The truth inspires a rare win by Spencer

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/02/2009 (6299 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VICTORIA — Look, I like Barb Spencer.

She’s a nice lady, good curler, works hard and raises a couple of kids. She’s an ordinary person, in other words — a decent ordinary person.

And so I’m going to play this one straight this morning. I’ll let Spencer do most of the talking.

Which the struggling Manitoba skip did plenty of here at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts late Monday night when she emerged from the ice following a rare victory, this one over Newfoundland.

"We have you to thank for that," Spencer spat.

"Pardon?"

"Yeah, you. We heard what you said about our team this afternoon and it inspired us."

Quick piece of background: Organizers of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts asked me to make an appearance Monday afternoon to do this up-close-and-personal thing they do in the Heartstop Lounge, the women’s equivalent of the Brier Patch.

Basically, you sit in front of the stage on a couch, the MC guy interviews you in front of everyone and then folks ask questions. And one of the questions was what did I think was behind the poor performance of Spencer’s Manitoba team at this event so far (they were 2-4 heading into last night).

My answer, basically, was that Spencer’s a good team, but winning Manitoba in a year when Jennifer Jones wasn’t playing in the provincials because she’s Team Canada this year is vastly different than winning our province in a year when Jones is competing.

I said Jones is in a class by herself — not just in Manitoba, but in Canada — and you have to adjust your expectations of Spencer here against that backdrop.

Spencer did not like that. A lot.

"We’re sick of being told that only Jennifer can win," Spencer began.

"We feel we’re just as good as they are. We feel we play just as well as them. They maybe play more than us, but we’ve qualified in lots of bonspiels too. Let’s face it, there is more than one team in Manitoba capable of winning."

I disagree, but anyway. Spencer continued:

"This is our third Scotties, we’ve won the (Manitoba Curling Tour) championship three times, we won the mixed, we’ve won many, many bonspiels and we won the Canadian Juniors."

Spencer took a breath before switching her attention to Jones, who at that moment was locked in a tight game with Ontario — which Jones ultimately won.

"Jennifer’s a good player, but you can see she’s in a tight game again," Spencer continued.

"I’m not saying she’s not a good team, but I don’t like it when people think they’re the only team from Manitoba who can win.

"We have nothing against them, but we feel like we’re just as good."

Couple of things:

First, no they’re not. In fact, Spencer is not nearly as good as Jones. Not many teams are right now.

Second, it’s not my fault Spencer’s Manitoba team is playing crappy here — again — any more than it was my doing that they won against Newfoundland. (Although I do like the idea of being the only man to ever win a game at the Scotties.)

And third, Spencer would have done herself a big service by not choosing this particular moment to tell everyone she is as good as Jones, seeing as Spencer is in grave danger of missing the playoffs at this event for the third straight time, while Jones was in first heading into last night and looking every bit like the favourite to repeat as Canadian champion.

Told of Spencer’s comments Monday night, Jones and third Cathy Overton-Clapham just smiled and shrugged. Good answer.

And so, because I like Spencer, because I know she’s frustrated right now and because I believe there’s a big difference between holding accountable a professional athlete and an amateur one, I will offer only this today:

I hope, genuinely hope, that Barb Spencer proves here this week that there really is another Manitoba team that can win this thing and that she really is as good as Jones and I really am stupid for not recognizing that.

But to do that, she’s going to have to stop telling me and start showing me.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca