Jackson earns final berth at northwesterns

It was do or die for Lorne Jackson, and he wasn’t going to wait to launch the fatal volley.
With the final berth at the northwestern playdowns on the line, Jackson hunkered down to hammer fellow Fort Frances skip Kevin Busch 10-1 in six ends to win the ‘C’ event at the Zone West bonspiel in Kenora last weekend.
“We had a team meeting to figure out what we were doing wrong after the previous game,” Jackson said about his discussion with third Don DeBenedet, second Derek Jackson, and lead Wayne Beacham.
“We decided to change our game back to the way it used to be,” he noted. “We’re in trouble when we don’t have the hammer, so we just have to play those ends clean.
“When we do have the hammer, that’s when we’ll get into it.”
The pressure was weighty on Jackson’s rink considering their résumé includes several trips to the northwesterns as well as a previous appearance at the provincials.
“We had played [Busch] before,” said Jackson. “His team actually played pretty good, he just had a couple of misses at the wrong time.”
For Busch’s part, the Fort Frances Curling Club’s ice-maker extraordinaire attributed the defeat to a lack of preparation time.
“There was no one in the seven-team field that really curled phenomenal,” said Busch, who gathered together a rink of third Brian Johnstone, second Ron (“Butch”) Wensley, and lead Bill Enge at the last minute to take part in the Zone West bonspiel.
“I was hot and cold, and had trouble adjusting to the different ice,” he added. “You’ve got to be curling with some really high quality at that level.
“In the games we lost, we just gambled and it didn’t pay off,” Busch noted. “But the scores were no indication of how much stronger one team was compared to us.”
Jackson mounted a tremendous comeback in his opening game against Kenora’s Jeff Reich, erasing a 7-2 deficit to pull out a 9-7 win.
“We hit one a little wrong early and they had an open hit for five,” recalled Jackson. “But then they played into our hands after that. That’s one of the best comebacks I’ve been a part of.”
The victory meant a confrontation with Steve Meadows (Kenora), who came after Jackson with a fury and walked away with a 10-6 victory in the ‘A’ event final.
“That’s the first time we’ve played him,” said Jackson. “They’re a team that likes to hit, and being a local team, they had a pretty good handle on the ice.”
By losing to Meadows, Jackson wound up in a rematch with Reich for the ‘B’ event title. And this time, Reich was ready for him.
“I couldn’t make a shot to save my soul,” Jackson said about the six-end defeat (the score was unavailable at press time). “They curled well and I was off my game.”
Meanwhile, Busch already had sandwiched wins over Bryan Meadows (Dryden) and Garry Windigo (Fort Frances) around a loss to Reich (those scores also were unavailable at press time).
Despite the loss to Jackson, Busch never considered his team’s chances overly remote to snag one of the three available berths for the northwesterns Jan. 15-18 in Thunder Bay.
“I thought we had a possibility of getting there,” he said. “It’s tough for me with the schedule I have at the club. I would love to play more if I could. I don’t mind playing at that level.
“It’s a challenge, but it’s fun.”
Windigo lost his first two game to Steve Meadows and Bryan Meadows before beating the latter in a rematch his next outing.
He then downed Darcy Galvin (Dryden) but succumbed to Busch to end his weekend.
With three berths to the provincials up for grabs in Thunder Bay next weekend, Jackson still vividly recalls his 4-3 loss to eventual Northern Ontario champ Scott Henderson (Fort William) in the last-chance game last year.
“I think Henderson, Bryan Burgess [Thunder Bay], and Ron Rosengren [Thunder Bay] will be the ones to beat at the regionals,” said Jackson, who will be the lone Rainy River District rink at the event after three local quartets made it to the northwesterns last year.
“You always want to do well against the city teams,” he remarked. “They think much of the time that because of the competition and the number of games they get down that way that they’ve automatically got better teams.
“But I think after what we did last year, we earned their respect. They’re definitely going to try harder against us,” Jackson added.
The provincial playdowns are set for Feb. 10-14 in Sault Ste. Marie.