Jones does that Jones thing again

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This article was published 04/12/2011 (5281 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CRANBROOK, B.C. — If there’s a better female curler than Jennifer Jones with her back to the wall, good luck naming her.

The four-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion, who’s made a habit of scratching and clawing her way to Canadian titles, is proving it yet again here this week as she takes a run at becoming the first qualifier for the 2013 Tim Hortons Olympic Trials in her hometown of Winnipeg.

Jones, whose team (third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Joelle Sabourin and lead Dawn Askin) teetered on the brink of being knocked out of contention at the Capital One Canada Cup of Curling as late as Friday night at the RecPlex, charged into an all-Winnipeg final today against Chelsea Carey by beating Calgary’s Shannon Kleibrink 6-3 in Saturday’s women’s semifinal.

The men’s final will feature 2010 Olympic champ Kevin Martin of Edmonton against Glenn Howard of Coldwater, Ont., who beat Martin in last year’s Canada Cup final at Medicine Hat.

Jones needed to score a dramatic 10th-end deuce late Friday night in her last round-robin game against Amber Holland just to qualify for the semifinal, going 3-3 in the round-robin despite a nasty cold she brought with her to Cranbrook.

But on Saturday, she was in full command, curling a solid 90 per cent and taking advantage of Kleibrink mistakes — none more costly than the hit she threw in the first end that hung out wide and produced a jam and a stolen deuce for Jones.

“I thought we came out and made the shots we had to in that game, which is all you want to do,” said Jones. “I’ve felt good all week, so it was a nice way to go into the final. Now we’re in and we just have to try to play our best (Sunday) and see what happens.”

If they bring the same kind of game into the final — which offers both a $26,000 winner’s cheque and, by far the bigger prize, a direct entry into the Trials two years hence — the Jones foursome should be in good shape.

Kleibrink, on the other hand, will head back to Calgary regretting the opportunity she let slip away, and the first-end gift to Jones was particularly tough to take.

“I found a real straight spot in the ice in the first end, and it cost us huge,” she said. “We just couldn’t recover.”

But there was no question that the Jones team was the better one on the afternoon. Jones never faced a testing shot until the eighth end when she drew for a single looking at three Kleibrink counters, but that was the exception — it was a comfortable 10 ends for the Manitoba powerhouse.

“The round-robin was a little bit of a grind; we didn’t play poorly, but we just missed the wrong shots here or there,” said Jones, whose squad topped the team shooting stats in the round-robin at 82 per cent. “But today I thought we made the right shots. We missed a few along the way.

“But when we needed a big one, we made it, and that’s the difference. And hopefully that will happen (Sunday) because that’s what you need to win.”

In the men’s semifinal later Saturday, Howard threw a masterful 100 per cent game — “One of the best I’ve thrown this year,” he said afterwards — at reigning world champ Jeff Stoughton of Winnipeg en route a 9-5 triumph to set up another showdown with his longtime nemesis Martin.

“Who are we playing in the final? I think we know the guy — Battle of the Baldies,” said a chuckling Howard.

Interestingly, Martin suggested here Friday that qualifying for the Trials 24 months in advance might not be such an advantage, but Howard was no having no part of that line of reasoning.

“I’ll be honest with you — if he wants to give us the game (Sunday), I’ll take it right now,” said Howard. “We want to qualify; I don’t care if we get in first or eighth.”

— Postmedia News