Homan, Jones headline strong field at Scotties

SYDNEY, N.S. — Jennifer Jones is back at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts on an exemption as Team Canada. Rachel Homan had a guaranteed spot, too, before locking up the Ontario berth.

Both teams had players at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, which weakened the field at last year’s national women’s curling championship.

There are no Olympic conflicts this time around and the Scotties field is more robust as a result.

Homan and Jones headline an entry list that includes the top seven teams in the Canadian rankings.

“You have your favourites,” said Manitoba skip Tracy Fleury. “Homan is always tough, Jones is always tough, of course. But then there’s a lot of other teams, too, that if they get hot in that week, they can definitely win it, too.

“So I really think anything can happen.”

Competition begins tonight at Centre 200 as Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., meets Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta., in the wild-card game. Preliminary round-robin play begins Saturday.

Homan is the clear No. 1 this season after three Grand Slam victories and a World Cup win. Einarson is next followed by Jones, Alberta’s Chelsea Carey, Fleury, Scheidegger and seventh-ranked Robyn Silvernagle of Saskatchewan.

“It’s the strongest (field) I can remember in a long time,” said Carey. “I think the addition of a wild-card team immediately makes it stronger than it used to be.

“There really weren’t any major upsets in any provincial championships and typically there is at least one. It’s going to be a great field.”

Other teams include British Columbia’s Sarah Wark, Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville, Nova Scotia’s Jill Brothers, Quebec’s Gabrielle Lavoie, Nunavut’s Jenine Bodner, Suzanne Birt of P.E.I., Kerry Galusha of the Northwest Territories, New Brunswick’s Andrea Crawford, Yukon’s Nicole Baldwin and Kelli Sharpe of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Curling Canada created an exemption last spring to allow Jones to come back as defending champion despite having only two returning members, one short of the minimum.