Hot Shots

The Hot Shots, well,Ford Hot Shots, ia an individual skills competition among all the players in the field ; playoffs on Friday lead to a final including the eight top-scoring players, which is held between the opening ceremonies and thefirst draw.
The eight who have made it to the final are (in descending order of Fiday scores), with preliminary scores in parenthesis:
Kevin Martin, Alberta skip (27)
Richard Hart, Ontario third (27)
Christian Bouchard, Quebec second (26)
Ryan Fry, Newfoundland and Labrador second (25)
John Morris, Alberta third (25)
Brad Jacobs, Northern Ontario skip(23)
Marc Kennedy, Alberta second (23)
Ken Maskiewich, British Columbia third (23)

It's a little ominous for the field that three ofthe eight are from the Alberta rink, and other rink has more than one finalist.
To be continued.

In this competition Alberta's situation is interesting as the Alberta players do not have enough teammates for sweeping (at least in practice - I am not sure how the competition is conducted). I wound up a little puzzled to look up and see a Saskatchewan sweeper for Kennedy. And also Saskatchewan playeres placing the brrom for Morris and Kennedy.

First four hit and stays score 5 of 5; and yes the sweeping help is used. One guy scores 4, and I missed who. This goes too fast to report in real time. Though Morris' draw to the button goes into the back of the eight-foot and scores only three, so maybe there is hope. And Kennedy gets zero for his draw through a port.

Martin, Maskiewich, Hart, and Morris advanceto the final four.

Let's see if I can get the scores:

Martin 5 - 3 - 4 - 3 - 3 - 5 = 23
Hart 5 - 5 - 5 - 5 - 5 - 0 = 25
Maskiewich 4 - 5 - 4 - 4 - 5 - 0 = 22
Morris 5 - 5 - 5 - 4 - 2 - 0 = 21
(For, in order, hit and stay, open draw to the button, , draw through a port, raise, hit and roll, double takeout.)
Well, that was quite a show.

So of all pairs it's Hart and Martin at the end.

This is quite the clinic and a lot of fun to watch.

Here goes the final: earnings available in the sport.

Martin 4 - 4 - 5 - 4 - 1 -
Hart 5 - 5 - 4 - 4 - 5 -
Martin shakes hands.

So Hart wins in five rocks, and earnss a two-year lease to a new Ford Edge. That should be a good thing, given the limited