THE CANADIAN PRESS
CHARLOTTETOWN — The showdown of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts lived up to its billing after all.
Manitoba’s Cathy Overton-Clapham beat her former teammates on the Jennifer Jones team with an entertaining 8-5 victory Wednesday.
After winning four Canadian championships and a world title with Overton-Clapham at third, Jones abruptly fired her vice last year and replaced her with junior champion Kaitlyn Lawes. Their meeting Wednesday at the Canadian championships was the first for their Winnipeg teams since the split.
It was an important game for Jones and her Canadian team’s playoff aspirations at the Scotties. While Manitoba had six losses and no chance of making the playoffs heading into the game, a 10-6 win over playoff contender Ontario earlier in the day gave the Manitobans some confidence.
Bouyed by a Civic Centre crowd loudly behind them, Manitoba engaged the defending champions in a compelling game. Overton-Clapham seemed determined to prove a point with her play, putting up much higher shooting percentages than Jones for much of the game.
The matchup was hyped as the marquee game of the round robin, but it wasn’t enough to fill the Civic Centre as there were empty seats. Manitoba had the lion’s share of crowd support from those who were there, with raucous approval of their shots and points scored.
In what was the turning point of the game, Overton-Clapham executed a tough peel on Canada’s shot stone in the ninth to score two points and lead 8-5 coming home without the hammer. Jones had easily made her best shot of the game, a corner-freeze behind her own guard.
When Overton-Clapham scored her two, she pumped her first in the air. She draw a standing ovation and chants of "Cathy-O" from the crowd.
Meanwhile, Amber Holland’s Saskatchewan team was pulled back towards the pack with its first loss of the tournament, falling 7-4 to Nova Scotia’s Heather Smith-Dacey in the afternoon draw. At 8-1, Saskatchewan was still atop the leaderboard heading into the last day of the preliminary round Thursday.
Jones fell into a pack of teams at 6-3, including Nova Scotia’s Smith Dacey, Ontario’s Rachel Homan and Alberta’s Shannon Kleibrink.
The top four teams at the round robin’s conclusion Thursday advance to the Page playoffs and ties for fourth will be solved by tiebreaker games Friday.
The top two seeds meet Friday with the winner earning a berth in Sunday’s final. The loser drops to Saturday’s semifinal to meet the winner of the day’s earlier playoff between the third and fourth seeds.
B.C.’s Kelly Scott remained in the hunt at 5-4. Kerry Galusha of the Territories, New Brunswick’s Andrea Kelly and Quebec Marie-France Larouche were tied with Manitoba at 3-6. Stacie Devereaux of Newfoundland and Labrador was 1-8
Overton-Clapham and Jones studiously avoided each other during the game and spent most of their breaks between ends at opposite ends of the sheet. When they were near the house together, Overton-Clapham joked with the B.C. team next door.
The two skips did not speak or look at each other during warmup. The only contact Overton-Clapham had with her former teammates was the obligatory good-luck handshake to start the game.
Jones mustered a single point in the eighth with the hammer and trailed 6-5. A Lawes miss in the seventh put Canada in some trouble. A pair of missed double takeouts by Jone and a nice hit and roll by Overton-Clapham for a third counter, eventually allowed the Manitoba skip to draw for two and a 6-4 lead.
Jones drew for a piece of the button in the sixth to tie the game 4-4. She’d jammed a takeout in the fifth, which gave Overton-Clapham an open hit for two and the lead for the first time in the game.
Overton-Clapham had the higher shooting percentage of the two skips at the fifth-end break, 93 to 78 per cent.
Jones drew the button to score one in the fourth end and a 3-2 lead. She’d missed both her shots in the third end — a peel and tap back — and Overton-Clapham executed a nice hit and roll behind cover with her final stone to steal one and tie the game in the third.
Manitoba second Leslie Wilson and lead Raunora Westcott were badly outcurled by counterparts Jill Officer and Dawn Askin early, which helped Jones score two in the first end and hold Overton-Clapham to one in the second. But the Manitoba front end improved their shooting percentages by the fifth-end break.