Kevin Martin has many things to be thankful for whenever he comes to the Lower Mainland.
He'll always have the memory of 2010 Olympic gold, but each Thanksgiving weekend, he seems to cash a big cheque at the Westcoast Curling Classic.
This year was no different, as Martin won the curling cashspiel for the sixth time - the fourth time with his current superteam of third John Morris, second Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert - with a decisive 5-2 win over Mike McEwen on Oct. 10 at the Royal City Curling Club.
The Martin squad took home a $17,000 cheque, while their Winnipeg runners-up took home $11,000.
Martin's team played such a strong game that even though the match went to skip stones in the final end, the result was all but decided in the second end.
After Martin scored with the hammer in the first end on a draw, McEwen threw an almost perfect shot to the four-foot with his first stone of the second end.
But Martin had his draw weight down and with the sweeping of Kennedy and Hebert, he glued his freeze onto the button, leaving McEwen with no alternative but to throw his final stone through the house and limit the damage to only one.
"Unfortunately, it was behind the Tline," said McEwen of his first stone. "We had to brush it to get it by the guard, but we left him the button and he put it right there. This week was a hard week for us because we played so many matches. We had to grind and against a team like (Kevin's), you hope for some mistakes but they didn't make any."
With a 3-0 lead, Martin could afford to watch McEwen take some huge risks, and Martin capitalized with another steal in the third.
McEwen was facing multiple Martin rocks in the house and had to try an angle raise double takeout that was only successful in limiting Martin to a steal of one.
"He had no shot," said Martin of McEwen's circus shot. "A lot of the credit has to go to John (Morris), who made all his shots, and to Marc and Bennie, who made it really easy for me."
With a 4-0 lead, Martin coasted the rest of the way, giving up two to McEwen in four, but getting the hammer back so that he could blank the fifth and sixth ends before taking his one in seven for the final 5-2 score.
Martin's victories at the Westcoast Curling Classic include wins with his current squad in 2010, 2008 and 2006, and with his former squad in 2005 and 2002.
"This is our 10th visit to this (cashspiel) and it's always cool to come back to Vancouver," he said. "We enjoy Vancouver and we even got a chance to see the new stadium on Saturday for the (LionsStampeders) football game."
