Jones in market for bigger trophy case

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This article was published 17/04/2011 (5573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones can add the GP Car and Home Players’ Championship to her impressive trophy case.

The 36-year-old outscored Ottawa’s Rachel Homan 7-5 on Saturday in the championship game of the season finale of the Capital One Grand Slam of Curling series.

Jones was fortunate in the second end when 21-year-old Homan missed a shot for four, settling for a three-spot. Homan also missed a second free point in the fourth, picking up a single when her final stone was heavy on the Crystal Centre ice.

Jones scored a deuce in the fifth end to tie the match 4-4 and held Homan and her Ottawa rink to a single in the sixth.

Homan made a spectacular double-kill to set up a blanked seventh frame, but Jones third Kaitlyn Lawes threw a stunning quadruple takeout in the final end, leaving Jones a simple takeout for three and the victory.

“We weren’t playing very well actually, in the first four ends, but we were only two (points) down,” Jones said. “We know that we’re a good second-half team and we just needed to get our deuce. We got our deuce in five and it was a different game.”

Jones, Lawes, Jill Officer and Dawn Askin earned the $25,000 winner’s cheque and increased their World Curling Tour season winnings to $76,000. Jones claimed another $50,000 for the Capital One Cup, which honoured winning records in the four women’s Grand Slam of Curling events.

Jones and Officer have won four of the past six Players’ Championships.

“We’ve had a great year, we’ve had our best year ever,” said Jones.

“I don’t think you ever could expect a season like this, for a brand-new team,” added Lawes, a two-time Canadian junior champion skip who replaced longtime Jones third Cathy Overton-Clapham a year ago.

“It’s honestly been so amazing. I think we wanted to have a year just to jell and get used to each other, but (this) been a bit of a bonus.”

Homan, backed by Emma Miskew, Alison Kreviazuk and Lisa Weagle, earned $16,000 for finishing second. Scotland’s Eve Muirhead and Edmonton’s Heather Nedohin received $11,000 each for reaching the semifinals, while quarter-finalists Chelsea Carey of Morden, Man., Desiree Owen of Grand Prairie and Calgarians Cheryl Bernard and Shannon Kleibrink earned $7,000 each.

Carey also earned $25,000 for placing second in the Capital One Cup race, with Nedohin scoring an extra $10,000.

On the men’s side, Edmonton’s Kevin Martin and Glenn Howard of Coldwater, Ont., found themselves on yet another collision course.

Martin beat Regina’s Braeden Moskowy 6-5 in a quarter-final Saturday, while Howard eliminated Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen 5-3.

Martin won a Saturday night semifinal against fellow Edmontonian Kevin Koe. Howard lost to Sweden’s Niklas Edin. Martin meets Edin in today’s final.

Edin dispatched Brandon’s Rob Fowler 6-5 in their quarter-final while Koe ended the dream season of world champion Jeff Stoughton. The Winnipeg skip was trying to steal the win when Koe delivered his final shot, which appeared heavy. However, Koe’s stone caught a piece of debris and slowed, settling into the scoring area for the 5-4 win.

“That’s just the rub of the game,” said Stoughton. “They take it, and we get to go home. But we missed too many opportunities to score two.

“It’s been an amazing couple of months, the whole season has been awesome. The team just pulled everything together and it’s been wonderful.”

The Fowler quartet was skipped by World Curling Tour president Pierre Charette. The seven-time Brier participant was pressed into service after Fowler’s carbon-fibre brush split and collapsed in the extra end of his C-qualifying match, dislocating his shoulder.

McEwen made the shot of the tournament in the Saturday morning men’s C-qualifiers to stay alive. The two-time Grand Slam of Curling champion rushed a hail Mary takeout down the ice against Edmonton’s Rob Schlender with only two seconds of his time left.

Schlender led 5-4 and had two buried stones at the time, but McEwen’s rock ricocheted off a stone far from the house, roared to near the button and removed both Schlender stones. The shooter stayed in the eight-foot rings and the Winnipeg foursome earned an unlikely 6-5 win and a berth in the playoffs.

“I was lucky that rock was even there,” McEwen said of his miracle shot. “I got in the hack, cleaned the rock as quick as I could, I asked the boys how much time I had, they said five seconds left.

“I honestly didn’t even have time to think. I just fired out of the hack, wobbled a little, got her back on line. I don’t think I’ve ever made a crazier shot to win a game, ever. It was like a buzzer-beater in basketball from the other end, just overhand it and see what happens.”

 

— Postmedia News