Andrea Kelly (curler)

Andrea Kelly (born July 31, 1985), previously known as Andrea Crawford, is a Canadian curler^[2] from Fredericton, New Brunswick.^[3] She currently plays third on the Krista McCarville rink. She is a ten-time New Brunswick Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion skip, winning six straight titles from 2009–2014.

Andrea Kelly
Curler
Other names	Andrea Crawford
Born	Andrea Kelly (1985-07-31) July 31, 1985 (age 38) Perth-Andover, New Brunswick
Team
Curling club	Gage G&CC,^[1] Oromocto, NB
Skip	Krista McCarville
Third	Andrea Kelly
Second	Kendra Lilly
Lead	Ashley Sippala
Alternate	Sarah Potts
Curling career
Member Association	New Brunswick (2002–2014; 2018–2023)  Alberta (2014)  Germany (2016–17)  Northern Ontario (2023–present)
Hearts appearances	12 (2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024)
Top CTRS ranking	12th (2022–23)
Medal record Women's Curling Representing  Canada World Junior Championships 2005 Pinerolo Representing  New Brunswick Scotties Tournament of Hearts 2022 Thunder Bay Canada Winter Games 2003 Bathurst

Career

Juniors

Kelly's first national experience came at the 2002 Canadian Junior Curling Championships, where she would represent New Brunswick. Her team would finish round robin with a 6–6 record and a seventh-place finish.^[4]

Although Kelly would not win the New Brunswick junior championship in 2003, she would attend the 2003 Canada Winter Games, where she won a bronze medal.

Kelly would return to the Canadian Junior Curling Championships in 2004, where her team would improve on their previous record. They would finish round robin in third place with a 9–3 record. She would face Quebec's Marie Cantin in the semifinal, and after a close game would lose 6–5, and take home the bronze medal.^[5]

Kelly and her team would repeat as New Brunswick champions in 2005, and again at the 2005 Canadian Junior Curling Championships she would finish round robin third with a 9–3 record. Her team would again meet Quebec and Cantin in the semifinal, this time defeating them 7–5. They would face Alberta's Desirée Robertson in the final, where they would win the game and the gold medal with a 9–6 final.^[6] At the 2005 World Junior Curling Championships, Kelly skipped Team Canada to a bronze medal. In 2006, she was still eligible for Juniors, however she lost in her provincial championships.

2006–2011

After losing the junior provincial, Kelly entered the 2006 New Brunswick Scott Tournament of Hearts, where her team would finish round robin with a first place 6–1 record, receiving a bye to the final. She would meet veteran Heidi Hanlon in the final, where the team would win 8–7 and the right to represent New Brunswick at the 2006 Scott Tournament of Hearts. At the Hearts, the team finished round robin with a 5–6 record.^[7]

At the 2009 New Brunswick Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Kelly and her team would finish round robin undefeated, with a 7–0 record. She would defeat Mary Jane McGuire in the final to win her second Scotties title. At the 2009 Scotties Tournament of Hearts the team would again finish round robin with a 5–6 record.^[8]

At the 2010 New Brunswick Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Kelly would again repeat with an undefeated, 7–0 record in round robin play. She would face Ashley Howard in the final, and was again victorious winning 8–5. At the 2010 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Crawford, for a third straight appearance, would finish round robin with a 5-6 record.^[9]

Kelly qualified for the 2011 New Brunswick Scotties Tournament of Hearts, and for a third consecutive year, finished the round robin undefeated with a 7–0 record. She faced Sylvie Robichaud in the final, and with a clean sweep won 7–2. At the 2011 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Kelly had her worst showing to date, finishing round robin play with a 3–8 record.^[10]

2011–2014

Following the 2010–11 season, Kelly made significant team changes. She parted ways with longtime teammates, third Denise Nowlan and lead Lianne Sobey, bringing former second and alternate Jodie deSolla as her new lead, and in a new move added Rebecca Atkinson to skip the team. Although Atkinson became the new skip, Kelly continued to throw fourth stones. This combination worked for the squad, and the team finished in first place in the round robin, with a 6–1 record at the 2012 New Brunswick Scotties Tournament of Hearts. They defeated Mary Jane McGuire in the final, and for the fourth year in a row, Kelly represented New Brunswick at the 2012 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. The team struggled for the fourth time at a Scotties, and Kelly finished round robin play with a 5–6 record.

Kelly returned to skipping her team for the 2012–13 season and added Danielle Parsons to the second position. Her team again went undefeated at the 2013 New Brunswick Scotties Tournament of Hearts, where they won the event by defeating Melissa Adams 13–6 in the final. At the 2013 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Kelly led her rink to the best finish of her career with a 6–5 record, which was still not good enough for the playoffs. At the 2014 New Brunswick Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Crawford lost one game en route to winning her seventh provincial title. At the 2014 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, she just missed the playoffs again, finishing 6–5.

2014–2023

In April 2014, it was announced that Kelly would be joining the Edmonton, Alberta-based Val Sweeting rink as her third. On October 28, Kelly left Team Sweeting to return to New Brunswick to deal with "personal issues".^[11] She was replaced by Lori Olson-Johns.^[12]

After leaving team Sweeting, Kelly did not curl competitively until the 2016–17 season, when she played for the Andrea Schöpp while living in Germany.^[13] That arrangement lasted just one season, with Kelly taking another season off before returning in 2018–19. Kelly won her first New Brunswick Scotties upon her return in 2019, with teammates Jillian Babin, Jennifer Armstrong and Katie Forward. The team represented New Brunswick at the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, where they finished with a 3–4 record.

To start the 2019–20 season, Team Crawford won their first two events, the Steele Cup Cash and the Atlantic Superstore Monctonian Challenge. They played in a Grand Slam event, the 2019 Tour Challenge Tier 2. After a 2–2 round robin record, they lost the tiebreaker to Jestyn Murphy. The team defended their provincial title by winning the 2020 New Brunswick Scotties Tournament of Hearts in late January 2020. At the Hearts, the Crawford rink started with three losses before rallying off four wins in a row including scoring a seven ender against top-seeded Manitoba's Kerri Einarson rink to win 13–7 and defeating Team Canada (skipped by Chelsea Carey) 7–5.^[14][15] Their 4–3 round robin record qualified them for the tiebreaker against Saskatchewan's Robyn Silvernagle rink. Saskatchewan took two in the extra end for a 9–7 victory, eliminating New Brunswick from contention. The team announced on June 18, 2020 that they would be adding Sylvie Quillian to the team at third, replacing Jennifer Armstrong who was moving to Saskatchewan.^[16]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New Brunswick, the 2021 provincial championship was cancelled. As the reigning provincial champions, Team Crawford was given the invitation to represent New Brunswick at the 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, but they declined due to work and family commitments.^[17] Team Melissa Adams was then invited in their place, which they accepted.^[18]

Team Crawford played in five tour events during the 2021–22 season, performing well in all of them. In their first event, The Curling Store Cashspiel, the team reached the final where they lost to Nova Scotia's Christina Black upon giving up a stolen victory.^[19] They then lost in the final of the Steele Cup Cash two weeks later to the Melodie Forsythe rink.^[20] They would then secure two victories in their next two events, going undefeated to claim the titles of the Dave Jones Stanhope Simpson Insurance Mayflower Cashspiel and the Atlantic Superstore Monctonian Challenge.^[21] The team then had a semifinal finish at the Stu Sells 1824 Halifax Classic, dropping the semifinal game to Switzerland's Corrie Hürlimann.^[22]

The 2022 New Brunswick Scotties Tournament of Hearts was cancelled due to the pandemic and Team Crawford were selected to represent their province at the 2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ontario.^[23] At the Hearts, the team began the event with five straight wins, the most consecutive wins to start a Tournament of Hearts of any New Brunswick team. Team Crawford finished the round robin with a 6–2 record, qualifying for the playoff round over higher seeded teams such as Wild Card #2 (Chelsea Carey), Wild Card #3 (Emma Miskew) and Saskatchewan's Penny Barker.^[24] They then defeated the Northwest Territories' Kerry Galusha in the knockout round and upset Team Canada's Kerri Einarson to reach the 1 vs. 2 page playoff game, becoming the first New Brunswick team to reach the playoffs since Heidi Hanlon in 1991.^[25] They then lost to Northern Ontario's Krista McCarville in the 1 vs. 2 game and Canada's Einarson rink in the semifinal, earning the bronze medal from the event.^[26] After the event, the team announced they would be parting ways with second Jillian Babin due to her relocation to Ontario.^[27] They then announced on March 4, 2022 that Jill Brothers would be joining them as their new second.^[28]

With the 2022 PointsBet Invitational being held in Fredericton, Team Kelly qualified as the host team. In the first round, they lost to Jennifer Jones 9–5 and were eliminated.^[29] On tour, the team qualified for the playoffs in all six events they played in, however, did not win any titles. They began with back-to-back quarterfinal appearances at the 2022 Stu Sells Toronto Tankard and the 2022 Tour Challenge Tier 2 Slam event. They then reached two consecutive semifinals at the Lady Monctonian and the 2022 Stu Sells 1824 Halifax Classic.^[30] In November, they went undefeated at the Jim Sullivan Curling Classic until the final where they lost to Suzanne Birt.^[31] They then reached the quarterfinals of the DeKalb Superspiel. In the new year, the team continued their dominance in New Brunswick, going undefeated through the prelim and provincial championship to win the 2023 New Brunswick Scotties Tournament of Hearts.^[32] In the final, they beat Abby Burgess 10–5.^[33] This qualified them for the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Kamloops, British Columbia. After much success in 2022, the team finished seventh in their pool at the Hearts with a 3–5 record, only managing wins against Wild Card #2, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Yukon.^[34] After the Scotties, Kelly announced she would be leaving the team to join the Krista McCarville rink out of Northern Ontario as their new third.^[35]

2023–present

Kelly's new team had immediate success together, winning the 2023 KW Fall Classic by defeating Scotland's Rebecca Morrison.^[36] They also had a quarterfinal finish at the North Grenville Women's Fall Curling Classic, losing out to Hailey Armstrong. In the new year, the team easily won the 2024 Northern Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts, going undefeated to claim the title.^[37] At the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Calgary, the team had mixed results. Sitting 4–3 heading into their last round robin game, they lost to Manitoba's Kaitlyn Lawes 6–5. This created a five-way tie for third with Lawes, British Columbia, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. With tiebreaker games abolished and the first tiebreaker (which was head-to-head between all tied teams) tied as well at 2–2, cumulative last stone draw distance between all the teams was used to decide who would make the playoffs. The McCarville rink finished with a total of 370.3 but would miss the playoffs as the Lawes rink finished first with a 231.6.^[38]

Kelly was recruited by Tyler Tardi to play at the 2024 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship after his regular partner, Rachel Homan couldn't play due to representing Canada at the 2024 World Women's Curling Championship. There, the twosome finished pool play with a 5–2 record.^[39] In the playoffs, the team lost in the qualification game against the husband-wife duo of Aaron and Amanda Sluchinski of Alberta.

Personal life

Kelly works as a labour relations officer for the Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services. She has one daughter.^[40]

Grand Slam record

Key
C	Champion
F	Lost in Final
SF	Lost in Semifinal
QF	Lost in Quarterfinals
R16	Lost in the round of 16
Q	Did not advance to playoffs
T2	Played in Tier 2 event
DNP	Did not participate in event
N/A	Not a Grand Slam event that season

Event	2019–20	2020–21	2021–22	2022–23
Tour Challenge	T2	N/A	N/A	T2

Former events

Event	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10	2010–11	2011–12	2012–13	2013–14	2014–15
Autumn Gold	Q	Q	DNP	Q	Q	DNP	Q	DNP	Q
Manitoba Lotteries	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	Q	N/A
Sobeys Slam	N/A	SF	Q	N/A	Q	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

References

1. Andrea Kelly
2. "Andrea Kelly still class of junior curling worlds". CBC Sports. 6 March 2005. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
3. "2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts Media Guide" (PDF). Curling Canada. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
4. http://cdn.curling.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Juniors_Women_2002.pdf?e81271 ^{[permanent dead link]}
5. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-06. Retrieved 2012-06-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
6. http://cdn.curling.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Juniors_Women_2005.pdf?e81271 ^{[permanent dead link]}
7. "2006 Scott Tournament of Hearts". Curling Canada. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
8. http://cdn.curling.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/2009_Scotties_Tournament_of_Hearts.pdf?e81271 ^{[permanent dead link]}
9. http://cdn.curling.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/2010-Scotties-Tournament-of-Hearts.pdf?e81271 ^{[permanent dead link]}
10. http://cdn.curling.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/2011_Scotties_Tournament_of_Hearts.pdf?e81271 ^{[permanent dead link]}
11. "After Val Sweeting loses two thirds in two weeks, Lori Olson-Johns jumps into the breach | Edmonton Sun". 2014-11-06.
12. . October 28, 2014. Archived from the original on October 31, 2014. Retrieved November 2, 2014.
13. . Archived from the original on 2019-02-09.
14. "New Brunswick's Crawford makes history with 7 point end at Scotties". CBC Sports. February 18, 2020. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
15. Horne, Ryan (18 February 2020). "New Brunswick sets Scotties record with seven-ender against top-seed Manitoba". TSN. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
16. "Team Crawford Team Announcement". Facebook. June 18, 2020. Archived from the original on 2022-02-26. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
17. "What's the status of Canada's provincial and territorial curling playdowns?". TSN. December 4, 2020. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
18. Team Comeau (January 20, 2021). "Team Adams representing New Brunswick at the 2021 Scotties in Calgary". Facebook. Archived from the original on 2022-02-26. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
19. "Curling tours recap!". Curling Canada. September 27, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
20. "Congratulations to Team Forsythe and Team Grattan for winning this years Steele Cup! Thank you to all the teams who travelled near and far to come and for following all the extra protocols put in place. An extra special thank you to Steele GMC Buick Fredericton for sponsoring again this year!". Facebook. Capital Winter Club. October 11, 2021. Archived from the original on 2022-02-26. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
21. "Team Andrea Crawford". CurlingZone. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
22. George Myrer (November 14, 2021). "Stuart Thompson, Suzanne Birt win Stu Sells curling titles". Saltwire. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
23. "Crawford to represent New Brunswick at Scotties". CurlingZone. January 14, 2022. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
24. "A helping hand!". Curling Canada. February 3, 2022. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
25. Jim Morris (February 6, 2022). "Einarson, Team Canada defeat New Brunswick's Crawford, advance to Scotties final". CTV News Winnipeg. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
26. "Team Canada eyes three-peat!". Curling Canada. February 6, 2022. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
27. "After a great season and many great years together, we are sad to be losing our second, Jillian Babin". Facebook. Team Kelly. February 23, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
28. "We are very excited to share that Jillian Brothers will be joining our lineup at the second position!". Facebook. Team Kelly. March 4, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
29. "One win in the bank!". Curling Canada. September 21, 2022. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
30. "Epping, Lawes win 1824 Halifax Classic". TSN. November 15, 2022. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
31. "Birt wins Jim Sullivan Curling Classic". CurlingZone. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
32. "Kelly defends New Brunswick Scotties title". CurlingZone. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
33. Video (full game): 2023 New Brunswick Scotties – Final – Andrea Kelly (Fredericton) vs Abby Burgess (Oromocto) on YouTube
34. "Jones eyes record book!". Curling Canada. February 23, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
35. Rory Summer (March 27, 2023). "9-time N.B. provincial champion Andrea Kelly links up with Team McCarville". CBC Sports. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
36. "McCarville wins with new teammate Kelly while Tirinzoni continues dominance". TSN. September 17, 2023. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
37. Leith Dunick (January 28, 2024). "New-look McCarville team returning to the Scotties". TB News Watch. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
38. "Lawes Lobbies Back!". Curling Canada. February 22, 2024. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
39. "Jones, Laing Out Of Doubles Curling Playoffs". Sports Illustrated. The Curling News. March 21, 2024. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
40. "2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts Media Guide" (PDF). Curling Canada. Retrieved January 26, 2022.

External links

• Andrea Kelly at World Curling