Much more than a grudge match

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This article was published 18/02/2011 (5527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CHARLOTTETOWN — The 2011 Canadian women’s curling championship begins Saturday and all the talk for the next few days will be dominated by two largely bogus storylines.

First, you’re going to hear about how the 12-team field they’ve assembled in P.E.I. is the greatest women’s field ever put together at a Canadian women’s curling championship, blah, blah, blah.

It is true that 10 of the 12 teams competing here are skipped by former Canadian junior champions.

(Trivia answer: N.W.T.’s Kerry Galusha and Alberta’s Shannon Kleibrink are the only skips here who didn’t also skip Canadian junior champions).

All of which is interesting, but a bit beside the point. Because it says here that the second-best team from at least four provinces will compete here; to wit: I would take Cheryl Bernard over Kleibrink in Alberta, Krista McCarville over Rachel Homan in Ontario, Stefanie Lawton over Amber Holland in Saskatchewan and last year’s finalist, Kathy O’Rourke, over Suzanne Birt in P.E.I.

Second, you’re going to be hearing a constant refrain that says this event is simply a backdrop for a revenge opera with two leading ladies — Jennifer Jones of Team Canada and Cathy Overton-Clapham of Manitoba.

Now, it is true there are hard feelings between the two Winnipeg skips after Jones fired Overton-Clapham last spring from the three-time defending Canadian champions. And clearly, Overton-Clapham would love to exact a combination of revenge and redemption over the next nine days.

But the revenge play is a sideshow, not the main event, in a competition where both women also have an opportunity to write for themselves a place in curling immortality — Jones with what would be her record-tying fourth straight Canadian women’s title and Overton-Clapham with what would be her record-tying sixth Canadian championship.

A good field? Certainly. An interesting subplot? Absolutely. But the best story this week is going to be on the ice?

Here’s how I see this one breaking down:

 

THE FAVOURITE (3-2)

Jennifer Jones, Team Canada

YOU will hear much over the next week about how a fourth consecutive Canadian women’s curling championship for Jones would tie the record held by her famous namesake, Colleen Jones, from Nova Scotia.

But to get the fullest picture of the Winnipeg lawyer’s almost complete dominance of women’s curling recently, you have to go back further than just the last three years.

Consider: Jennifer Jones has appeared in five of the last six Canadian women’s finals and won four of them. And the only time she missed a final — in 2007 — she lost the semifinal.

That is an almost Stoughton-ian dominance of the finals and I see no reason why she’s not right there again this year.

THE CHALLENGERS (5-2)

Cathy Overton-Clapham, Manitoba; Shannon Kleibrink, Alberta; Kelly Scott, B.C.

OVERTON-Clapham may be the first curler to ever twice win the right to appear in the same Canadian women’s championship — once as the third on Jennifer Jones’s Canadian champion in 2010 and again with her new team last month in the Manitoba playdowns.

Much will be made over the next nine days that Overton-Clapham has extra motivation this week after the way she was treated by Jones. Maybe, but her feud with Jones will soon be long forgotten while she has a chance to do something much more permanent:

A victory in P.E.I. would give Overton-Clapham six Canadian women’s curling championships, tying the record held by Nova Scotia’s Colleen Jones.

Kleibrink has an Olympic bronze medal from the 2006 Winter Games and made history in 2004 as the first woman to skip a team to a Canadian Mixed championship. But for all her accomplishments, Kleibrink is 0-3 at this event. It has become a bit of a monkey on her back — one that you’d have to think she would desperately love to shed. Scott won back-to-back Canadian titles in 2006 and 2007 and also won a world title in 2007. That makes her a force to reckon with, all by itself. But it bears noting this team has never again reached that 2007 apex and comes into this event with a key member — second Sasha Carter of Ashern — due to give birth in early April and unlikely to play a full slate of games.

THE DARK HORSE (5-1)

Rachel Homan, Ontario

HOMAN, 21, is the 2010 Canadian junior champion, but she’s been talked about in Ontario for a couple years as the next big thing to come out of that province.

I’m not big on picking rookies at this event, especially one that has already set a Scotties record — youngest team ever to compete at a Canadian women’s championship. It usually takes a Scotties or two to get used to the spotlight — and being the only game on the ice come playoff time. But Ottawa’s Jenn Hanna was also a young rookie when she made it all the way to the 2005 final against Jones — and it took the infamous in-off-for-three by Jones with the last rock of the final to beat her.

History could repeat.

THE OTHER ONES (15-1)

Marie-France Larouche, Quebec; Amber Holland, Saskatchewan

THERE was a time when Larouche was considered one of the top skips in the Canadian women’s game, She even lost a final in 2004 to Colleen Jones in which Jones’s lead earned the nickname Nancy Dela-punt for kicking off a Quebec stone before it could be measured.

But that was then and this is now and it’s been a long time since Larouche made some serious Scotties waves. There’s no reason to expect a resurrection here.

Holland won her first Saskatchewan women’s title in 2010 and put forth a good showing in her Scotties debut, finishing 6-5 and one game out of a playoff tiebreaker. One more win this year and she might see Friday, but it’s hard to see this team still curling come next weekend.

The Maritimers (20-1) — Heather Smith-Dacey, Nova Scotia; Suzanne Birt, P.E.I.; Andrea Kelly, New Brunswick; Stacie Devereaux, Newfoundland

I can’t recall a time when all four of the Atlantic provinces fielded teams that could all finish above .500 at this event. The problem is that .500 is probably as good as can be hoped.

Smith-Dacey is making her third appearance and will put some fear into opponents. Kelly finished 5-6 in each of her previous three appearances and could improve on that. Newfoundland finally shed the Heather Strong albatross and has the 2007 Canadian junior champion skipping their entry this year. And Birt has made waves at this event before and will surely benefit from a home-ice advantage.

Put all four teams together and form one dream team and you’d have something. As it is, you just have four respectable foursomes who will be watching the playoffs on TV.

ENJOY THE LOBSTER

Kerry Galusha, N.W.T./Yukon

GALUSHA is making her seventh appearance at the Scotties this year, while third Dawn Moses is making her ninth appearance. Of all the times the two women have appeared at a Scotties, this will be another one.

PREDICTION: Jones beats Homan in the final.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca