Chuck your mums kettle down the ice while sweeping with her broom. (Curling in general)

Member Name: andycharger

Product:	Curling in general
Date:	22/02/02 (256 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting game, tactical, Competitive

Disadvantages: Not many facilities around, boring for some, underrated

Well, this was my definition of Curling before Salt Lake City 2002. Im sure it was yours too if, in fact, you have changed it like me.

All of this despite actually trying it out at my local Ice Rink. As most of you know, I play Ice Hockey in Chelmsford and we are one of only a few rinks I have visited with the Curling "Houses" painted under the ice. This means yes, you can play at Riverside Ice and Leisure in Chelmsford but No, not at many other venues around the country.

It shocked me to hear there are 30,000 curlers active in Scotland but not many sets of stones around outside of the country. Perhaps ours are one of the only sets around in England.

I have tried it out once many years ago when I used to laugh at the funny men running up and down the ice with their slippy shoes and daft sweeping techniques.
"Ice was made for Skating on" was my philosophy and these idiots were just people who could not skate.
It ws not until after my first couple of throws that I realised the difficulty and complexity to the game and how much I admire our Ladies for achieving the Gold last night.

Here is my brief description of the game.

History.
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Developed in Scotland in the 1600's, Curling took place on frozen rivers and lakes with players throwing large rocks to land near landmarks or objects protruding from the ice. In time it has become an art using high tech granite stones and Brooms for clearing a path for the stones.

Playing arena.
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Played on freshly cut playing surface, Professional curling requires a very smooth ice pad cut with a very fine blade. The Zamboni does this which is a tractor like vehicle that you see during breaks in Ice Hockey matches.
The surface is then lightly sprayed with di ionised water to create a very slight mottled effect. This helps the stones to slide more easily.


Equipment.
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You
will need:
An Ice rink marked out for Curling.
8 playing stones per team.
4 Sweeper's brooms.
Sliding shoe covers.
A lot of patience.

Playing principles.
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Playing in teams of 4, each team takes their turn to throw one of their stones from the release end of the pad towards the "HOUSE".
Each player plays 2 stones. The "Lead" player starts off and they are followed by the 2nd player, 3rd player and then the Skip.


The House.
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The House is a set of circles, much like a bullseye target with a White centre measuring 2 foot in diameter. The next circle is Blue and 4 ft in diameter. The next is White and 8 ft in diameter. The last is Red and 12 ft in diameter. The idea is to place your stones as close to the centre of the house as possible.
The team with the closest stone to the centre of the house scores 1 point. If they have the 2 closest stones they score 2 points and so on until the other team's stone is closest.

Throwing a stone.
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The player releasing the stone must let go of the stone before the release line on the ice. By then they will of added some rotation to the stone to aid its "curling properties". Hence the game's name. AS the stone travels towards the house, you will notice the other players sweeping frantically. This aids the stones travel by melting the ice in front of the stone which causes less friction. The reduced friction allows the stone to travel straighter too which can help if a stone has been over curled. Apparently it can travel a further 15 feet from sweeping.

There are different weight of shots to play.

A guard weight is played short and in front of the house to block subsequent shots.

A draw weight is a precision shot that must be played exact. This is for placement inside the house and a possible point scoring opportunity.

A take out weig
ht is played with plenty of OOOMPH! It is used to smash opposing stones out of the way.


Playing procedure.
-------------------
To prevent it being a boring "hit and smash"
game, there are certain rules. Firstly, the Lead players stones cannot be removed until all of the lead stones have been played. This allows for teams to play "blocking stones" which guard the centre of the house for future stones to hide behind.

Overall game play.
------------------
It is played over 10 games or ends with the home team throwing first. This gives the away team last stone advantage in the opening end.
Last stone is important as it means you have the opportunity to remove a possible stone of your opponents or place your stone in a game winning position without the threat of it being removed.
If you have last stone and you score, the last stone advantage passed to the other team for the next end.
If you have last stone and the opposing team score, called a steal, you retain last stone in the next end.
If no one scores (i.e. there are no stones in the house at the end of the end) you retain last stone advantage.
The winner is the team with the most points after 10 ends.
The teams have 70 minutes to throw all of their stones but time very rarely affects the outcome of a game.

Overall.
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It is going to take off over here now im sure of it, after the success of our girls. Give it a try if you can. It is a lot more difficult than it looks.

Summary: