VICTORIA, March 1, 2009 (CCA) — Jennifer Jones became just the sixth skip to claim back-to-back championships at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Sunday night at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Jones’s Team Canada quartet from Winnipeg — third Cathy Overton-Clapham, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn Askin (Jennifer Clark-Rouire is the alternate while Janet Arnott is the coach) — defeated B.C.’s Marla Mallett 8-5 in the final of the 2009 Scotties.
The Jones team joins Vera Pezer, Sandra Schmirler, Heather Houston, Colleen Jones and Kelly Scott as repeat champions.
For Overton-Clapham, it was her fourth national title (she also won with Connie Laliberte in 1995), putting her in a group of just eight players to have won four ore more Canadian women’s titles — Colleen Jones, Mary-Anne Arsenault, Kim Kelly, Nancy Delahunt, Joyce McKee, Lee Morrison and Vera Pezer are the others.
“It’s unbelievable; I can’t believe we’ve now won three, and Cathy’s won four,” said Jones. “It’s unbelievable. I dreamed of this as a little kid, and to do it with this team— we work so hard, we put so much into it, and it’s so very special for us right now.”
Team Canada took an early lead, stealing a single in the first end set up by Overton-Clapham’s draw to the button behind a centre guard; Mallett’s last-rock angle-raise attempt overcurled, leaving the Canadian scoring stone.
The teams then traded deuces for the next four ends, and B.C. blanked the sixth.
In the seventh, Jones, named the playoff Most Valuable Player, made a perfect hit and roll behind cover to sit two, forcing Mallett to draw full eight-foot for a single point. Instead, Mallett came up light, giving Team Canada a decisive steal of two and a 7-4 lead, all but securing Jones’s third Canadian title.
“It was just a little soft out of my hand, and on this ice, if you let it out soft, it’s going to grab the curl and go, which is exactly what happened,” said Mallett, whose team — third Grace MacInnes, second Diane Gushulak and lead Jacalyn Brown — qualified for the pre-Trials tournament next November in Prince George, B.C., where the final four qualifiers for the Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials in Edmonton will be decided. “Well, of course it’s very disappointing. I certainly would have liked to come out on the other side, but did have a great week, we learned a lot and we’ll bring it back next year.”
The Scotties champs will play for a second consecutive world championship from March 21 to 29 at Gangneung, South Korea.
“Well, I’m sure it probably won’t live up to Vernon (B.C., where Jones won her first world title last year), I don’t think anything could,” said Jones. “It’s a huge honour to represent Canada and I’m sure they’re going to do a great job. We can’t wait to go.”
Attendance for the final was 4,809, bringing total attendance for the ’09 Scotties to 70,218, the ninth highest in event history.