Wednesday.