Cathy ‘O’ joins forces with Chelsea Carey

WINNIPEG — Winnipeg’s Chelsea Carey has united with a fellow Manitoban to fill the hole on her Alberta based team.

Cathy Overton-Clapham has joined Team Carey as their new third. A replacement was needed following the retirement of Amy Nixon after they recently hauled in a bronze medal at the Scotties Tournament Of Hearts.

“It was about finding a player that we thought would fit in really well and be able to kind of slide in and play at that kind of level, and we know she can do that obviously,” Carey said. “She’s got a wealth of experience and played with all kinds of different teammates and different people, so we were pretty confident that she would fit in really well with our group.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It was about finding a player that we thought would fit in really well and be able to kind of slide in and play at that kind of level, and we know she can do that obviously," Carey said. "She's got a wealth of experience and played with all kinds of different teammates and different people, so we were pretty confident that she would fit in really well with our group."

The new team will include Carey at skip, third Overton-Clapham, second Jocelyn Peterman and lead Laine Peters.

“We’ve always been friendly and gone for dinners before and things like that, so yeah I know her pretty well for sure,” said Carey. “Laine has played against her for a long time as well, so certainly a level of familiarity there that will help.”

RELATED: Cathy Overton-Clapham returns to provincial Scotties after almost quitting curling

Overton-Clapham, 47, is a five-time national champion, winning four times with Jennifer Jones and another with Connie Laliberte. She won the provincial Scotties as a skip in 2011 and skipped Manitoba to a 4-7 record at the national Scotties. Overton-Clapham had a 4-3 record as a skip at this year’s Manitoba Scotties and failed to qualify for the playoffs. But she’s had a tonne of success filling in as a spare on the World Curling Tour the past few seasons.

“Anytime she’s spared at a slam she’s basically been in the final,” said Carey. “She was in two finals this year with Silvana (Tirinzoni), she won one with Eve (Muirhead) last year, and she won one with Val (Sweeting) the year before that. Certainly a pretty incredible track record as a spare on all different teams.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Anytime she's spared at a slam she's basically been in the final," said Carey. "She was in two finals this year with Silvana (Tirinzoni), she won one with Eve (Muirhead) last year, and she won one with Val (Sweeting) the year before that. Certainly a pretty incredible track record as a spare on all different teams."

Team Carey will be competing in an upcoming event in Scotland but Overton-Clapham won’t be participating because of previous commitments. Carey’s team has already qualified for the Olympic Pre-Trials in the fall, so the first order of business will be to get one of the nine entries in the Roar of the Rings Curling Trials where a spot at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games will be up for grabs.

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