A dish best served… later

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/01/2011 (5652 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ALTONA — If Cathy Overton-Clapham had any anxiety about heading into today — and she’d have every reason — it was nowhere to be seen here Saturday night.

Indeed, according to Overton-Clapham, something else entirely was going to be on display here in the social hall at the Manitoba women’s curling championship.

“We’ll be dancing on the tables,” Overton-Clapham laughed. “Bring your camera.”

It was a bit of good-natured bravado from the hall of famer as she considered the task — and opportunity — that presents itself here today:

Overton-Clapham plays Morden’s Chelsea Carey this morning in the Page playoff 1 vs. 1 game. If she wins, she advances to the provincial final. If she wins again, she will advance to the Canadian women’s curling championship in Charlottetown.

And who will be waiting for her in P.E.I.? Why none other than Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones, who must surely not have considered that prospect when she unceremoniously fired Overton-Clapham last spring as the third on her three-time defending Canadian champion squad.

To say that Overton-Clapham would be motivated in a head-to-head matchup with Jones in Charlottetown would be like saying Charlie Sheen enjoys letting his hair down from time to time.

Dancing on tables? Overton-Clapham would be dancing on the ceiling for that opportunity.

But that is then and this is now and there is still the not-inconsequential matter of finding a way to beat the Carey foursome today.

Two stark facts must surely make that a daunting prospect for Overton-Clapham. First, Carey heads into today as the only team that has yet to be beaten at this year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts — a perfect 7-0.

And second, Carey has beaten Overton-Clapham every time the two teams have faced each other this winter — although there’s some question about just how many times that’s been, with Carey saying she’s 4-0 against Overton-Clapham while Overton-Clapham says it’s only 3-0.

Whatever the record, Overton-Clapham says it doesn’t count against her team today. “We just have to make our shots and control the front obviously. We’re really good right now with our draw game so we’ll take that and use that to our advantage.”

Carey wondered if the win streak against Overton-Clapham might actually work against her team at this point. “If anything, at some point she’s due to beat us,” Carey said. “All we can do is the same things we’ve been doing that got us to the playoffs. If you win, you win, if you lose, you lose. Where you get into trouble is when you start wondering…”

Carey added that she is heartened by the fact that qualifying for the 1 vs. 1 game carries with it the privilege of a second chance, with the loser living again in the semifinal this afternoon against the winner of the morning 2 vs. 2 game between Springfield’s Karen Rosser and Fort Rouge’s Kerri Einarson.

At the end of the day, however, there is no second place today.

“We’ll do what we do,” said Carey, “and hope it gets it done for us. And if not, well then it wasn’t meant to be, I guess.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca