| Jennifer Jones | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 7, 1974 Winnipeg, Manitoba |
| Team | |
| Curling club | St. Vital Curling Club, Winnipeg |
| Skip | Jennifer Jones |
| Third | Kaitlyn Lawes |
| Second | Jill Officer |
| Lead | Dawn Askin |
| Alternate | Jennifer Clark-Rouire |
| Career | |
| Hearts appearances | 8 (2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011) |
| Top CCA ranking | 1st (2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2009-10, 2010-11) |
| Grand Slam victories | 7: (Autumn Gold, 2007, 2009; Wayden Transportation, 2008; Players' Championships, 2007, 2009, 2011; Sobeys Slam (2010) |
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Curling | ||
| World Championships | ||
| Gold | 2008 Vernon | |
| Bronze | 2010 Swift Current | |
| Scotties Tournament of Hearts | ||
| Gold | 2010 Sault Ste. Marie | |
| Gold | 2009 Victoria | |
| Gold | 2008 Regina | |
| Gold | 2005 St. John's | |
| Silver | 2011 Charlottetown | |
| Silver | 2006 London | |
| Bronze | 2007 Lethbridge | |
Jennifer Jones (born July 7, 1974 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian curler from East St. Paul, Manitoba. Jones, a lawyer, is corporate counsel for Wellington West Capital and a Windsor Park Collegiate graduate.
Contents |
After finishing 8–4 at the 1993 Canadian Junior championships, Jones went on to win the 1994 Canadian Junior championships. This would have ordinarily meant a berth in the following year's World Junior Championships, but a change in the ruling forced her to play in a playoff the following year for the right to attend, which she lost. In 2002, Jones won the Manitoba women's curling championship and the right to go to the 2002 Scott Tournament of Hearts, where she finished with an 8–4 record.
Jones would return to the Scott at the 2005 Scott Tournament of Hearts, which she won by defeating Team Ontario, skipped by Jenn Hanna in the championship game. Jones faced an extremely difficult shot to win, having to hit a rock outside of the house and roll to the button taking out an Ontario rock. Had she missed, she would have lost both the game and the tournament. The shot was perfect, scoring 4 points with her final stone and winning the game. Revered by Canadian sports media and admiring curling fans, Jones' accomplishment under pressure was quickly dubbed "The Shot", and, in the following weeks, became the source of talk and of attempts by novice curlers to repeat the feat in curling clubs across the country. The team's win qualified them for the 2005 World Women's Curling Championship in Paisley, Scotland. The worlds were a disappointing tournament for her and her team, where they struggled constantly with poor ice conditions. They were knocked out of the playoffs in the 3–4 game against Dordi Nordby and her Norway rink.
In the off-season, Jones replaced Gauthier at lead with 2002 Olympic bronze medalist Georgina Wheatcroft. This was done in part to boost the team's chances at the Olympic trials in December 2005. However, the team finished a disappointing 5–4 and out of the playoffs.
Because Jones had won the 2005 Scott Tournament of Hearts, she got to return to the 2006 Scott Tournament of Hearts as Team Canada. At the Hearts that year, she managed to defeat Colleen Jones's Nova Scotia rink in the semi-final before losing to Kelly Scott of British Columbia in the final.
In 2006, Wheatcroft moved back to her home of British Columbia to play with her former skip, Kelley Law. She was replaced by Dana Allerton. Midway through the season however, she was dropped in favour of Janet Arnott just before the provincial playdowns. Jones was criticized within the curling community for this move.
Jones won another provincial championship in 2007, earning her a berth at the 2007 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Jones made the playoffs again, but lost to Kelly Scott again- this time in the semi-final.
Later on in the year, Jones switched leads again, gaining Dawn Askin who had moved from Ottawa from Jenn Hanna's rink. Jones won her first Canada Cup of Curling on March 17, 2007.
After a bittersweet 2009/2010 curling season in which Jennifer Jones' rink won the 2010 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, took bronze in the 2010 Ford World Women's Curling Championship, and lost out in the 2010 Players' Championships, the team decided to replace third Cathy Overton-Clapham, replacing her with the younger Kaitlyn Lawes in time for the 2010/2011 curling season. Clapham said in a recent interview that she was blindsided by the team and the team could not look in her eyes to tell her so she knew something similar to this was being stirred up.
In the 2007/2008 curling season Jones celebrated several successes including winning the 2007 Autumn Gold Grand Slam as well as the 2008 Manitoba provincial championship.
Winning the 2008 Manitoba provincial championship qualified her to represent the province at the 2008 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Regina, Saskatchewan. Jones got off to a slow start, having just a 3–4 record to start off the week, but rebounded to make it to the tiebreaker where she defeated Newfoundland and Labrador's Heather Strong by a score of 6–3.
In the 3–4 playoff game, Jones edged Québec skip Marie-France Larouche with a score of 6–5. She advanced to the semi-finals, where she defeated Ontario's Sherry Middaugh 9–8 by stealing a point in the extra end. In the final, Jones faced Alberta's Shannon Kleibrink.
