(CCA) Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones couldn’t have picked a better way to open her title defence on Saturday night at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria BC.
Jones’s Winnipeg foursome — third Cathy Overton-Clapham, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn Askin — scored three in the second end and never looked back, taking down Alberta’s Cheryl Bernard 9-3 in Draw 2 play at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Canadian women’s curling championship.
“We missed a couple of shots here and there but overall we felt good on the ice, felt very comfortable with the ice,” said Jones, who is looking to win her third Canadian championship. “They’re (Bernard) having a great year, they’ve had a real consistent year in the cashspiel season. We expect them to be there at the end of the week. It was a really great game for us to win.”
Jones took advantage of a couple Alberta misses in the second end to score three after Bernard had scored one in the first; Manitoba stole one in the third, then put the game away with three in the fifth end and a stolen deuce in the sixth before the teams shook hands.
In other evening-draw play, P.E.I.’s Rebecca Jean MacPhee finished off a perfect two-win opening day by drubbing New Brunswick’s Andrea Kelly 7-1. The Island champs had earlier pulled out a dramatic extra-end win over Kerry Galusha of the Northwest Territories/Yukon, stealing the winning point in the process, and carried that momentum into the game against New Brunswick.
“Amazing what a couple wins does for you,” said P.E.I.’s Robyn MacPhee. “It just showed us that we were here to play and we could play with the rest of them.”
Quebec’s Marie-France Larouche also enjoyed a 2-0 Saturday; a win over New Brunswick started her team in the right direction, and then she put the Territories in an 0-2 hole with a 9-6 win.
In the other evening-draw game, Nova Scotia’s Nancy McConnery didn’t need to throw her final rock in the 11th end when Manitoba’s Barb Spencer was heavy with her last-rock raise attempt. That gave Nova Scotia a 5-4 win in the opener for both teams.
Ontario’s Krista McCarville (1-0), B.C.’s Marla Mallett (1-0), Saskatchewan’s Stefanie Lawton (0-1) and Newfoundland/Labrador’s Heather Strong (0-1) all had byes Saturday night.
Play at the Scotties continues on Sunday with three games, at 12:30 p.m. (all times Atlantic), 5 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. All three draws will be televised by TSN.
P.E.I. has only one game on Sunday, at 5 Atlantic, and it’s against the other 2-0 team, Quebec, skipped by Marie-France Larouche.