Ride of a lifetime for Winters & Company
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr
The Nelson Daily Sports
The rollercoaster ride for Jill Winters & Company ended on a high Sunday night at the Summerland Curling Club.
The West Kootenay rink held off a late charge by Karla Thompson to edge the Kamloops rink 7-6 in the C Final at the Interior Women’s Curling Championships.
Winters, third Samantha Almquist of Trail, second Natalie Nowicki of Rossland and lead Heather Nichol of Castlegar now advance as one of the two rinks from the Interiors qualifying for the 2011 Scotties B.C. Women’s Curling Championships in Cloverdale.
“Ya it started to sink in today,” Winters said Monday from her Snowpack Experience store on Baker Street. “We finished about 8:30 p.m. and jumped in the car and got home about 1:30 a.m. and all went to work so we’re all super tired. But I’ve had a few people come in to congratulate me so it’s pretty neat feeling.”
A-event winner Jenn Fewster of Prince George joins the Winters rink.
The marathon weekend started Friday with the Nelson-based rink posting a pair of wins over Siomne Groundwater and Jerri-Pat Armstrong-Smith.
However, Thompson spoiled the day by blowing past Winters 9-4 in A-event play.
The loss dropped Winters into the B event where the skip started steamrolling the competition winning three straight games Saturday.
Sunday Winters got past Desiree Schmidt of Trail 10-7 by scoring four two enders. That set the stage for Winters to head home early if the rink could oust Thompson in the C Final.
But the Kamloops skip had other things on her mind, bouncing Winters 11-6 to force a B-C Final.
“We totally dropped the ball in that game,” Winters lamented. “Halfway through the game we got down by three points and had to push to get two points but literally fell apart. We went for the steal in nine, let some rocks build up but they ended up getting four to win.”
And the B-C-event game didn’t look good early for Winters. Thompson struck for three in the opening end forcing Winters to play catch-up.
“They got those points in the first end when I nicked a guard,” Winters explained. “But it was no big worry being down that early in the game. We just kept playing a stole two and then one.”
“The ice was really tough to defend a lead on and I think that’s the mode they got into,” Winters added.
After Thompson tied the contest by scoring one in the sixth, Winters struck for a deuce in the seventh before holding off Thompson for the narrow win.
“We really stuck together as a team,” said Winters. “If one players was not curling well, having a bad end or game, the other teammates would pick her up.”
“The last two games I thought I struggling out ther but my team was rocking it,” Winters added.
This is the second time in three years Winters had skipped a team to the B.C. Scott Tournament. That rink included Allison Hurley and Loreen Amonson of Nelson and Lisa Nevakshonoff of Castlegar.
Winters also curled at the provincials in 1998, 2006 and 2007.
The Cloverdale Curling Club hosts the 2011 Scotties B.C. Women’s Curling Championships January 17-23.
sports@thenelsondaily.com
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