Draw Nine

This was absolutely the best draw so far—too bad it wasn’t televised. But I felt extremely lucky to be there. On our sheet was what would have been the feature game: the battle of the Joneses. Colleen was ahead early with two steals, and Jenn was a little down. I was continually impressed with the whole NS team: they were always cool and collected and kind and only Kim was a little hyperactive during games. Once again I was amused and impressed by Colleen as she slowly made her way down the ice to shoot, her hands behind her back, apparently lost in thought.

Jenn fought back with two steals in the 8^th and 9^th, but couldn’t prevent Colleen from counting 2 in the 10^th for the 7-6 win. She left quickly, while the crowd saluted Colleen with rousing applause as she glided up the ice to retrieve her water bottle. She smiled and nodded to the crowd and raised her hand in acknowledgement saying ‘thank you, thank you’ all the way down. She was the only skip I saw do that all week. But then, she got the most applause of all.

Jennifer Jones looked unsettled all game—the broadcasters called it earlier in the week when they said she looked uncomfortable. For someone who is crazy about curling, she certainly did look uncomfortable. She seemed to be lacking confidence. I felt that they were only getting through most games by the skin of their teeth (or the craziness of her shots) and wouldn’t really have a chance on the weekend. And so I started looking for a new favourite… Newfoundland was coming to mind. I just can’t warm up to BC, who will obviously be there in the playoffs and who I imagine will win it all.

All the other games were nail-biters too. On sheet A, NWT again came close to a win but I was happy to see Strong's Newfoundlanders prevail. On Sheet B, Manitoba won over and on C a high-scoring affair saw King’s team defeat Quebec. On every sheet it came down to the last shot of the 10^th end, and the spectators definitely were thrilled and rewarded for arriving early.