Rivals seed Overton-Clapham No. 1 at provincials

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This article was published 20/01/2011 (5684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CATHY OVERTON-CLAPHAM has been anointed by her competitors as the top seed for next week’s Manitoba women’s curling championship.

But she’s not letting it go to her head.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re seeded one or 16th,” Overton-Clapham said Wednesday. “We’re all divided into two pools of eight and you have to play everyone anyways.”

Overton-Clapham is the three-time defending Canadian champion as the former third for Jennifer Jones, but she had to hastily put together a new team for this winter after Jones fired her last spring.

Jones already has her berth into next month’s Canadian women’s curling championship in Charlottetown as Team Canada, but Overton-Clapham will have to win the 16-team Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Altona, beginning next Wednesday, in order to compete in Prince Edward Island as Team Manitoba.

That subtext is not forgotten as the winningest female curler in Manitoba history prepares to try winning one more provincial title.

“I’d love to go back (to the national Scotties),” Overton-Clapham said. “Obviously, I felt I earned the right to be in Charlottetown regardless of what I did this year, and it was a hard pill to swallow that I wouldn’t be going automatically.

“But that’s over now and this is where we are and so we’ll just have to try and win it ourselves.”

Overton-Clapham is followed in the seedings by defending Manitoba champion Jill Thurston as the second seed, third seed Chelsea Carey and fourth seed Janet Harvey.

Carey’s seeding in the third position could be interpreted as a bit of a snub.

The Carey foursome has had a huge showing on the bonspiel circuit this winter and is currently ranked third on the World Curling Tour money list, with $30,000 in winnings, behind only Jones and Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott.

Fraction

With Thurston having won only a small fraction of that this winter and returning to the provincials without the front end that she won the province with last year — Raunora Westcott and Leslie Wilson defected to play with Overton-Clapham this year — it would seem a stretch to rank the Thurston team higher than Carey’s.

But with no former provincial women’s champions on their roster — the Carey team is rounded out by third Kristy Jenion, second Kristen Foster and lead Lindsay Titheridge — Carey says she’s not surprised her team wasn’t shown more respect by their competitors.

“You don’t just base seedings on one year,” Carey said.

“A lot of times it’s based somewhat on names and experience and all that stuff. And it should be that way because that stuff does factor in at the provincials.

“Cathy is the defending Canadian champion, so you have to take that into account.

“And Jill is the defending Manitoba champion, even if she doesn’t have the same front end.

“So I kind of thought we might be seeded third, just because it’s not based on this season.

“If you based it just on this season, that would change because we’ve had a great year. But it’s just not like that.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca