The fifth President’s Cup in six years by the Doug McLennan rink was worth the wait.
Last year the McLennan foursome failed to defend their 2010 Edmonton and area Tournament of Champions title after Wilf Gunderson derailed their playoff quest with back-to-back victories in the double knockout draw in the St. Albert Curling Club finals.
The perennial championship contenders are back on track this year after polishing off Bryan Connell 6-2 in Tuesday’s A-B final.
“It definitely feels nice to get back to the cities,” said second thrower Colin Jenkyns. “We want to win cities again, especially since we didn’t make it there last year.”
The 12-team draw starts April 10 at the Jasper Place Curling Club.
Last year’s playoff upset by Gunderson marked the first time McLennan’s team lost two games in a row. It also ended a four-year championship run that started after McLennan lost the 2006 club final to Warren Sadoway.
The rock solid line-up of Alison Howes at third and Jenkyn’s sister, Lauren, at lead finished the playoffs with a perfect 4-0 record. They survived a close call in the semifinal against a red-hot Sadoway, stealing one in the extra end to win 4-3.
“We’re just a bunch of friends out there having fun,” Jenkyns said. “We know each other fairly well so we’re a little more relaxed than perhaps some of the other teams. We also have open communication and that always helps.”
The club champions lost only once this season when McLennan was vacationing in Arizona and Jenkyns was promoted to skip in a game against Tony Germsheid.
“I don’t think Doug will ever let me skip again,” Jenkyns said.
Tuesday’s playoff tilt featured the top rinks in the Thursday night league.
“It was definitely nice to see an all Thursday night mixed final. It shows the talent we have in the Thursday night league,” Jenkyns said. “Bryan and his team definitely played a strong game against us.”
In the first end Connell counted one with the hammer and McLennan tied the score in the next end.
After a steal of two by McLennan, Connell was held to one in four.
“We were chasing them the rest of the way,” Connell said.
McLennan blanked the fifth end and in six settled for two after his draw attempt for three ground to a halt in front of the rings despite valiant sweeping by the Jenkyns duo.
The teams shook hands after a steal of one by McLennan in seven.
“It wasn’t the best outing by us but we managed to be consistent enough to pull it off,” Jenkyns said. “The turning point was our ability capitalize on a few deuces, otherwise it was a battle of the singles. Once we were able to crack a deuce or two it gave us some breathing room.”
Connell said his rink ran out of gas in their sixth playoff game.
“We just didn’t have it today. We just couldn’t make anything happen. Our luck ran out,” he said.
Connell and his wife, Tara, recruited Derek Skarban and Sharon Monk to fill in for their team’s rotating front-end tandems of Neal and Linda Connell and Ted and Karen McFarland. They were unavailable because of vacation commitments.
The re-jigged roster pulled off big wins against Gunderson in the opening draw and Doug Clayton and Sadoway in the B bracket. Clayton eliminated Gunderson before falling to Connell. Sadoway suffered the same fate against the young skip in the B final.
“Winning for us was just to make it to the final,” Connell said. “We played a lot of good teams to get here. We seemed to eke out a lot of last-rock wins and extra-end wins so we played really well to get here.”
HOG LINES: The President’s Cup finals in the men’s and women’s playoffs go Thursday at 6:30 p.m. If a tiebreaker is needed in the double knockout format, it will be played Friday at 6:30 p.m. The winners advance to the Tournament of Champions.