With Jones leading 5–4 without hammer, Kleibrink managed to fill the house, but an excellent draw to the four foot behind cover by Jones forced Kleibrink to try a tricky runback of a Manitoba stone just outside the 12 foot to win. The raised stone jammed on Jones' last draw and Manitoba managed to steal a single point for the 6–4 victory.
At the 2008 World Women's Curling Championship in Vernon, British Columbia, Jones defeated China to capture her first World Championship by a score of 7–4. Jones finished the week with an overall record of 11–3.[1]
In 2009, Jennifer Jones and her Team Canada went on and won gold at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. They defeated the BC team 8–5 with a big 2 point steal in the 6th end. The win at the Scotties sent the Jones rink back to the World Championship. But as in 2005, the outcome was disappointing. Jones was defeated in the bronze medal game by Angelina Jensen from Denmark.[2] She ended the season by winning her third Players' Championship.
Jones began her season with the 2009 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, there the team performed poorly and finished with a record of 2–5 and out of the playoffs.[3]
Jennifer Jones and team again returned to the Scotties as defending champions, Team Canada. In round robin play the team managed to finish tied for first but second overall to upstart PEI with an 8–3 record. The page 1 vs 2 playoff featured PEI facing Jennifer Jones which saw Jones winning and through to the final. PEI would go on to beat Ontario in the semifinal to force a rematch of the 1 vs 2 page playoff. PEI jumped out to a 6–3 by the 6th end, but steals of one in the 7th, 8th, and a steal of two in the 9th saw Team Canada up by one point going into the tenth and final end. PEI would take one point in the 10th, forcing an 11th and final end which Jones won, completing another Scotties comeback, and secured her 3rd consecutive Tournament of Hearts victory and 4th STOH victory in total.[4]
Jones third win in a row put her in the elite company of Vera Pezer and Colleen Jones (no relation to Jennifer) as the only skips to have won 3 Tournament of Hearts in a row. As this was also her 4th win in total she and second Jill Officer became part of a group of 4 to have won 4 Scotties, they joined Vera Pezer and Lee Morrison of Saskatoon. The win was Cathy Overton-Clapham's 5th in total this moved her one off Colleen Jones in the record book and alongside the legendary Joyce McKee of Saskatchewan and Nova Scotians Mary Anne Arsenault, Nancy Delahunt and Kim Kelly.[5]
At the 2010 Ford World Women's Curling Championship, Jones would disappoint once again. After finishing the round robin with a 10-1 record, she lost all her playoff games, except the bronze medal final against Sweden. With that bronze, Jones claimed her second world championship medal in four tries.
Jones has won a career six Grand Slam victories, more than any other female skip. She has won in four different Slams, but one of which is defunct, and she has yet to win the Manitoba Lotteries Women's Curling Classic since it became a Slam event in 2006. However, she did win the event before it became a Slam.
| Event | 2006–07 | 2007–08 | 2008–09 | 2009–10 | 2010–11 | 2011–12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autumn Gold | Q | C | Q | C | SF | Q |
| Manitoba Lotteries | F | F | QF | F | QF | QF |
| Wayden Transportation | QF | Q | C | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Sobeys Slam | N/A | Q | Q | N/A | C | |
| Players' Championships | C | Q | C | QF | C |
Key
| Season | Skip | Third | Second | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992–93 | Jennifer Jones | Trisha Baldwin | Jill Officer | Dana Malanchuk |
| 1993–94 | Jennifer Jones | Trisha Baldwin | Jill Officer | Dana Malanchuk |
| 2001–02 | Jennifer Jones | Karen Porritt | Lynn Fallis-Kurz | Dana Allerton |
| 2003–04 | Jennifer Jones | Karen Porritt | Jill Officer | Lynn Fallis-Kurz |
| 2004–05 | Jennifer Jones | Cathy Overton-Clapham | Jill Officer | Cathy Gauthier |
| 2005–06 | Jennifer Jones | Cathy Overton-Clapham | Jill Officer | Georgina Wheatcroft |
| 2006–07 | Jennifer Jones | Cathy Overton-Clapham | Jill Officer | Dana Allerton / Janet Arnott |
| 2007–08 | Jennifer Jones | Cathy Overton-Clapham | Jill Officer | Dawn Askin |
| 2008–09 | Jennifer Jones | Cathy Overton-Clapham | Jill Officer | Dawn Askin |
| 2009–10 | Jennifer Jones | Cathy Overton-Clapham | Jill Officer | Dawn Askin |
| 2010-11 | Jennifer Jones | Kaitlyn Lawes | Jill Officer | Dawn Askin |
| 2011-12 | Jennifer Jones | Kaitlyn Lawes | Joëlle Sabourin (September-December) Jill Officer (January-April) |
Dawn Askin |
Jones has appeared in Canadian television commercials for Scotties facial tissues, and Capital One credit cards.