Owen Mathison had a strong finish at the 43rd annual mixed curling bonspiel Sunday at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club.
"It feels pretty good, especially after the way we started," said Mathison who skipped his foursome of third Joanne Rebagliati, second Clarence Wigmore and lead Jackie Burns to a 9-6 win in the A-final.
The Mathison group trailed 5-0 after four ends and everything looked good for Jamie Mould's crew. Then came the fifth end and a messy house, which Mathison took advantage of to score five to tie the game.
"We had to change up a little bit, because we were hitting too much and they weren't working for us so we went back to a little bit more draws," said Mathison. "It worked out really well."
With momentum now on his side Mathison limited Mould to one in the sixth end, before another big end in seven, scoring four solidifying the comeback to lead by three going home.
"That doesn't happen very often," said Mathison about scoring all his points in just two ends.
In 2011 Mathison took the B-side title with a different team.
Mathison ran his opponent out of rocks in the eighth end to secure the victory.
"We got in to ends we couldn't get out of," said Mould. "That's the way it goes. Owen made two great shots that we didn't think he'd make."
Mould's skips a crew consisting of: third Shirley Barnett; second Kyle Storey; and lead Elaine Loreth.
In Sunday's semifinals, Mould defeated Bill Lim - the 2011 A-final runner up - while Mathison took out Ian McInnis.
There was no chance for big ends in a defensive B-final between last year's A winner Doug Dalziel and Don Takahashi. After four ends of curling it was 2-1 for Takahashi.
But with last rock in the fifth Dalziel couldn't hold his shooter after a takeout, resulting in a steal of one and a 3-1 advantage for the Takahashi skipped team of: third Teresa Elefson; second Gerry Takahashi; and lead Maryanne Dacosta.
In the sixth end Dalziel crashed on a guard in front of the house, handing Takahashi another steal and a 4-1 lead. Dalziel was unable to generate enough offence in the seventh and went into the final end trailing 4-2. Takahashi didn't need to throw his final stone after Dalziel's takeout attempt crashed on a guard.
Takahashi defeated Nigel McInnis in the semifinal Sunday and took out Heather Pederson's team in Saturday's quarterfinal.
In the C-final, Dave Bryden had the same problem he did in his first game Saturday - too much weight. In another defensive match up Bryden missed a chance to defeat Jim Armstrong's 2011 world championship wheelchair team when he was heavy on his draw for three in the eighth end.
Tied at 5-5 the teams needed and extra end to determine the winner. Bryden missed his draw with his final shot, handing the win to Armstrong 6-5.
