MONCTON, N.B. April 6, 2009 (CCA)— Canada’s Kevin Martin faced his stiffest test to date but still came away a winner Monday night at the Ford world men’s curling championship at the Moncton Coliseum.
Martin’s half-Edmonton (Martin, second Marc Kennedy) and half-Calgary (third John Morris, lead Ben Hebert) team scored a 6-4 win over Germany’s Andy Kapp to pull into a tie for first place in the 12-team round-robin standings with Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud, who boasts the same 5-0 record.
The Canadians scored a first-end deuce, and had a chance to add two more in the third but Martin rolled out on an open hit for the pair.
But Martin picked up a crucial steal of one in the sixth that proved the difference down the stretch against Germany, which dropped to 2-3 with the loss.
“It was a good game,” said Martin. “I enjoyed that; the crowd was really into it, and it was good. We’re where we hoped to be. Not sure if it’s where we expected to be, but it’s where we hoped to be.”
In other action, John Shuster of the United States stole the winning point in the 11th end for a 9-8 triumph over Fengchun Wang of China. The States, 3-2, took an early lead, scoring four in the third end, but gave those points back late when China, winless in five games, scored two in the seventh and stole singles in the eighth and ninth ends. Shuster tied the game with two in the 10th, and stole the 11th when China’s last-rock shooter, Rui Liu, rolled out on an open hit.
Scotland’s David Murdoch, meanwhile, picked up his fourth straight win, 7-4 over Japan’s Yusuke Morozumi. The Scots, 4-1, picked up a deuce in the second end and three more in the fourth and went into defensive mode against Japan, which dropped to 2-3.
Also, France’s Thomas Dufour got back over the .500 mark with a 6-5 win over Switzerland’s Ralph Stoeckli. Switzerland dropped to 2-3 with the loss.
Denmark’s Ulrik Schmidt (2-3), Jiri Snitil of the Czech Republic (1-4) and Kalle Kiiskinen (1-4) also had byes in Draw 8.
On Tuesday, draws are scheduled for 10 a.m.,3 p.m. and 7:30; TSN will show the Canadian games (10 a.m. against Switzerland, 7:30 p.m. against Norway), while curltv.com has coverage of all three draws.