Only once, so far. Got invited to pipe the players out at a work retreat - my role was kept a surprise until I got the pipes going. That pulled the participants out of the bar and onto the ice pretty quickly. Then we played, there there were a few alcoholic beverages…
And your question reminds me of something else I was thinking of saying, to help put curling in context for our American Dopers.
I’ve never been at a work place that had a “company softball game” - you know, on a day off, where there’s a cooler, and everyone takes a turn at bat, and the boss tries hard to be one of the joes, etc. I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never been at one.
Curling’s a different story. Fun curling tourneys between differnt divisions at work; department - wide tourneys; lawyers’ recreations league; curling tourney at work to raise money for United Way; curling at a mid-winter retreat - I’ve done all of those.
Did anyone say anything like that?
It’s a sport for reasons other than it makes your back/arms/groin sore. Shoveling snow does that to me, but it’s not a sport.
During US/Canada yesterday, the announcer said that the US has 15,000 curlers. Canada has over a million.
Curling has been my favorite thing to watch during the Olympics this year. Takes a lot of thought and a lot of technique.
There is one rule I don’t get. In a match a couple days ago, a guy tried to clear a block and one or both stones failed to touch the side walls (or failed to go far enough or something), so the stone he was trying to clear was placed back where it was. What’s up with that?
yes, over on the MPSIMS thread about the difference between a game and a sport. sorry - was just grumbling.
that sounds like one of two things: a burn, or a breach of the free guard rule.
if one of the sweepers accidentally touched their own rock, or touched the other team’s rock, then their shot is void and the other team’s rock goes back to where it was before being hit, and their own rock is removed.
More likely, it was a breach of the free guard rule, which applies to the first four rocks thrown in each end. If any of these rocks are thrown as guards (i.e. - not in the rings), they can’t be taken out, until the fifth rock of the end is thrown. The reason for this rule is that guards are a key part of the game, but at the highest levels of curling the accuracy is so good that guards would be easily taken out, or peeled, leading for a very dull game.
You are allowed to hit an opponent’s guard as long as the guard is still in play after your shot, but you can’t take it out. Are you sure that the guard in this case didn’t hit the bumper? As soon as a rock hits the bumper it’s normally out of play, but if an opponent’s guard hits the bumper, that’s a breach of the guard rule and it’s put back to where it was before.
Wow. All those people who say that they’re going to move to Canada because of politics–the hell with that, I might have to move there for the curling!
Hey, one other question–nobody in this thread seems to have posted from Quebec. Is curling pretty much an anglophile thing?
Truer words never typed. Are they government employees or something, that they don’t actually need to be good at what they do?
I think that brought a tiny tear to my eye. 
That is so true. Whenever champions like the Olympians or Canadian champs or whatever are from Calgary, chances are excellent that Jim has curled with them (and possibly beat) - men and women. I think he mentioned that he has curled against Shannon Kleibrink.
Sounds like we should have a Dopespiel some day. 
Maybe. I know about curling, even though I don’t really know the rules, but I don’t remember seeing curling rinks anywhere. I don’t know anyone who plays the sport. It isn’t part of my culture. I guess it is mostly an English (or maybe Scottish) sport.
That’s what happened.
It hit the bumper and they put it back. See, I knew that I’d seen a rock hit a bumper before, but I didn’t know that there was this extra “first four rocks”.
Damn, I must be watching a lot of curling, because I understood what you wrote!
In the Atlanta Journal-Constitution today there was an article on curling in Canada. The article said that curling is Canada’s second favorite sport (behind hockey) and that over 90% of the world’s curlers live in Canada. Both stats lack perspective, but they sound impressive!
I don’t think the article is in the on-line version, but you can check at www.ajc.com
No, it’s not.
We’ve had many threads on what a country’s “Favourite sport” is. Saying curling is “Canada’s second favourite sport” is meaningless; how do you define that? Participation? If so, how? TV viewership? Paid attendance at events? A combination of those things?
The number one most popular participation sport in Canada is… well, can you guess? Golf.
As of 1998, which is the last time I can find the government did the survey, the top participation sports in Canada were:
- Golf
- Hockey
- Baseball
- Swimming
- Basketball
- Volleyball
- Soccer
- Tennis
- Alpine skiing
- Cycling
- Cross country skiing
- Weightlifting
- Badminton
- Football
- Curling
Cite: http://www.canadianheritage.gc.ca/progs/sc/psc-spc/index_e.cfm
I’ll grant some of these are obviously not competitive sports; they have 435,000 people saying they lift weights, but I don’t believe 435,000 people are competitive weightlifters. Still, most of the names above curling and clearly competitive sports. It’s hard to reconcile these numbers with the notion that curling is more popular than, say, baseball. I doubt it’s changed that much in eight years.
There’s a very good for the free guard rule. Back around 1990, a strategy swept (heh) the curling world. Whenever a team would get a two point lead, they’d go into a defensive mode and peel every single rock, every single end. So, Team A scores to go up by 2, and Team B gets the hammer. Team A throws the first rock through the house. Team B throws a guard. Team A peels the guard. Team B throws another guard. Team A peels the guard. And so on. Rock after rock, end after end. Team B could score one point with the hammer, but then Team A would just blank every subsequent end to win by 1 point. Teams that did this threw big, big peel weight and were very accurate with takeouts. They virtually never left their shooter, so there was never any chance for their opponents to get more than one rock in play.
Not surprisingly, many were very critical of this style of play, since it made for mind-numbingly boring games, and it was just flat out impossible to come from behind. That didn’t stop Kevin Martin (think it was him) from using it to win the Brier. It was within the rules, and it was very, very effective. However, it made for games that were only real curling until one team scored a deuce, and then it was just peel after peel. I recall going to the Manitoba championship about this time - an acquaintance was competing - and it was just incredible to watch. Not very exciting, mind you, because there were never any interesting shots made, but some teams just never, ever missed.
So, the free guard rule was introduced. It comes in two variants, the three-rock rule and the four-rock rule, which require that you not take out an opponent’s guard until the fourth or fifth rock of the end respectively. You are allowed to move a guard, though, and sometimes a team will try to just brush a guard to push it close enough to the edge of the rink that is effectively irrelevant. It’s a tricky shot, though, because it’s very easy to hit the guard too thick and to knock it right out, in which case it is replaced to its original position. It’s quite likely that you saw someone try and fail to move a guard in this way.
It might not be the most popular sport in Canada, but it certainly is the sport that’s most associated with Canada, despite its Scottish roots.
How many hockey players are in the world? What percentage are in Canada? Certainly less than 50%, if not less than 30%. or 25%.
I’ve been hearing different statistics thrown around during the Olympics about how many people play curling on the planet. According to an article in Slate, 94% of the world’s curlers are Canadian.
I’ll grant some of these are obviously not competitive sports; they have 435,000 people saying they lift weights, but I don’t believe 435,000 people are competitive weightlifters. Still, most of the names above curling and clearly competitive sports. It’s hard to reconcile these numbers with the notion that curling is more popular than, say, baseball. I doubt it’s changed that much in eight years.
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I remember Pat Ryan winning an extremely boring Brier final this way, with commentary that the sport was going to be changing the next year.
The three-guard rule probably saved curling as a television sport in Canada. A great example f a major rules change that actually returned a sport to its competitive nature.
Hockey? Lacrosse? Curling? Avid curling, even? *Everywhere? *At the same place as the hockey?
Where do I sign to get my Canadian work permit? Oh, and can you recommend a place to get a stylish, but thick, jacket?
OK, seriously, so can you watch your buddies play while you sip on brews and maybe, what the heck, throw a stone or two in between games, without buying a membership somewhere?
I’ve never been in a curling rink that didn’t have a bar, tucked up high so you can look down at the play. And yes, they serve alcoholic beverages. 
Yup. Well, maybe not in exactly the same place - the NHL hockey and NLL lacrosse are in one rink, the curling (and more hockey) is in rinks all over the city. And speaking of avid curling, I hear that Newfoundland kids are getting today off of school to watch the Canadian men’s team curl for gold today.
Canadian work permit? From Immigration Canada, I bet. Come work in Calgary - we are having a shortage of skilled workers here.
We get our stylish but thick jackets at every store that sells clothes (in other words, it’s not hard to get them here). I’m not sure where you’d get one in a southern location. Sears online catalogue maybe?
I don’t know about throwing the stones - you can certainly watch and drink, but I think you might have to sign up for a league to actually go throw. Jim signs up for two leagues each year - a Tuesday night and a Thursday night league. It costs some couple hundred bucks for both leagues for each year, and they go for a pretty long time.
So you can’t play the sport once or some rudimentary form of it before you shell out the bucks for a membership? You can’t even try it to find out if it’s something you like playing?