The repeat winners for the President's Cup did it without their skip in the mixed final.
Doug McLennan held the broom in the March 12 playoff-opening win against Wilf Gunderson before Colin Jenkyns was promoted from second to call the shots for third Alison Howes, sub Chris Keeler and lead Lauren Jenkyns to defeat Dave Rogers, Doug Clayton and Bryan Connell for the championship.
McLennan spent the rest of the playoff run at the senior 50-plus nationals as the third shooter for the Alberta champion Wade White rink, third-place finishers in Summerside, P.E.I.
“It definitely shows Doug has faith in all of us,” Jenkyns said after Friday’s 9-2 finale in front of a full house at the St. Albert Curling Club. “He had to pass on the reins to us to take care of business while he was off at seniors and things took off right where they started and we were successful.”
Jenkyns has filled in for McLennan before – the team’s only loss last year on St. Albert ice was with McLennan on holidays – and he also skips a young playoff-calibre men’s line-up in the Tuesday men’s league.
“We’re a little more used to me calling the game now. Doug was away a couple of times this year, plus I’ve had that experience of skipping in the men’s league here as well. I’ve had a little more opportunity of seeing things from the skip’s perspective so that has definitely helped out,” Jenkyns said.
It’s the sixth President’s Cup in seven years for the McLennan foursome, winners of four in a row until Gunderson took them to the cleaners with back-to-back victories in the double-knockout final.
“It’s definitely wonderful to win it more than once. We’ve got such a great group of guys and gals on our team and every win is something special for us,” Jenkyns said.
With McLennan back in the fold, they will represent St. Albert at the 50th annual Edmonton and area Tournament of Champions, April 8 to 17 at the Saville Community Sports Centre. Last year in the 12-team double knockout tournament the 2010 cities champions finished 1-2 and were eliminated in the B bracket with a semifinal berth at stake.
“We definitely wanted to get back to cities after last year. Hopefully we can keep playing as well as we are and good things will happen,” Jenkyns said. “You definitely have to be on the top of your game at cities. You’re playing the best of every club. Some teams are stronger at certain things than others but there are no weak teams there so it just pushes you that much more to come out and play your A game.”
Jenkyn’s crew came out firing against Connell in Friday’s A-B final and counted three in the first end, then stole one in two and a deuce in three.
Connell stopped the bleeding by scoring one in four and stole a point in five before Jenkyns spilled the house with his last shot in six for three and the handshakes started.
“We opened up with a strong three ender in the first and we were able to build on it from there. We were lucky enough to get a few breaks our way and it all worked out in the end for us,” Jenkyns said.
Connell, his wife Tara and Kurtis and Lindsay Schultz never recovered from the slow start.
“We put ourselves in a hole and it got worse from there,” Connell said. “We had a pick and then a flash and we were down three after one. After that we really struggled with the ice. On this ice (sheet three) it doesn’t curl and it’s hard to make a comeback on it.”
Last year, with Derek Skarban and Sharon Monk filling in as front-end subs for the Connells, they lost the A-B final 6-2 in seven ends to McLennan.
“Last year we rattled off a bunch of wins to get to the final and that’s basically what we did this year,” said Connell, who rebounded from a 9-2 loss to Clayton in the playoff lid-lifter with victories against Rogers, Rick Jenkyns and then Clayton in the B final. “With this one (A-B final) we weren’t gelling tonight. It wasn’t there. We thought we would play better because each game prior to the final we started playing better and better.”
Clayton’s veteran rink gave the President’s Cup champions a big scare in the A final.
“That went right down to pretty much the end and we were able to sneak one out and that put us in this game,” Jenkyns said.
Going into the playoffs McLennan lost more games than normal but was still the top aggregate A team in the Thursday league. Connell was the Thursday A section winner.
“We lost a few, which just speaks to the competition here at the St. Albert Curling Club on Thursday especially,” Jenkyns said. “We definitely have lots of talent here and it’s only improved over the years. It definitely pushes us harder to continue our success and this year it really pushed us to be that much stronger to get back to cities.”
HOG LINES: Friday in the Manager’s Cup mixed final, Dave Klatchuk beat Brad Haggith in seven ends.
The men’s and women’s President’s and Manager’s Cup finals were played Tuesday, but scores were unavailable at press time.
