It's mere hours until Olympic gold medallist Kevin Martin returns to the Royal City.
The 12th Annual Westcoast Curling Classic is scheduled for Oct. 6 to 10 at the Royal City Curling Club and once again, Kevin Martin will be here to defend the title he won in 2010 over world champion Kevin Koe.
Martin's squad, featuring John Morris, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert, is one of 24 teams vying for a total purse of $64,000, with the field including international foursomes from Japan, Russia, Finland and the United States.
This year's field has a mix of new squads - Sean Beighton, Carl deConinck Smith, Dave Merklinger, Steve Petryk, Randie Shen and the Team Finland squad of - spellcheck be damned - Markku Uusipaavalniemi.
Joininig them are returning teams such as Brent Bawel, Bryan Kedziora, Mike McEwen, Jason Montgomery, Brock Virtue, Steve Laycock and Team Japan, skipped by Yusuke Morozumi.
But the big news is all of the revamped teams, with old faces finding their way onto new teams.
For example, former world champion Randy Ferbey now has a new front-end, while the local team skipped by Andrew Bilesky now includes members from the Steve Kopf rink.
Jim Cotter, best known for throwing last rocks for Bob Ursel, has picked up Tyrel Griffith, while past Canadian and world champion Kevin Koe has former Saskatchewan provincial champion Pat Simmons at the third position.
Another local foursome, Bryan Miki, has shuffled their order and added Dean Joannisse, while Brent Pierce has reunited with a past teammate Kevin Recksiedler and added Grant Dezura and Jeff Richards.
The event is sanctioned by the World Curling Tour and the Canadian Team Ranking System.
In a manner similar to golf and tennis, successful teams are awarded points from this event. These points accumulate towards eligibility to sanctioned world championships and to facilitate the rankings for cash spiels, Grand Slam events and Olympic trials.
The event kicks off on Oct. 6 at 7: 30 p.m. with a Skins Game featuring Kevin Martin against the Finnish national team.
This Thursday evening event is free.
There are four draws on Friday and Saturday, three draws Sunday and then Championship Monday, with the finale scheduled for 3 p.m.
Friday's action gets going at 11 a.m. with the feature matches being Laycock playing Beighton, Cotter against Shen and Kedziora against McEwen, currently ranked second behind only Martin.
Martin plays in Draw B against Merklinger, with both skips having ice-making experience and a unique perspective on the game. Also in Draw B, Ferbey plays Wood, Koe plays Bilesky and Miki plays Petryk.
Event passes are on sale at the Royal City Curling Club. The best deal for admission is the earlybird pass.
Passes purchased before Oct. 7 are available for $25. This gives the pass holder admission to all four days of draws and the dance on Saturday night. Event passes are also available at the door for $30, day passes for $10, and passes for Monday are $15. For more info, go to www.westcoast curlingclassic.com.
The Delta Burnaby Hotel and Conference Centre, just off the Highway 1, is the presenting sponsor of the tournament and many of the curlers will be staying there.
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