Jackson ‘disappointed’ with finish at provincials

Kathie Jackson had called it the best field she’s seen in her four trips to the Ontario Scott Tournament of Hearts.
A seventh-place finish this time around proved her correct.
The Fort Frances rink came charging out of the gate with an impressive 3-1 record after the first two days of competition at Niagara Falls, nestled in a three-way tie for second place just one game behind front-running Janet Brown (Sutton).
Then the proverbial wheels fell off.
Jackson opened play last Tuesday with a 5-4 victory over eventual champion Kim Gellard (Unionville) and then thumped Kelli Perozak (Port Arthur) 9-3.
Jackson’s rink, which included third Kim Beaudry, second Kelly Wagar (Tolen), lead Stacy Beacham, and fifth Roz Broman, were shellacked 12-3 at the hands of Nadine Landon (Soo) Wednesday but then rebounded with an 8-4 win over 1996 world champ Marilyn Bodogh (St. Catharines) that night.
“From our perspective, it was nice we beat Bodogh in front of her home crowd and we were able beat Gellard in the first game, which made us feel good,” Jackson noted, adding they also benefited from a strong contingent of supporters who made the trip to Niagara Falls.
But if the Fort Frances crew had a lot of momentum going into the third day of competition, it was a much different story by the end of it. They lost all three of their games, leaving them all but out of the playoff picture.
“I would say in a three-game day, you have to come out with two wins,” said Jackson, who had finished fourth at the provincials in Kenora last year.
“We started out [Thursday] with a loss and then we had games against the two top teams,” she recalled.
That first loss was a lopsided 13-3 decision at the hands of Anne Dunn (Galt).
“We curled at about three-quarters and she curled at about 150 percent–they curled five times better than us,” Jackson said of the blowout to Dunn.
After that debacle, Jackson lost 7-4 to defending champ Anne Merklinger (Rideau) and then fell 9-4 to Brown, who improved to 7-0 with that win.
Jackson wrapped up action Friday with a 10-4 loss to Darla Esch (North Bay) before finishing the round-robin on a winning note with a 7-4 win over Colleen Madonia (North Halton).
In the playoff round, Gellard got past Merklinger 5-3 in the semi-final, then scored three in the ninth to earn a 5-3 win over Brown in the final.
Brown had a bye to the final by virtue of her first place finish in the round robin.
Although Jackson admitted she was a “little disappointed” with how they finished in the final standings at 4-5, she stressed she was more disturbed in how they lost by such lopsided scores.
“It was tough because we didn’t curl well enough to win but it was disappointing because it wasn’t like we were losing on last rock–I don’t mind losing in the last end,” Jackson said.
“But sometimes blowouts don’t always indicate how the game went,” she added. “It just shows you got smoked, and it wasn’t at all like that.”