Curling in a nutshell (Curling in general)

Member Name: drew_greenday

Product:	Curling in general
Date:	04/09/02 (306 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun to play

Disadvantages: Not many places in the UK

Curling is one of those weird games that hardly anyone knows of it and the British curling team sum how manage to win a gold medal in the winter Olympics. How??

I got in to curling when I was eleven years old. My best friend's grandparents were senior members of the Welsh Curling Association and they asked my friend to come along. While in school he asked me to come along to "curling". "What" I replied, yes I know, I was once one of those people who didn't know anything about it. I am a very sporty person so I went for a laugh.

Well, nearly six years down the line, that laugh turned into representing Wales. Lol.

*Background information*
Curling started many years ago in Scotland. It was played on frozen over lakes, which made it a less popular game even though it is supposedly always cold in Scotland. The stones are made out of granite and weigh about 20kg's. the brooms that they used (some people use them now) were a lot like a witches broom stick and they would hold it at the top, and in the middle, and move the middle hand back and forth holding the top hand still, thus causing less friction on the ice.

*Now-a-days*
Even though people mock the British climate, it isn't that cold to be played on frozen over lakes. Instead, we play on ice rinks. In Wales there is only one curling rink and it is used for all the other ice sports you can think of. that is why the Scottish players are the best in the UK, because they have specific rinks just for curling.

*The beautiful game*
The length of the curling "rink" is 138 feet long by roughly 14 feet wide. At each end of the pitch, there is a "House"; this consists of four circles inside one another. Through the centre of the house, width ways, is a line. As you slide out of the "hack" you pass over a "house" roughly 10 feet after the last circle, there is a line. This is probable th
e most important line, the "Hog line".

When the stone (a 36 inch granite rock in circumference weighing 20kg) is being played, the player has to "slide" out of the "Hack". The hack is a piece of wood or plastic, placed securely in the ice with a piece of rubber on top, so the foot has grip to push off on. The curling shoes are special aswell. Judging by weather you are right or left handed, determines which foot has the Teflon on. The foot with the Teflon stays on the ice, and the foot with the rubber on places on the rubber on the hack. You place your left hand (right handed people) in the middle of the broom and the broom head facing up; this will aid your balance. You push off the hack with your right foot (for right footed people), and let your left foot slide along. When your right leg is at the full extent, let it drag behind you, with your toe pointing out. By now, you should be either on your behind, or mastering it. It looks easy as pie, but believe me, it isn?t.

The hog line. There are two hog lines on the rink, one at each end. When you are sliding out with the stone, you need to release the stone out of your grasp before you reach the first hog line. Once the stone has been released, no-one or nothing can touch it or it is deemed to be burnt. The stone can be swept in front of it but not touching it. The stone must pass the second hog line, the whole stone must pass or it is out of play.

The "T" line. Like the Hog line, there are two T lines, one at each end of the rink. These go through the centre on the middle circle of the houses. Upon sliding out, as soon as the stone passes the first T line, it is deemed to be in play, if you bail and stop the stone from travelling over the T line, then you are allowed to play the shot again. When the stone is in play and member on your team can sweep the stone until it has stopped. As soon as the stone passes over the second T line, the opposi
ng skip can sweep aswell.

Each team compromises of four players; Lead, Second, Third and Skip. They play two stones each, in that order. The Skip is in the house, telling the player where he wants it and how heavy. The other three, Lead first, play their two designated stones with the other two non-throwers ready to sweep if needed. When it comes to the skip to throw his/her two stones, third acts as skip with lead and second ready to sweep if needed.

After sixteen stones have been played, eight from each team, the end is finished. The idea in every end is to get you stones nearest to the centre of the house. The team with the nearest stone/s get a point for each stone. Once the stones have been counted, a new end starts playing back up to where you started from.

Sweeping is a weird thing to watch, to a virgin viewer, it may seem stupid and odd looking. "Why are they making a prat out of them self's?", sweeping can be used to reduce the speed in witch the stone is slowing down, and to slightly change its path. It may look easy, but again it requires balance. Determined by which foot the Teflon is on determines how you sweep. The Teflon is on the left foot for a right handed player. The sweeper will have their right hand at the top of the broom, with the left hand in the middle, unlike the old style, both hands move. The sweeper will move to their left with the foot with the Teflon on leading, being pushed by the rubber coated foot. This is very hard to explain but as soon as you have seen it being done. It?s a doddle. Many people ask me if there are two types of brushes, one to make the ice smooth to make the stone go faster, and one to make it rough to make it stop. Nope, there is only one brush used, one to reduce the friction and therefore reduces the speed in witch it slows down. Most of the modern brushes have a material instead of horse hair which is very popular. Just by lightly moving your brush back and forth,
can stop a stone from picking up a hair. One little hair can throw a rock off course.

The lead usually plays his/her two stones over the hog line but not in the house. If any of the first four stones are knocked out of play by any of the other first four stones, it can be placed where the other stone that knocked it out, is. The second usually plays his/her stones around the stones in the front inside the house, and covered (guarded) by the stones out in front. Third plays his/her stones either in the house, or guarding their stones that are already in the house depending on the situation. The skip has to usually make the harder shots by squeezing between two stones to knock one out or get it in. As you can't both throw the stones at once one team will have the last stone played, commonly known as the hammer. This is an advantage because it will not have a following stone to alter the outcome. The looser of the end gets the hammer.

A draw is when the player curls the stone into the house, be it by getting behind another one or just simply in.
A guard is a stone conveniently placed in front of a stone that is in a vital position. When playing a guard I like to leave a bit of the stone showing to tempt the opposition to go for it.
A knock out is generally a fastly paced shot with no intentions to stay in the house, but full intentions to take out and stones that are in the way. The take out is one of the harder shots to play due to the speed of the travelling rock.

*Fun*
Dam right its fun. It may get a lot of stick by being called boring by spectators, but and sport can be boring if you don't know a lot about it or actually play the sport. The biggest problem is the severe shortage of curling rinks in the UK. Thankfully for us, with the UK team winning gold that might boost the interest factor. To find out more information, e-mail me or just comment and i'll reply.

Drew

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