Potential of Scotties history ought to overshadow Jones-Cathy O sideshow
PREDICTION: Jennifer Jones beats Rachel Homan in the final.
By: Paul Wiecek
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.
Click for full column in the Winnipeg Free Press.
Photo: Jones and Overton-Clapham (CP)