Saturday, March 17, 2007
Source: Canadian Curling Association
KAMLOOPS, BC, March 17…Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg had to wait a year, but it was worth it, as the 2005 Scott Tournament of Hearts winner turned the tables on Cathy King of Edmonton in Saturday’s women’s final of the Strauss Canada Cup, taking the title, 10-7.Last year, King and Jones engaged in a wild Cup final, with King prevailing by a whisker, 10-9. This year’s rematch at the Interior Savings Centre was no different.
However, the verdict wasn’t in until King’s last rock, an attempted draw to the four-foot with backing which would have forced an extra end, didn’t curl enough and wound up sliding wide of its target, giving Jones a steal of a deuce and the crown.
“We thought we were going to an extra (end),” said Jones. That’s something she (Cathy) makes 90% of the time. We got a bit of a break there. It’s a big event for us, (what with) the Continental Cup and Olympic Trials (berths). We wanted to give ourselves a shot. And we won.”
The final started out like a heavyweight fight, with attempted knockout punches coming early. King opened the first end with three on a hit and stay. However, Jones came back with her own three-spot in the second, after King failed to make a double with her last.
King took one in the third but Jones took the lead with a deuce in the fourth end, helped a nifty double with her first rock. Then, after King was only able to remove one of the opposition counters, Jones drew for a pair and her first lead in the game, 5-4.
In the fifth end, King, with one on the button, tried to score two and almost did, but her draw to the full-four around a Jones guard came up just short. In the sixth, Jones was forced to take one, for a 6-5 lead, while looking at two King counters.
In the seventh, King was able to make a double to score a deuce for a 7-6 lead. Jones tied it in the eighth with a draw to the four-foot while facing four King rocks in the house, then took an 8-7 lead after nine when King hit and rolled too far, giving up a steal of one. Then came the Jones theft of a deuce in the 10th.
Both King and Jones had come into the final on five-game win streaks. King dropped her opener to Stefanie Lawton of Saskatoon, 6-5, then rattled off five in a row, including a 6-4 decision over Sherry Anderson of Delisle in the A1/B1 game yesterday to advance to today’s final.
Jones lost her first two games, including a 10-6 setback to King in Draw 3, before fashioning her own five-game win streak. After finishing in second place in Section A with a 3-2 mark, she eliminated Shannon Kleibrink of Calgary, 7-4 in the A2/B2 game on Friday afternoon, before a 9-5 semi-final win over Sherry Anderson, setting up the rematch with King.
“We were pretty unfortunate,” recalled Jones, about her team’s start to the week. “We controlled our first game (a 9-8 loss to Karen Porritt) and I missed my last shot to win. We were playing okay. We knew we just had to get a little sharper. It worked out well for us that two losses got in (to the playoffs) and we just got on a roll.”
The Jones team earned $25,000 for the win and now becomes one of 16 teams eligible for the pre-event qualifier for the 2009 Canadian Curling Trials. The team also earns a berth into the 2007 Continental Cup of Curling, December 13-16 in Medicine Hat and the 2008 Strauss Canada Cup, February 26-March 2.
King, who won the 1998 Scott Tournament of Hearts, was at a loss to explain her final shot in the 10th end. “I don’t know what happened. Absolutely I thought it was good leaving my hand. So when it didn’t curl at all, I’m kind of, like, watching it….running, running. It just didn’t finish enough at the end.”
SOURCE: Canadian Curling Association News
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