Big fourth end lifts Howard to victory

Posted: 1:00 AM CST Monday, Nov. 7, 2011

THERE'S something about the GP Car and Home World Cup that brings out the best in curler Glenn Howard.

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THERE'S something about the GP Car and Home World Cup that brings out the best in curler Glenn Howard.

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This article was published 07/11/2011 (5385 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THERE’S something about the GP Car and Home World Cup that brings out the best in curler Glenn Howard.

After only getting out of the quarter-finals once in four previous bonspiels this season, Howard found his game this week in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and won the first leg of the Capital One Grand Slam of Curling this season with a 6-4 win over John Epping in Sunday’s World Cup final.

“We’ve played really well this year, but hadn’t won anything,” Howard told CBC after the win. “A lot of wins, just a couple of losses but all in a quarter-final or semi. To get a (bonspiel) win under our belts is huge.”

It’s the fifth time in six years Howard, from Coldwater, Ont., has won the World Cup, but this is the first without longtime third Richard Hart on the team. Hart retired in the off-season and was replaced by Wayne Middaugh.

The team didn’t miss a beat on Sunday as Middaugh curled a game-high 96 per cent.

“Wayne’s a great friend of mine. We won a world championship (together) back in the early ’90s,” Howard said. “I know him so well and he’s been a great fit on this team.

“It’s different, Richie was unbelievable. Now we have a different personality, a different (set of) pluses and minuses in the game.”

With the score tied 2-2, Howard took control of the game in the fourth. Two misses on freeze attempts by Epping allowed Howard to draw full-eight foot for three and a 5-2 lead heading into the break.