Lucas Punkari
Although the national playdowns aren’t until November, the Kathie Jackson rink already is pumped to be wearing the colours of Northern Ontario at the 2013 edition of The Dominion Curling Club Championships after capturing the women’s provincial title Sunday morning in Sault Ste. Marie.
“We’re all extremely excited,” enthused Jackson, who is joined by third Teresa McFayden, second Lisa Penner, and lead Kris Sinclair.
“Once again, we were able to find our weight and throw the right amount of weight at the perfect time, and we were also able to figure out the ice early on, which was a huge key,” she noted.
“We usually waited ’til around the fifth end to start curling, though, as our first four ends were kind of slow,” she joked.
Jackson clinched the provincial crown with a 6-2 win in seven ends over Sudbury’s Janice Vettoretti in the final—breaking what had been a tightly-contested 3-2 game with a pair of steals in the sixth and seventh ends.
“We were very consistent, and I think we played our best game in the final,” Jackson said.
“We all stayed very focused and I’m proud of the team for doing that as we were all a little nervous going in, especially with what was on the line,” she admitted.
“We just kept telling each other to take things one rock at a time, and to not think about what is at the end of the road.”
The Fort Frances foursome earned their berth in the final by finishing first in the round-robin at the Soo Curlers Association with a 4-1 record, with their lone blemish being a 9-6 loss to Vettoretti on Friday night.
“We were down by five points going into the fifth end but that was indicative of our play,” Jackson recalled.
“Two of my rocks just rubbed against the guard to redirect it, and that ended up be the difference in two of the steals that they had.
“I think we all knew that we could get an end of it, and we were able to get our five-ender in the fifth end, but after that we just couldn’t keep it going,” she added.
While the rink already is looking forward to representing their home province at the nationals, which will take place Nov. 18-23, the opportunity to compete close to home at the Fort William Curling Club in Thunder Bay is something Jackson is particularly excited about.
“It’s my hometown and where my first 10 years of competitive curling took place, and everyone on our team has ties there,” she noted.
“We’ll have a lot of fans and support, I’m sure, since it’ll be close by, which will be nice,” she added.
But with the curling season here having drawn to a close, the rink will have to wait a little bit before they get back onto the ice to prepare for their trip to the Lakehead.
“I hope that the ice is ready when it usually is around Thanksgiving so that we can get out there as soon as we can,” Jackson stressed.
“We’ll just need to go out on the ice and throw rocks with everybody again.”
Sunday’s victory marked the second time a local rink has won a provincial title at this event.
Raymond Roy qualified for the 2010 edition of The Dominion, where he lost out in a tie-breaker.
The men’s provincial title also was decided Sunday in the Soo, with Copper Cliff’s Jason Strelezki edging Tim Jewett (Kakabeka Falls) 5-4.
