(by Jody Jewers)
Amber Holland denies Jennifer Jones fourth consecutive Canadian women’s curling championship
Amber Holland is the new queen of Canadian women’s curling.
The 36-year-old and her rink from the Kronau Curling Club in Saskatchewan of third Kim Schneider, second Tammy Schneider and lead Heather Kalenchuk ended the reign of Jennifer Jones and Team Canada at three consecutive Scotties Tournament of Hearts titles Sunday night in front of 2,828 fans at the Civic Centre, stealing the decisive point in the 10th end for an 8-7 triumph.
Holland, the 1992 national junior women’s champion, will don the Maple Leaf once again, this time at the world championship March 19 to 27 in Esbjerg, Denmark.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet, what we’ve won or where we’re going yet, but it feels great,” an ecstatic Holland, the executive director of the Saskatchewan Curling Association, said moments after the victory.
She becomes the first Saskatchewan skip to win this event since the late Sandra Schmirler claimed her third and final Canadian crown in 1997.
“That’s pretty nice,” said Holland. “It’s a pretty good honour to be in that kind of company.”
Holland’s tapback of a Canada stone to count three points in the sixth end to knot the championship game at 6-6 was voted shot of the week, but that was decided before her last shot in 10 last night.
With Canada sitting top eight behind cover and Holland needing to find a way around it to make Jones throw her last, Holland responded with a pistol of a draw to grab more than half the button on her final shot
” I thought it was a little too deep ’cause I knew she had a better angle on it,” Holland said. “But it was good enough.”
Jones opted to run back a yellow Saskatchewan rock onto that Canada red one in the top eight, hoping to spill the shot stone Holland just threw for the win. That worked, but the Canada stone rolled too far, and the runback rock wound up being the championship-clinching point. Kim Schneider found Holland and wrapped her arms around her skip in a victory hug as the crowd, including a healthy smattering of green-and-yellow clad Saskatchewan supporters, roared its approval.
“I didn’t think it was going out,” Holland said of the dramatic finish. “Kim’s yelling at me to sweep and I’m like ‘Oh, god.’
“I knew the only way she could make it was hitting it high side, and she didn’t hit it that much high side, so I was quite surprised it bounced that much.”
Holland, who held a 5-2 lead in the one-versus-two Page playoff game two nights ago against Jones but wound up losing 10-9 in an extra end, learned how to finish, rallying from a 6-3 deficit at the intermission last night.
“We stayed with the plan – get two, force them to one and we made it work,” said Holland.
Jones was denied a fourth consecutive and fifth overall title as skip, which would have pulled her into a tie with Nova Scotia’s Colleen Jones in the former category and one behind her in the latter.
“It’s a little disappointing but I thought we had a great week,” said Jennifer Jones, a 36-year-old Winnipeg resident. “We had a lot of fun and had a shot to win, which is all you really want, and unfortunately it wasn’t our day today.
“The girls played well. I had a shot to win and I missed it.”
Click for full story in The Guardian.
Click for a transcript of The Guardian’s live blog of the Gold medal game.
Click for a transcript of The Guardian’s live blog of the earlier Bronze medal game.
