Fought the Lawes and won

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This article was published 20/02/2011 (5532 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CHARLOTTETOWN — Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones and third Kaitlyn Lawes got off to a hot start here at the 2011 Canadian Women’s Curling Championship. And that was before the event had even formally started.

Jones defeated Lawes in an all-Team Canada final of the pre-event individual skills competition Saturday afternoon. Jones won a two-year lease on a vehicle, while Lawes won $2,000.

“It was fun. And to have both of us in the final was super fun. I was super happy for Kaitlyn,” Jones said, cautioning against reading too much into her team’s dominance of the skills competition.

“The Hot Shots is the Hot Shots. It’s completely different than a curling game so you never look too hard at it going into the week. It’s a fun way for us to start. And like I said, I wanted to make sure Kaitlyn enjoyed herself this week and it’s a pretty nice way for her to start.”

Lawes, 22, is making her debut at the Canadian Women’s Curling Championship this week and had never before participated in the skills competition.

“It was really fun. I kind of went into it with an open mind. I didn’t really want to put any pressure on myself,” Lawes said.

“The first round yesterday, I just wanted to get something out of every shot, get a couple points here and there and move on. That worked out, and I kind of had the same mentality today. I kind of didn’t feel any nerves until the final four. Then I was like, ‘Oh, I can actually maybe get something here.’.”

Jones said the team will divide up the money Lawes won and then come to an arrangement on the car lease.

The all-Canada matchup in Saturday’s final was the first time two teammates faced each other in the final of the skills competition since the 2000 Brier, when Alberta third Don Walchuk faced Alberta skip Kevin Martin.

There were actually three Manitoba curlers playing in the playoff round of the skills competition on Saturday — Team Manitoba skip Cathy Overton-Clapham was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the skills competition earlier in the day.

Lawes lost the final to Jones by a score of 15-13.

“She had it before she even threw her last rock,” lamented Lawes. “But that’s OK. I was hoping it would come down to whoever was throwing the last rock had to make it to win.”

LOOSE HAIRS — Overton-Clapham got the biggest laugh of the night at the opening banquet Friday night. The Manitoba skip told the crowd she was recently talking to Randy Ferbey about his highly publicized feud with Newfoundland skip Brad Gushue and told Ferbey: “I’m sure glad we don’t have that kind of thing in women’s curling.” Overton-Clapham, of course, is mired in a feud of her own with Jones, who fired Overton-Clapham last spring as third for Team Canada.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca