Robertson loses to Sigurdson in provincial senior men's curling final

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Published on Monday, February 25, 2013

By: Lanny Stewart

myWestman.ca

Neepawa's Kelly Robertson came up short in his bid to win this year's senior men's provincial curling championship.

The two-time defending champion lost to West Kildonan's Bob Sigurdson 7-6 in 10 ends in the championship final in Killarney on Monday afternoon.

After scoring a deuce in the ninth, Robertson's team had a one point lead heading into the final end, but wound up giving up two points to Sigurdson -- thus ending Robertson's run as provincial champ.

"It was kind of a game in that I didn't particularly play well in," said Robertson. "Looking back at it, you're not going to win every year. We've had a really good run. It's disappointing in the sense that it would've been really nice to three-peat, but you kind of have to look at it that we played a really tough team and they won that game."

Sigurdson, and his team of third Darren Oryniak, second Al Purdy, and lead Wayne Sigurdson, were able to exact some revenge on Robertson in the final as it was Robertson who earned his spot in the final by defeating Sigurdson in the 1 versus 1 page playoff earlier in the event.

"We just were a little bit flat in that last game," said Robertson. "We're pretty even with that team, but they were able to win that last one."

Robertson and his team of third Doug Armour, second Peter Prokopowich and lead Bob Scales, finished with a 6-1 record in the Black Group standings, prior to taking part in the playoff portion of the event.

Robertson's team began the event on Thursday with a 7-1 win over Brandon's Shaun Taylor. Robertson's squad would continue their winning ways later in the day with an 11-7 win over Pilot Mound's Curtis McCannell.

On Friday, Robertson started off the day with an 8-4 win over Stonewall's Bill Stewart before dropping their first contest of the event to Pembina's Lionel Walz by a score of 7-6.

Robertson's team would then win their next three contests, defeating Ian Beavis of Fort Rouge 8-1, Rob Atkins of East St. Paul 11-1 and following that up with an 8-6 victory over Murray Woodward of St. Adolphe 8-6.

The competitive side of the curling season is over for Robertson's team this year. His team will take part in some club curling for the next little while, but other than that, the foursome will be hanging up the sliders and brooms until next year.

Meanwhile, Sigurdson and his team -- who earned their way to the final by defeating Curtis McCannell of Pilot Mound 10-5 in the semifinal -- will now represent Manitoba at the Canadian senior championship, March 16-24 in Summerside, PEI.

In photo: Neepawa's Kelly Robertson

File photo