Music: {allcanada} ALBERTA'S MARTIN MOVES INTO SOLE POSSESSION OF FIRST AT BRIER

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

{allcanada} ALBERTA'S MARTIN MOVES INTO SOLE POSSESSION OF FIRST AT BRIER

The Karaoke Channel Online Member Community

LONDON, Ont. -- Alberta skip Kevin Martin moved into sole possession of first place at the Tim Hortons Brier after an 11-3 rout of Saskatchewan on Wednesday morning.

Martin led 5-0 after three ends and added four more in the fifth to put the game out of reach. He improved to 7-1 after 12 draws of round-robin play at the John Labatt Centre.

"Hopefully we can just keep building," Martin said. "That's what you want to do any time you play a week-long event. You want to gradually get better and better. We've done that so far.

"Hopefully we don't hit a wall and go down the other direction. If we can just keep it up going upwards we'll be all right."

Northern Ontario's Brad Jacobs kept his slim playoff hopes alive with a 5-4 extra-end victory over Ontario's Glenn Howard, who fell into a tie for third place. Newfoundland and Labrador's Brad Gushue joined Howard at 6-2 after posting a 9-3 win over Shawn Adams of Nova Scotia.

Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton, who had the morning off, was alone in second place at 6-1. He was scheduled to meet Martin in the feature evening matchup.

Jim Cotter of British Columbia edged Francois Gagne of Quebec 8-7 in the other early game.

Northern Ontario and Saskatchewan were tied at 4-4 entering play Wednesday afternoon. Nova Scotia and B.C. were next at 3-5. The Northwest Territories/Yukon and New Brunswick were 2-5, Quebec fell to 2-6 and Prince Edward Island was last at 1-6.

Round-robin play wraps up Thursday night. The top four teams make the playoffs.

NOTES -- Attendance for the morning draw was 4,211. That pushed the overall total to 54,385. ... Winnipeg has been selected as the host city for the 2013 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Canadian curling trials. The event will determine Canada's representatives for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The trials will be held Dec. 1-8, 2013 at the MTS Centre, the Canadian Curling Association announced Wednesday. Ottawa and Saskatoon were also in the running. The 2009 event was held in Edmonton.