Experience will be delivered by the St. Albert rink skipped by Lauren Jenkyns at the Alberta Travelers Curling Club Championships this weekend at Grande Prairie.
The women’s qualifier for nationals is the third in four years for Jenkyns, third Kathy Piper and second Laurie Conrad, winners of the 2013 provincial championship and the second for lead Cindy Bobowik.
“We know what to expect in terms of the calibre of the other teams,” said Jenkyns, following a Sunday morning practice session at the St. Albert Curling Club. “Every year we’ve been in it the competition is getting tougher and tougher. There is going to be no gimmies out there so hopefully we bring our A game.”
The reigning President’s Cup playoff champions in St. Albert women’s curling are returning to provincials after icing one of the two B event finals at northerns in March at Leduc. They ended the 19-rink draw with five consecutive victories to finish 5-1.
The first game for Jenkyns at the eight-rink provincials is 5 p.m. Friday and the final is 1 p.m. Sunday.
The eighth edition for Canada’s top club curlers is Nov. 20 to 26 at Kelowna, featuring 14 women’s and 14 men’s rinks.
Each rink is allowed only one player who has played in a provincial/territorial juniors’, men’s (Brier), women’s (Scotties) or seniors’ championship in the current or previous four curling seasons or participated in a Grand Slam event over that span as well.
Also, any player who has competed in a Canadian juniors’, men’s, women’s or seniors’ nationals in the current or previous four seasons is ineligible for the Travelers.
Three years ago, the Jenkyns’ rink with Diana Backer at lead won three and lost three in pool play at nationals in Thunder Bay, Ont.
The next year the defending Alberta champions were eliminated in the provincial semifinals by the eventual champion, Morgan Muise of Calgary, at the Edmonton Garrison Golf and Curling Club and last year were one of the B finalists at northerns while going 4-2 at the Shamrock.
“There are a lot of highly skilled curlers out there and everyone is making their shots so you know you have to make all your shots to come out with the win,” Jenkyns said
The St. Albert squad is oozing with quiet confidence on the eve of the big bonspiel.
“Overall, we’re feeling pretty good about it,” Jenkyns said. “We’re getting out and practicing because it’s the beginning of the season so finding a time that works for all four of us was the most stressful part in trying to get us all together just to throw some rocks before the event. It’s helped put our minds at ease just by working on a couple of things that have been bugging all of us, like our own throws over the past couple of weeks.”
The new Curling Canada sweeping regulations are in effect for provincials and curlers are required to use same broom head.
“Each curling club can kind of decide (about broom heads) and our curling club had said whatever you have is fine but Travelers said you do need the new broom head so we just picked those up and have been sweeping a few rocks with them,” Jenkyns said. “It feels a little bit different but nothing crazy. I mean we’re still sweeping and it’s still the same mechanics.”
In league play the foursome are 3-0 on Wednesday nights, in addition to curling with other rinks in different leagues.
“We’re looking pretty good right now,” said Jenkyns, 28, the youngest curler on the rink.
The 2016 President’s Cup marked the 10th in a row for Piper and Conrad, the fifth for Jenkyns and the third for Bobowik in the women’s ranks and as the St. Albert reps at the Edmonton and area Tournament of Champions they reached the semifinals at the Lancaster club to finish 2-2.
“We’re a competitive team. We do our best to make all of our shots and we don’t mind playing with rocks in play either. It’s also nice to throw a few ends open so we kind of do a bit of everything,” said Jenkyns, the 2015 finalist and 2014 winner at the Tournament of Champions.
