The Roaring Game

Shortly after Sandra Schmirler's rink took the first-ever Olympic gold medal for curling, I spoke with Jeff Z. Klein, a sportswriter for the New York Times.

"What kind of sport is that?  It's more like housework -- the old Mop 'n Glo," he sneered. 

Twenty years later, curling is the fastest growing winter sport in the world.  There are rinks in Qatar, Kazakhstan and Australia and the roaring game is killing it in the Far East. China is spending major yuan to build 500 new rinks with the goal of placing in the medals at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Canadians have loved curling since it was first played with iron tea-kettles on the St. Lawrence River back in the early 19th century. And if you're looking for the cultural heart of a Saskatchewan community, drop by one of more than 200 curling rinks across the province on a winter weekend, and you'll find two or three generations of residents either curling or waiting to curl.   

We've always wanted to understand how the game works, but could never parse the jargon of TV curling commentators. So the Balgonie Curling Club seemed to be a good place to learn.   We were invited to watch a grand-niece and her rink compete in the Under-15 Tournament, and her parents and grandparents were there to help us understand what was happening on the ice.

The challenge of curling is to slide a 40-pound piece of smooth rounded granite, or stone, 150 feet down a sheet of ice so that it comes to a stop closest to the button - the centre ring of a 12-foot circle or house.   That grey line in the picture above is the hog line.  The stone must be released before crossing the near hog line, and must make it across the far hog line to be in play, otherwise it's removed.  (For some reason known only to Scottish sheep herders, stray lambs were called hogs.)  Players often use stop watches to measure the time 'hog-to-hog' to see how fast the stone is going.

Sluggish stones can be hurried along by sweeping the ice in front of them, clearing it of debris and polishing it, making it fast or keen.   Curling brooms were once corn brooms.  Several years ago, amidst some howling, the switch was made to synthetic brooms to avoid having bits of straw litter the ice. The last Canadian company making corn brooms closed last spring.  

An end consists of each team throwing eight stones.  A game is between six and ten ends.  Things get complicated after several stones have been thrown and the path to the button isn't wide open.  

In the situation above, each side has thrown six rocks, with two to go.  Red has two points, but could be taken out if a yellow rock can sneak around the guards and bump the red rock closest to centre out of play.  This is where the curling comes in - giving the handle a little turn as it's released.  For right-handed players, an in-turn causes the rock to curl clockwise and an out-turn makes it curl counter-clockwise.  The Scots, who invented the game, didn't hold with such refinements, but simply hurled the stones down the ice.

It's a great game, one of skill and cunning.  But it can be quirky.  For example, most games involving concentric circles or bull's eyes (darts, archery) award higher points for getting closer to the centre.  Not curling.  One point per stone is awarded no matter where it is in the house, as long as it's closer to the button than the opponent's.   And the scoreboard is unique in its approach to tallying up those points.  A baseball scoreboard would typically have the score for each inning and then a cumulative score at the end of the row.  On a curling scoreboard, as we understand it, the middle row indicates the total score while the top and bottom numbers show the end in which the points were scored.  Huh?  A better explanation (we hope) is included in Links, below.

Despite most of Canada sitting on pre-Cambrian bedrock, the granite for curling stones comes from one of only two places - Trefor Quarry in Wales or Ailsa Craig, an island off Scotland with the hardest, most water-imprevious granite on the planet.  

The handles on the stones are almost always red or yellow.  Nobody seems to know why.  Stones are expensive - north of $500 - and curling clubs usually have their own, which members use.  Curlers do have to have their own brooms ($50 - $150), shoes, grips, sliders and gloves. Curlers who can’t kneel can use special sticks to push the stone, and this method can be deadly accurate.

For those who want a uniquely Canadian experience, there is the marriage of croquinole and curling - croki-curl. Players use curling rocks on ice the way discs are used on a croquinole board, to take out another player's disc (rock) and to get closer to the centre of the playing surface.  This outdoor rink is in Moose Jaw, and the city supplies the rocks to people who book the ice.

Either game will put roses in your cheeks and give you a chance to bellow "Sweeeeeep" or "Hurry harrrrrrd" at the top of your lungs without getting stared at.  

LINKS:

https://www.curlingbasics.com/en/scoring.html