Kilgallen remains undefeated at Scotties

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This article was published 24/01/2013 (4972 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

STONEWALL — Colleen Kilgallen and her Pinawa foursome continue to be the giant-killers here at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

After dispatching both second seed Chelsea Carey and third seed Cathy Overton-Clapham on opening day Wednesday, Kilgallen added seventh seed Jill Thurston (1-2) to the list of casualties she’s now left in her wake with a 7-6 victory on Thursday’s 12:15 p.m draw.

With the victory, Kilgallen remains unbeaten at 3-0 and remains tied for first atop her eight-team pool with Darcy Robertson, who also improved to 3-0 Thursday afternoon with a 9-6 win over Brandon’s Stacey Fordyce.

Only one of those two teams is going to still be unbeaten by day’s end, however. Robertson and Kilgallen meet in a battle for first place on this evening’s 7:45 p.m. draw.

While Kilgallen has competed in many previous Scotties — she even lost a final in 2004 — it’s been mostly as a third for Joelle Brown or Kim Link over the years.

But she put together her own squad this year — third Janice Blair, second Leslie Wilson and lead Lesle Cafferty — and after a fall and winter cashspiel schedule that kept the team busy, but within the province, seems to have caught fire at the perfect time.

“We had a pretty slow start to the season — a bunch of losses early in the year — and we’ve kind of turned it around lately and we’ve just been getting better every weekend,” said Kilgallen.

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Could it be the Leslie Wilson effect? Wilson won a Manitoba women’s title in 2010 with Thurston and in 2011 with Cathy Overton-Clapham. She took last winter off and now suddenly finds herself in position to potentially win a third women’s title with a third different team.

“We’re out here, we don’t have a lot to lose, we’re loose and we have fun together,” said Wilson. “It’s good team chemistry and we’re just kind of riding that.”

Meanwhile, Carey improved to 2-1 Thursday afternoon with a last-rock 7-6 victory over Dauphin’s Lisa Menard, while Overton-Clapham continued her epic struggles, losing her third straight 8-5 to Wildewood’s Karen Fallis (2-1).

The Scotties continues on the 4 p.m. draw when Jennifer Jones — still unbeaten at 3-0 — plays Stonewall’s Kate Cameron (2-1) ; Barb Spencer — also still undefeated — plays Thompson’s Charlene Norquay (0-3); Michelle Montford (2-1) plays Brandon’s Liza Park (0-3); and Janet Harvey (2-1) plays La Salle’s Deb McCreanor (0-3).

Also on Thursday, Curl Manitoba announced the 2014 Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts will be held in Virden.