The latest in a long line of President’s Cups for the Lauren Jenkyns’ rink was decided before the last playoff game.
The St. Albert Curing Club’s revamped draw for the women’s playoffs consisted of a four-team round robin instead of the traditional double-knockout format involving a larger pool of teams.
If needed, the tiebreaker was the draw to the button scores for each team.
Jenkyns was already guaranteed the championship crown with two wins before playing Jackie Rae Greening on Wednesday night.
“It was kind of anticlimactic because we knew we had won before this game so we just played a fun four-end game,” said Jenkyns, who downed Susan Kwak 10-4 in seven ends in last year’s A-B final.
“I’m a little wishy washy about the pool format. If there was a three-way tie you’re whole season could come down to the draw to the button, which would be tough to swallow if you don’t win,” Jenkyns added. “Everything seems to be moving towards the pools nowadays so it’s just a matter of getting used to it.”
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the team picture.
This year’s President’s Cup is the sixth for Jenkyns, the 11th in a row for what is believed to be a club record for third Kathy Piper and second Laurie Conrad, plus a handful for Christina Monk, the team’s former skip who rejoined the lineup this season at lead.
“I’m happy with how the team played this season. I’m proud of the girls,” Jenkyns said of the Wednesday night foursome. “We played great as a unit and when we’re having a tough time we pull together and pull up that person that might be struggling a bit but overall we did pretty good.”
On tap next for Jenkyns is the Northern Travelers Club Championship this weekend in Sherwood Park to determine the northern reps at the Alberta Travelers in October at the Avonair.
Jenkyns qualified for the Northern Travelers as the 2016 club champion and will represent St. Albert at next year’s competition.
The third Alberta Travelers in four years for Jenkyns, Piper and Conrad – the 2013 provincial champions – was last year's 0-2 showing in Grande Prairie.
Jenkyns will also wear the club colours at the 54th annual Edmonton and area Tournament of Champions, April 7 to 12 at Ellerslie.
“It’s very exciting. We’re just going in with an open mind and try our best and hope to come out on top,” said the 2014 champion, 2015 finalist and 2016 semifinalist. “You never know what will happen so we’re hoping to do a little bit better than last year.
“It's also going to be interesting juggling schedules because cities is the same time as the men’s worlds (April 1 to 9 at Northlands Coliseum) and we’re all pretty involved in volunteering for that so hopefully we can juggle a few things to make it work out.”
Wednesday’s 8:45 p.m. playoff start was the second in three days for Jenkyns in the round robin after a taxing weekend of bonspieling in Jasper as the A-event semifinalists.
“We’re all pretty exhausted. Not a ton of sleep on the weekend and then having to get up early to go to work was tough but it’s OK because we’re used to it,” said Jenkyns, who out-scored Greening by two points after giving up a three in the opening end. “We just did what we could and we played our game.”
