Wednesday, January 20, 2010

BDO starts today

The third leg of the Grand Slam starts today and organizers held a conference call with Kevin Martin on Monday to promote the spiel. Have to admit that it's tough to focus on a Slam event with the Olympics just a few weeks away, but I'd say about half the questions asked were about the Slam, which is good.
And good for Kevin for doing this -- again. He did a conference call before the Guelph event a few weeks ago and also held court with the ink-stained types up at Casino Rama.
Of course the main question asked was what's going on with the team. They haven't exactly been lighting it up since winning the Trials, although they did take an extended break after winning in Edmonton. The boys went 1-4 in Guelph and were knocked out by David Murdoch in their Skins semi-final, although the team played pretty well the last part of that match, losing in a draw to the button.
Martin said he was hoping to play about 85-90 per cent in Winnipeg. That he said would mean they are moving in the right direction. If the boys played way up in the 90s, he stated, they'd be peaking too early.
I don't know . . . I'd kind of like to be playing really, really well going into the Olympics. Certainly Martin knows this path better than anyone, having been there before, but I wouldn't mind seeing them win the Slam event. I mean, I really liked the way Murdoch was playing in Rama. If you asked me right now who the favourite for Vancouver was, I'd say Murdoch.
Speaking of Murdoch, he's not at the Slam -- he's back in Scotland playing in his national playdowns this week. It's weird, but they're having round robin before the Olympics and then the Page Playoff portion after. You think they'd move things around like that in Canada?

No comments: