I think I’ve almost got this game sort of figured out, except for a few things:
Why do they not want to score in the first few ends? Commentators say it’s because they want to get a feel for the ice. But why wouldn’t the hammer want to leave a rock in the house for an easy point? It seems like a gimme.
How many rocks do they get per end? Wikipedia says two or three, but it seems like the Olympians are using far more, at least in the later ends.
Haven’t seen it happen yet, but what if a broom person accidentally kicks a rock? Is there a penaly of some sort?
You do want to score in the early ends, if you can. But you don’t want to score just one point. If you have the hammer, you want to score two, so if with the last skip’s rock you can’t get two, you might choose to blank the end, retain the hammer, and try for two again next end.
Each team member throws two rocks per end, for a total of 8 rocks a side.
If a sweeper accidentally makes contact with a rock, that rock is immediately out of play. Unless it’s someone sweeping an opponent’s rock behind the tee line. Not positive what happens then, would have to look it up, but obviously you can’t remove your opponent’s rock by “accidentally” bumping it while you’re trying to sweep it out of the house.
This happens more often in club play, where we’re not Olympians, to put it mildly. The most common fouls are (a) that you touch you’re own “running rock” with your broom while you’re sweeping it, in which case you push it aside and take it out of play; or (b) that you stumble over a “sitting rock” in the house that you’re not sweeping, because you didn’t look up in time. In which case you just put it back. Unless it was in the path of the running stone, in which case it gets complicated.
#3 happened a few years ago in a major competition. At least a major Canadian competition, but I think (from the foggy depths of my memory) that it was an international competition. It was the Canadian 2nd (a young guy-2nd is the guy who shoots 2nd) who while sweeping hit an opponents rock. The rock was a gaurd, that was close to the house. The skips of both teams talked about it, and all that happened is they put the rock back to where it was (approx). Again, IIRC, the team whos rock is hit could be awarded a free point, however if its your rock its the other skips call to either remove it completely, move it back to where it was, or leave it. I believe it is just usually put back.
No, they don’t alternate. The team that has scored most recently throws first. So, if you have the hammer and score one point, then the other team gets the hammer in the next end. Last rock is a sufficiently large advantage that you don’t want to relinquish it for just one point. In fact, it’s generally seen as being a minor victory if you can force the opposing team to take a single point when they have the hammer.
This is really fascinating to me, because I have recently been getting into bocce. I have a bocce tournament next week and the match between the American and Finnish curling team the other night really fleshed out some pro level strategy that will come in handy in the bocce ball tournament.
This isn’t entirely correct. Not every score results in a hammer change. If you ‘steal’ a point, scoring a point while the other team has last rock, you do not get last rock next end. The team scored upon maintains the hammer.
Read what I wrote. The team who scored most recently throws first. If you steal a point, on the next end you’re the team that has scored most recently, and you continue to throw first.
I saw a movie a while ago about curling, with Leslie Nielson. In the climatic scene the guy really winds up and whips it down ice. It runs hard into a sitting rock shatters, and a piece of it lands right in the middle giving him the win.
Now I don’t imagine a hunk of polished granite is gonna break all that often, but if it did, would it really count?
Channelling my husband, an expert curler from way back:
“I have never seen a rock break (I have seen handles break off), but I have heard of rocks breaking. The interpretation given in the movie (“Men With Brooms”, by the way) that the largest chunk would count is correct.”
For the record, Jim also agrees with you, Gorsnak. Are you a curler yourself?
It’s kind of sad that Men With Brooms is the only curling movie out there, because it’s to the sport as The Mighty Ducks is to hockey. I’ve never in my life heard of a rock breaking in competition. However, they are correct that in the very unlikely event of it happening, the largest chunk counts.
In each end (that’s what the rounds are called, like innings in baseball) the teams alternate sliding rocks down the ice. To have “the hammer” means that your team has the last rock of the end. That gives you an excellent chance to score, but if you do, the other team gets the hammer and keeps it until they score in an end.
As said above, sometimes it’s not worth it to get just one point. You give up the advantage of last rock and the other team might be able to score two points or more.
The first 4 stones can not be “taken out” unless the rock is actually touching the house (rings). You’ll see some teams that have the hammer (last rock) gently nudging the opposing rocks out of the way to open up the centre of the ice.
As to the shattered rock, the largest piece counts.
I hae a foggy memory of a world championship being decided by a touch about thirty years ago. My recollection is that on the last end of the final game, each team had a rock that might be shot, so the officials were measuring it. One of the players got so excited when it looked like their rock was shot that he jumped up and waved his arms - and came down on the opposing team’s rock. Since he’d touched it, the opposing team got to put it where they thought it had been - and naturally, they put it closer into the button, winning the game and match.
just to add another point of vocabulary: “coming home” means it’s the last end. So if you hear the commentator say “Team A has the hammer coming home” means that team is in the driver’s seat - they have the scoring advantage in the final end of the game.