B.C.’s bossy skip rubs world champs wrong way

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This article was published 01/03/2009 (6274 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 VICTORIA — Cathy Overton­Clapham was floored.
  “I’ve been curling for 32 years and I’ve never had anyone tell me that,” the Canada third reflected Saturday.
  “Never, ever. Never.”
  And because Overton­ Clapham has never, ever before been told to stand still — like she was, un­ceremoniously, by B.C.’s Marla Mallett during the final round-robin game between the teams Thursday night — tonight’s Canadian women’s curling championship final (7 p.m., TSN) between Mallett’s B.C. team and Canada’s Jennifer Jones has the potential to be something other than an­other genteel game of women’s curling.
  Because while she wisely stopped short of saying it Saturday, Overton­Clapham did make clear that she was less than impressed with her encounter with Mallett during the final ends of their round-robin game, which Canada won 6-5.
  “She told me, ‘You and Jennifer, your feet and your brooms, everything is moving back there. You know better than that,’ ” Overton-Clapham recalled. “First, I said, ‘I can’t stand any more still.’ And then I just smiled and didn’t say anything. And then she told Jen­nifer the same thing at the other end.
  “After she told me, she went down there and complained to Jennifer about us.”
  Asked about it Saturday night, Mal­lett recalled a cordial conversation.
  “During the game, I spoke with Cathy and Jennifer and just asked them to realize they were moving, and they said, no problem, and away we went,” she said.
  Mallett caused controversy earlier at this event when she kept her team from competing in the pre-event skills competition — the first time that’s happened at this event or the Brier.
  And Mallett’s been seen and heard complaining throughout the week about what she perceived as distractions from the crowd.
  Mallett was asked if she was re­luctant at all about giving a curling etiquette lesson to the defending world champions.
  “They’re players. They’re just play­ers. You’re out there, you’re in your tun­nel doing your thing. You don’t neces­sarily notice that you reached down for a stopwatch or something along those lines.”
  Overton-Clapham didn’t sound like she was taking it as friendly advice, however.
  “But that’s OK,” she said with a smile. So it’s not going to be an issue today?
  “Who knows,” the three-time Canadian champion replied.