The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Edin proves master with seven straight victories
Curling: Swede claims first Perth Masters title with perfect record
Swede Niklas Edin fully justified his status as the pre-tournament favourite by winning yesterday afternoon’s Perth Masters final in imperious fashion at the Dewars Centre.
The double world champion sent an ominous warning to his Olympic rivals by defeating Swiss skip Peter De Cruz 7-4 as he completed a clean sweep of seven straight victories and landed his maiden Perth title.
An early 3-0 lead was wiped out at the third end, but Edin counted three stones at the next and controlled proceedings from there.
The prospect of a home victory for Perth’s Olympic skip Kyle Smith had been dashed in yesterday morning’s quarter-finals when the former world junior champion narrowly lost his latest epic confrontation with De Cruz.
Smith famously edged him 9-8 in the European Championship semi-final in November before De Cruz turned the tables with an 8-7 extra-end win on Friday.
The sixth end made all the difference yesterday as De Cruz picked up a three there to lead 5-2.
He eventually saw out a 6-3 victory, but Smith was not complaining barely a month before the Winter Olympics in South Korea after three sudden-death wins on Saturday salvaged his quarterfinal spot after an early exit appeared inevitable.
Fellow Scot Cameron Bryce also reached the last eight before going down 5-3 to Oslo’s ex-world gold medallist Thomas Ulsrud, who had earlier knocked out Aberdeen’s defending Masters champion Tom Brewster on Saturday night.