It wasn’t easy, but in the end Yorkton’s Steve Laycock managed to quell the uprising of fellow Nutana Curling Club member Jason Jacobson, downing his former teammate 8-7 in the final of the 2015 SaskTel Tankard to win his second consecutive Saskatchewan provincial championship as a skip and fifth in total.
“We knew that they would be a tough team,” offered Laycock on his final round opponent. “They have been playing fantastic all week and the one thing we were kind of hoping for was the fact that they had played 10 games and that if we could get an early lead that we could take control early.”
That wasn’t the case as Team Jacobson made a wonderful hit and roll in the first end to allow Laycock to score just one. “When Jason made that hit and roll in the first we knew it was game on because we knew we weren’t going to get an early deuce and they were going to be battling.”
Battle they did as Jacobson, after a blank in the second, took the lead with a deuce in the third end before stealing one in the fourth to go up 3-1.
A Laycock deuce in the fifth drew the game even for the moment, however the plucky Jacobson quickly responded with two of his own in the sixth to regain the two point advantage and put the pressure squarely on the shoulders of the defending champions. “The first half they were all over us,” mentioned Laycock. “They showed why they made it to the final and they really played well.”
The seventh end saw Laycock leapfrog Jacobson and retake the lead after Jacobson’s final rock picked, which left Laycock lying two with the chance to score three; a chance he did not let fall by the wayside as his final rock stopped just in time to give him a 6-5 lead after seven ends.
A single by Jacobson in the eighth end once again tied the game.
Jacobson then moved ahead of Laycock thanks to Laycock’s final stone in the ninth end being too heavy, resulting in a steal of one for Jacobson and a 7-6 lead heading into the final end.
The 10th end saw Laycock put the pressure on Jacobson early, forcing the Saskatoon based skip’s hand, forcing him to continually attempt takeout shots in a desperate attempt to keep Laycock from scoring more than one.
And he was mostly successful at it too, constantly knocking Laycock’s red stones out of the house to preserve his one point lead until his final shot of the game where Jacobson’s only mistake of the night led to him narrowly missing the double takeout, giving Laycock a chance to draw for two points and the win.
Laycock did not fail to capitalize on the opportunity, keeping his adrenaline and emotions at bay long enough to send his final rock down the ice and have it rest in the back four for a deuce and his second consecutive SaskTel Tankard victory. “We decided to play down the centre part of the ice,” the winning skip said of his final stone. “It was a little slower there and if I did get some curl it was going to be up to our stone. Turns out I needed it.
“I threw it a little harder than I wanted and it still stopped in there perfectly.”
The 8-7 win clinches Laycock’s second straight SaskTel Tankard victory and sends the Nutana Curling Club based rink to the Brier for the second year in a row. “We’re really excited for another opportunity,” offered Laycock, continuing, “We finished just a game short of the playoffs last year so to get that chance again to go one step further or maybe a couple of steps further would be fantastic.”
But Laycock knows it won’t be easy. He is well aware that he’ll be playing some of the top rinks in Canada, which also means some of the top rinks in the world.
However, the former Yorkton resident also feels that their recent experiences have prepared them well for the task that lies ahead. “The experience we get on the Grand Slam tour playing these same teams is going to help us for sure.
“We’ve put ourselves in a position where we’re a top five team in the rankings for this year so hopefully that’s getting us into the conversation for teams that could actually win it and hopefully we can deliver on that.”
For that to happen however, Laycock knows that a couple of things have to take place. “Our level of play needs to be at our potential and we need a few breaks,” suggested Laycock. “We’ve done that for most of the year, taking care of our end of the bargain and playing really well, and we have gotten some breaks, too, so hopefully that continues.”
Laycock’s first game of the 2015 Tim Horton’s Brier will be against Newfoundland and Labrador’s Brad Gushue at 2:30p.m.Saturday, Feb. 28 (1:30p.m. local time) in a rematch of the 2014 Grand Slam of Curling Canadian Open final that saw Gushue edge Laycock 6-5 in front of Laycock’s friends and family in Yorkton.
