(CCA) Defending champion Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg skipped her team of Cathy Overton-Clapham, Jill Officer and Dawn Askin to a third straight Scotties Tournament Of Hearts title Sunday afternoon with an 8-7 championship-final victory over Kathy O’Rourke’s Prince Edward Island entry.
The win is the fourth in six years for the Jones team that will now represent Canada at the World women’s curling championship, March 20-28 at Swift Current, SK.
Jones compiled a 10 win, three loss record over the nine-day championship at the Essar Centre.
The match against the P.E.I. team (9-and-5), featuring 21-year-olds Erin Carmody and Geri-Lynn Ramsay throwing fourth and third rocks respectively, was the third confrontation of the contenders during the tournament.
The Islanders won 9-5 during the round-robin preliminaries, then lost 8-5 in the Page One-Two playoff prior to Sunday’s final.
The 45-year-old O’Rourke threw second rocks and called traffic for the Charlottetown aggregation while Tricia Affleck played the lead position.
It was the first-ever appearance in a Canadian women’s curling championship final for a team from P.E.I.