Kevin Martin takes home top money again
Olympic gold medallist Kevin Martin came and conquered again at the Westcoast Curling Classic at the Royal City Curling Club over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Martin won his seventh Classic crown and third consecutive title by outlasting Andrew Bilesky 8-6 in Monday's final.
Martin took a 5-2 lead after three ends, but Bilesky, who skips a Premium Curling League team at Royal City, battled back to go ahead 6-5 after the sixth end. But Martin's Alberta team of third John Morris, second Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert scored two in the seventh and stole another in the eighth to collect the $14,000 top prize.
The 2010 Olympic champions advanced to the final by downing New Westminster's Brent Pierce 5-2 in the semifinals. The victory avenged a 9-2 pounding Pierce put on them in the opening draw of the round-robin.
Bilesky, who won $9,000, pulled off an upset of his own in the semifinals by edging 2010 world champion Kevin Koe of Calgary 6-5. Pierce and Koe collected $6,500.
In the quarter-finals, Martin defeated Sean Geall of Royal City 7-1, Pierce nipped Brendan Bottcher of Edmonton 5-4 while Bilesky downed three-time B.C. champion Jim Cotter of Vernon 6-2, and Koe downed William Lyburn of Winnipeg 7-5.
During the round robin, Martin, Pierce and Lyburn all finished 4-1 in Pool A. Koe and Bottcher topped Pool B at 4-1 while Bilesky finished first in Pool C at 4-1.
• Martin also won $1,000 in the skins game against Cotter, who collected $200, last Thursday.
• Tyler Klymchuk of Surrey defeated Delta's Shawna Jensen 10-5 in the inaugural junior final. Klymchuk's squad took home $2,000 while Jensen's won $1,200.
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