With Jones on the sidelines, provincial Scotties title hunt is filled with legitimate contenders

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This article was published 13/01/2016 (3888 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As Manitoba’s top female curlers prepare to descend on Beausejour for the provincial championship, for once it feels as if anything could happen.

There’s no Jennifer Jones in the mix when things kick off next week, no single dominant team. The road to the buffalo jacket is wide open. That changes things.

Jones has already qualified for the national championship in Grande Prairie, Alta., as a result of her 2015 Canadian title.

“It’s a little more realistic that someone like my team could win,” said Michelle Montford, whose Assiniboine Memorial foursome will enter as fourth seed. “Being that we’ve never even been in the playoffs before, making that jump into the playoffs and going all the way seems like something that’s possible.”

In other words, this could be one of the most intriguing provincial contests in years. Jones has won every Manitoba championship she’s played in since 2005, and cruised through the field last season. When she was gone in 2014 for the Sochi Olympics, Chelsea Carey stood over the field as heir apparent. Not so, this time.

The field of contenders in Beausejour is led by a top five, and the parity is comparatively tight. Leading the pack is Kristy McDonald, who won Manitoba playing vice for Carey two years ago. Nipping at her heels as second seed is Kerri Einarson, the sparkplug skip who battled her way to the last two Manitoba finals.

Einarson’s East St. Paul rink has had a breakthrough season, which opened when they won the second tier of the Tour Challenge in Newfoundland, and with it a spot in the elite Masters. They delivered some upsets there, climbing to a semifinal against Val Sweeting, and earned their way into the National grand slam.

Now, after two close calls in two years, Einarson is hoping that experience boost helps lift her to her first Manitoba championship.

“I learned so much,” Einarson said of her grand slam debut. “Even strategies, and just playing those top teams you’ve got to keep things maybe a little bit simpler, because everyone makes everything playing in those events. You have to play well.”

Rounding out the top five are veteran Barb Spencer, Montford, who was widely pegged as a dark horse to go deep last year but fell out of a tough round-robin group that included Spencer and Jones, and Spencer’s sister Darcy Robertson, who won as skip in ’86, and again in 2003, throwing third rocks for Spencer’s team.

There are other interesting names in the mix. This season marks the return of Cathy Overton-Clapham, who is skipping a young rink composed of Breanne Meakin’s former team. There is also young blood in two-time Manitoba junior champion Shannon Birchard, and current juniors Christine MacKay and Mackenzie Zacharias.

Still, most of the focus will be on what happens in those top five seeds. For each, there’s something a little different on the line.

For Spencer, 49, it’s not just a chance to make her fourth trip to the national Scotties. There’s also the fact this could be one of her last shots to share it with a team that includes her daughters, Katie, 24, and Holly, 23, as well as Sydney Arnal at lead.

“To win it again would be great, because I’m curling with my kids,” Spencer said. “I really still enjoy curling but I don’t know how many more years I’m going to be able to do this at this competitive level. So this year would be an awesome year to win for us.”

To do that, though, Spencer will very likely have to get past McDonald. The top-seeded team has the most elite recent experience in the field, and came out of the gate strong this season.

They made the playoffs in their first five events, including a semifinal appearance at the Masters, where they fell to Rachel Homan.

The last few bonspiels have been rockier, McDonald noted. But though this is just the second season for her team, they have plenty of experience. The skip, second Leslie Wilson and lead Raunora Westcott have all been to nationals before with other rinks, and 24-year-old vice Kate Cameron is a rising talent.

Besides, McDonald figures the provincial stage is just the motivation they need to get their play back on track.

“We had a rough go in the last few ’spiels, kind of lost our mojo a little bit,” McDonald said. “It’s a long season, especially when you’re playing on the slams… But you step out, you see the Scotties hearts, and you get that little rush again, and that’s what I think we need to get going again.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca