Competition hot at Alberta Scotties
SYLVAN LAKE — Cathy Overton-Clapham has seen her fair share of high-level curling action. But even she whistles at the strength of the field in Sylvan Lake this week.
Simply put, the Alberta Scotties lineup is so good, Calgary’s Shannon Kleibrink, who flew Team Canada’s colours at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, didn’t even qualify.
The 44-year-old OvertonClapham, who has been competing on the national stage since winning the 1989 Canadian junior championship, has moved from Winnipeg to Calgary to play third for Crystal Webster’s Glencoe Club rink.
Team Webster, already one of Canada’s top squads, is hard at work at the provincial playdowns, which began in Sylvan Lake on Wednesday. The team opened with a 7-6 win over Peace River’s Deanne Nichol before losing 6-5 to fellow Calgarian Cheryl Bernard in an extra end in the evening draw to fall to the B side of the draw.
Bernard, of course, represented Canada at the Vancouver Olympics, winning a silver medal. But she’s not even the favourite and neither is Webster’s rink. That distinction probably belongs to Heather Nedohin — the 2012 Scotties champion — or fellow Edmontonian Val Sweeting — the 2010 Scotties champ. Also in the mix is tough Grande Prairie team Renee Sonnenberg, who joined Nedohin and Sweeting at the Canadian Olympic trials last month after winning the pre-trials ’spiel.
“The field’s just crazy here,” said Overton-Clapham, who is living with her sister Kim while in Calgary. “Seriously, it’s like every game is going to be 10 ends and you’ve got to play your best and be at the top of your game. The teams are so good. It’s just going to be one game at a time for sure. And hopefully you get the breaks.
“Winning isn’t just about making all your shots, you definitely have to have those breaks on your side. Hopefully we have them.”
Cathy-O as the curling world knows her, has been popular among fans of The Roaring Game, especially as a sympathetic figure after she was unceremoniously dumped by Jennifer Jones’s team following the 2009-10 season, replaced by Kaitlyn Lawes.
The Jones rink was on top of the Canadian women’s curling game at the time and there’s no doubt it’s something Overton-Clapham will never forget, even if she insists the hatchet has been buried. “It happened so long ago,” she said, but was clearly emotional during a phone interview when asked about Jones winning the Canadian Olympic trials and earning a spot in Sochi.
“I know how much the team works, so obviously they spend a lot of time and that’s been their goal for the last four years. They spend a lot of time and they’re a good team. They’ll be a great rep for Canada.”
A tough compliment to pay, especially after all the bloodletting nearly four years ago.
Tougher yet when you consider the biggest reason Cathy-O joined Webster’s rink last spring was the lure of gunning for that elusive Olympic spot herself. The Webster rink, however, didn’t make it out of the pretrials.
So Overton-Clapham and her teammates are refocusing on the task at hand — an uphill battle to try to become the Alberta representatives at the 2014 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Montreal Feb. 1-9.
“At the end of the day with the trials there’s only going to be one happy team, so you just have to regroup and refocus on the provincial playdowns as everyone else is doing,” she said. ON THE ROCKS: The Alberta Scotties are a triple-knockout format with draws running through until Sunday’s championship game at 1:30 p.m. … At Sylvan Lake, in the opening draw, Edmonton’s Tiffany Game beat Grande Prairie’s Delia DeJong 7-6, Lethbridge’s Casey Scheidegger topped Edmonton’s Chana Martineau 8-7 and Spruce Grove’s Tiffany Steuber knocked off Edmonton’s Kelly Erickson 6-3. That led to the A Event quarter-finals on Wednesday night, where, in addition to the Webster/ Bernard result, Scheidegger upset Sonnenberg 8-5, Sweeting beat Steuber 6-3 and Nedohin got past Tiffany Game 8-7 in an extra end.