The Jones Factor

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This article was published 25/02/2012 (5163 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RED DEER, Alta. — It has been exactly 10 years now since Jennifer Jones had her curling coming-out party at the 2002 Canadian women’s curling championship and began rewriting Manitoba’s and Canada’s curling record books.

And what’s most striking — as Jones prepared Friday night at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts to face B.C.’s Kelly Scott in the Page playoff 1 vs. 2 game — is that for all that has changed in the intervening years, the one constant has been Jones’s personal dominance of the Canadian curling scene.

She has played on the national stage with six different player combinations and 10 different players over the years. And yet the results — she’s never missed the playoffs in nine trips to the Canadian women’s curling championship — have never changed.

Jones had the good fortune of winning her first Manitoba women’s title in 2002, the same year Manitoba last hosted the Canadian women’s curling championship.

That year’s Scott (as it was known then) Tournament of Hearts was held in Brandon and it ended in disappointment for Jones, who could only watch and stamp her foot in frustration — literally — as her final rock of the Page playoff 3 vs. 4 game slid too far to hand Ontario’s Sherry Middaugh a game-winning steal and a 7-6 victory.

That loss stung the intensely competitive Jones and it is to her ever-lasting credit that the 2002 loss in the 3-4 game — something that would be the pinnacle of many female curlers’ careers in this country — has gone down as Jones’s worst finish ever at the Canadian women’s curling championship.

In eight trips to the event since then, Jones has won the final four times, lost the final twice and lost a semifinal once. And with a berth in Friday night’s 1-2 game, she can do no worse than another semifinal appearance this year.

That is an incredible record of utter dominance the likes of which the Canadian women’s game has never known.

While there are a handful of curlers who have won more than four Canadian titles — five players have won five and one has won six — no one with as many national appearances as Jones has made can boast of never having missed the playoffs.

Colleen Jones — who, along with teammates Kim Kelly, Mary Anne Arsenault and Nancy Delahunt, represent four of the six curlers with more than four Canadian titles — missed the Scotties playoffs. Ditto Cathy Overton-Clapham, who is another of the few curlers with more than four Canadian titles.

Even the late great Sandra Schmirler missed the playoffs twice in her seven trips to the Scotties (although she did play in a tiebreaker game in both those instances).

Put it all together and Jones appears to be that rarest of athletes — someone who seems to win regardless of the players who surround her.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Winning combinations

Jennifer Jones has used six different player combinations and a total of 10 different players in her nine trips to the Canadian women’s curling championship. Here’s a look at her Scotties teams over the years and how they fared:

2002: Jones   3rd – K. Fallis  2nd – L. Fallis-Kurz  lead – D. Allerton  Lost 3-4 game

2005: Jones   3rd – C. Overton-Clapham  2nd – J. Officer  lead – C. Gauthier  Won final

2006: Jones   3rd – C. Overton-Clapham  2nd – J. Officer  lead – G. Wheatcroft  Lost final

2007: Jones   3rd – C. Overton-Clapham  2nd – J. Officer  lead – J.Arnott  Lost semifinal

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2008: Jones   3rd – C. Overton-Clapham  2nd – J. Officer  lead – D. Askin  Won final

2009: Jones   3rd – C. Overton-Clapham  2nd – J. Officer  lead – D. Askin  Won final

2010: Jones   3rd – C. Overton-Clapham  2nd – J. Officer  lead – D. Askin  Won final

2011: Jones   3rd – K. Lawes   2nd – J. Officer  lead – D. Askin  Lost final

2012: Jones   3rd – K. Lawes  2nd – J. Officer  lead – D. Askin  TBD