Top seed Jones has super-sub at the ready

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This article was published 18/01/2012 (5191 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They don’t even yet know what their lineup is going to be — and probably won’t know until the end of this week, at the earliest.

But it didn’t much matter on Tuesday as Curl Manitoba announced that the 16 teams who will compete in next week’s Manitoba women’s curling championship in Portage la Prairie have voted the Jennifer Jones foursome — with or without their all-star second Jill Officer — as the favourite to win the 2012 provincial women’s curling title.

The selection of Jones as the top seed came as little surprise, even with the uncertainty surrounding the status of Officer — who only began throwing rocks again late last week after taking the season off to have a baby in mid-December.

With four Canadian championships and a world championship since 2005, the general concensus even before Monday’s announcement was that Jones would get the nod as pre-event favourite on reputation alone.

But the top seeding is also a tribute to longtime Jones alternate Jennifer Clark-Rouire, who filled in admirably for Officer on a part-time basis this winter and would be the player to whom Jones will turn next week if Officer decides she is not ready to go.

With Clark-Rouire playing lead, the Jones foursome won a major bonspiel in Oslo at the start of the season and then just last weekend came within a last-rock pick in the final of another major international event in Switzerland of winning another bonspiel.

The bonspiel win in Norway was particularly satisfying for Clark-Rouire, who has one of curling’s most unusual record of achievements. “It’s funny. I’ve technically won national and world championships (as fifth for Jones),” Clark-Rouire reflected, “but I’d never ever won a bonspiel before (Oslo). I’d made one final before — and maybe a semifinal.

“But Norway was the first time I actually was on the ice and won a bonspiel.”

Officer said Tuesday that she will practice some more this week and hopes to have a decision by week’s end. She said the Jones team has left the decision largely up to her.

Whether it’s Clark-Rouire or Officer playing for Jones in Portage, Jones will have her hands full with a field that second seed Cathy Overton-Clapham says might be the toughest she’s seen in her two decades of provincials experience.

Overton-Clapham is the defending provincial champion but has a new second and third this season in Ashley Howard and Jenna Loder respectively. But even with half a new team — only Breanne Meakin has returned from last season — the Overton-Clapham foursome finished second on the women’s cash tour this winter, including a quarter-final appearance in that same Swiss bonspiel last weekend.

Overton-Clapham was eliminated in Switzerland by Jones and it didn’t take reporters long on Tuesday to ask her if the rivalry still burns bright with Jones — who fired Overton-Clapham as her third following the 2009-10 season, even as the team was in the midst of a run that saw them win three straight Canadian titles.

Old news, replied Overton-Clapham. “I think it was more the media that made it as big as it was,” said Overton-Clapham. “I think it’s something everyone is always going to talk about, so it’s always going to be there. But it’s just another team that we’re playing.”

Jones did not attend Tuesday’s news conference announcing the seedings. Overton-Clapham said the two teams have played twice this season and Jones won both times.

Lost amid all the attention on Jones and Overton-Clapham on Tuesday was the third seed, Morden’s Chelsea Carey. The runnerup to Overton-Clapham at the 2011 provincials, the Carey foursome struggled to earn a cheque on the cash tour this season until finally finding their game in December with a runnerup performance to Jones at the talent-laden Canada Cup, followed by a Manitoba Curling Tour championship shortly afterward. They failed to qualify in Switzerland over the weekend.

“We’ve played not bad,” said Carey. “We don’t feel as badly about it as the results show… And we’re feeling better about those last couple results, so we’re looking forward to it.”

The top five seeds for Portage are rounded out by a couple of multiple former Manitoba women’s champions in Barb Spencer and Janet Harvey.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

The plan for Portage

What: 2012 Scotties Tournament of Hearts Manitoba Women’s Curling Championship

When: Jan. 25-29

Where: PCU Centre, Portage la Prairie

What’s New: Curl Manitoba announced on Tuesday morning the top five seeds for the 16-team event. Jennifer Jones, the 2008 world champion, and Cathy Overton-Clapham, the defending Manitoba champion, were named the top two seeds respectively.

What’s Funny: Overton-Clapham, 42, is skipping a team this season with three players almost half her age in third Jenna Loder, second Ashley Howard and lead Breanne Meakin. That led to a case of mistaken identity when the team found themselves in Rome last week en route to a bonspiel in Switzerland. “Some of the people on the street thought I was Breanne’s mom,” recalled Overton-Clapham, “so we had a good laugh about that the rest of the weekend.”

What Else: The 124th annual MCA Bonspiel begins Thursday and runs through Monday, with the five final berths into next month’s Manitoba men’s curling championship in Dauphin up for grabs. A total of 352 teams have entered this year, down from 384 in 2011.