Yes.
In case you’re wondering, the last rock has to reach the T-line in the delivery end, before the clock switches to 0:00, to be clean.
Ten minutes each.
To an unexperienced curler this may appear to be the case but it is not.
Not the T-line - the hog line. A skip may not want the rock to go as far as the T-line.
Northern Piper - Freddy the Pig was talking about the situation where a team’s clock is running out… and he is correct, if the last rock for a team is released past the t-line at the delivery end with time remaining, that rock is ok.
ah - that makes sense - thanks. I thought he meant the scoring end. I"m strictly a rec curling, so the clock has always been a mystery to me.
Just like to say thanks for pointing me towards that. I’ve been playing it solidly now for 24 hours, and I can’t stop. Thanks a bundle.
Warning to dopers who haven’t tried it - don’t. Go score some crack instead.
Knowing only an infinitesimal amount more than zero about curling, all I can say is, If this is the best of the best, what do the scrubs look like.
I have seen 8 or 9 shots to win the match. Of those 5 were described by the announcers as easy or very easy. 1 of those has done what is was supposed to to. 2 have , according to the announcers, been very poor shots, but ended up with a position that won anyway. All the rest have been totally screwed, and lost.
The main skill of the announcers seems to be to find hundreds of ways to say
“that shot is poor”
“That one isn’t going where he wants”
“She is going to be disappointed with that one”
“That rock is considerably off target”
“Big mistake here”
“He missed by several feet”
etc.
If you’ve been watching this on American tv, I’m going to assume you’ve been mostly watching the US teams. They aren’t the best of the best, or even close to it. From what I’ve seen, they wouldn’t even qualify for one of our provincial championship bonspiels, let alone win one or get into a national competition. Maybe they’re just off their games, because there’s usually a competent American entry, but these teams are just bad. A skip missing an open draw to the 8’ is just inexcusable.
If you want to see topnotch curlers, tonight’s game between Martin of Canada and Murdoch of Great Britain may be a preview of the gold medal match.
I went. I played. I think I’ll be going back. Hey, we should have a Straight Dope curling room there!
Well the skip and third on the US won worlds in 2003 and the current team won silver in 2006. But let’s be fair, Canada has more curlers than the rest of the world combined. The opportunity to play fantastic rinks in regional play is far higher here than anywhere else.
The poor draw was criminal, but given a steal to tie and a steal to win in an extra end…well I’m a forgiving type of person. 
You have to love a sport where, according to NBC analyst/Canada Curling Hall of Famer Don Duguid, you mostly prepare for a match by “popping a couple of cold ones.”
It seems to me (and admittedly it’s just the women’s I watch), that the average age of the participants is very young.
Wondering why this is? I would have thought that as it’s “chess on ice” with strategy hugely important, that experience would be an important commodity and would favour the older person?
I think that’s just the Olympics, Dahu. Every small town in Canada has a curling rink full of every age players.
So at these is it the youngsters who are the best as well? Does performace really tail off with age that quickly?
Well, see, it turns out that the whole “curlers don’t need to be athletic” thing is a myth. Most of the curlers are young because every position except skip requires rather a lot of athleticism to perform at the highest level. You may notice that skips on average are rather older than the rest. That’s because you are correct to assume that experience is valuable.
You’re right. Looking them up on wiki, of the 10 skips, 1 is 19, 3 are in their 20’s, 3 in their 30’s, and 3 in their 40’s.
I think maybe I was just looking at the younger ones more. Can’t think why.
Curling is very athletic. Running along sweeping is hard work. Those who have not done it claim it is not athletic. Go try it and come back, then we can talk.
Female Olympic curlers are pretty and healthy. Do you see a bunch of fatties out there?
You must have me confused with someone else.
I trained as a curling official to help at the Olympic Trials for Curling in Broomfield Colorado last year. I was an On Ice Observer for some games and a Timekeeper for others. On Ice Observers are the people who sit beside the scoreboard at ice level. Scorekeepers are on a platform above the ice on one end. At the Olympics, if you look just up from the row of photographers, you see another row of people above them. Thats where the Timekeepers are.
One thing that I found interesting to learn is that officials are to stay out of the game as much as possible. It was emphasised to us that it’s the players game, not ours. Officials are not there to police the game for the most part. If there was a situation where a curler got abusive, they could step in, but for the most part you just watch. If a player asks about a specific rule, it’s ok to tell them but you’re not allowed to tell them anything if they don’t ask.
As an on-ice Observer, if I saw a counting error in the score, I was explicitly told to not say anything. One of the things that On-Ice Observers do is put up the score. The correct way to do it is to ask “Score please?” of the players, not “2 Red?” I’m pretty sure some of the players don’t realize this as I was kind of looked at scoffingly by one of the skips during the trials and he said “Don’t you know??”
Something else that On-Ice Observers do is keep a little magnetic chart of the house up to date with where the stones are after each rock is played. If there is a situation where the rocks are accidentally moved, the players will ask to see this chart to help them replace the rocks. The coaches often keep their own chart too.
Being a Timekeeper is a lot more stressful IMHO than the On Ice Observer postion. You have to keep track of whose turn it is, and when the clock should be running for each team, when it should be turned off and on. It’s very specific, and one of the things that the coaches do is watch to make sure their team’s clock is not running when it shouldn’t be. You’ve got a great seat to watch the game, but you’re so busy watching the clock it’s hard to keep track of the game.
The other positions are On Ice Official, which means you are there to help the On Ice Observers, do the count for the time-outs, do any measuring of stones, among other things. There is also On Ice Supervisor, who is in charge of all the officials. I know less about these positions as I never did them.
I am an instructor at Learn to Curl events at my curling club. What I hear from many newbies is how they didn’t realize how much there was to know, how physical it is. People think it’s about equal to bowling. It’s not. People typically have aches in places where they didn’t know they could hurt after curling for the first time. Sweepers walk or run about two miles over the course of a game, sweeping takes a lot of effort when done right. The balance and coordination involved in delivering a stone are something that hockey players and football players are not equipped to do. The best form I’ve seen from a beginner was from someone who has done Yoga for nine years. You can still curl if you’re not as fit as these Olympians, and have fun, but you will not be as consistent as these people.
All I can say to people who think it looks easy is “Try it. You may be surprised.”
There was a lady on the Danish team, I think it was, who was fairly hefty. I think she could probably still kick your ass around the ice.
Jim has a member at the club he curls at with no legs - he curls with his curling legs. If that guy can curl, damned near everyone can curl. There are many ways of skinning this cat if you really, really want to curl.