Finally got my schedule sorted out to do some more regular leisure activities this year, so I became a full member at my curling club. (I was provisional for half the season last year; played in a spring mini-league the year before that.) Played in a couple evening leagues and had a great time. This weekend was our end-of-the-season Last Chance Bonspiel. Everybody who wants to play signs up and says what position they want and the organizers try to create balanced teams.
We started on Friday evening with 24 teams. It was a lopsided, single-elimination tournament. But so everybody could have a chance to play several games, the losers got bumped to the B and C brackets. And there’s plenty to eat and drink. (Especially drink.)
I was teamed up with two people I didn’t know, and I’d just met once. I play lead. Our second told me later she though my name was Walt. (It isn’t.) But we managed to come together as a team and win our first game. That meant we didn’t have to get up super early for Saturday, but it was still 3 games. One game came down to a tiebreaker; one stone each. My skip put it right in the four-foot. We made the finals.
Doing pretty well at first; up 5-1 after three ends. Then the wheels came off and the other team scored in four straight ends. Down by 3 going into the last end. I think the other team thought they had it wrapped up and goofed off just a bit. The skip called for them to just throw through the house (fewer stones in play for us to hide behind) and they were throwing as hard as they could. Such hubris was punished. Our skip put his last stone into the house and we scored 3.
For the final, the tiebreaker is a full extra end. And by this time, all the other games have finished so everybody in the club is watching us. Skip said we needed good guards to have our best chance to steal a point. My weight was off all weekend, and I threw it right to the button. But the other lead couldn’t seem to get his concentration back and his takeout went wide. I put up a good center-line guard on my second shot. They tried to play around it and missed, and then it was us putting up guards and them trying to peel them out. My first stone survived.
That should be “tournament” in the title, of course. (Tried to change it, but it’s not saving.) If a mod could do a quick edit, many thanks.
Well, it’s the end of the season, Hamlet, but maybe you can give it a try next fall. There are clubs around that I never knew about until I started looking. And some places play on arena ice where they can get some time, but I’m told that’s less than ideal. But every place I’ve been, the people are very friendly and anxious to let new folks try it out.
Actually, if I knew how, I’d build a little hydraulic ram that would give an exact, consistent delivery. Some people claim to be able to find a difference between particular stones, and to keep track. If there is a difference, it’s very slight. It’s hard for me to believe that anybody is so precise that they can tell. Take human fallibility out of the mix and I could compare stones, sweeping methods, etc.
I don’t see your location, but I’ll tell you the same thing I did Hamlet; do a web search and see if there’s a club near you.
I’d love to try curling one day - we almost went this winter but it didn’t work out. My sister-in-law and her boyfriend have mentioned it too, so perhaps we will try it next year. I find myself watching curling often enough; TSN and TSN2 show all the major tournaments. In fact, TSN2 is replaying the Tournament of Hearts this week, when it doesn’t have NHL playoff games to air. I don’t know if they have online broadcasts, but non-Canadians might want to have a look at their website and see (tsn.ca)
For Canadians interested in looking for a rink, you can try searching at startcurling.ca. Their commercials are pretty funny…[Mary?] made her first draw to the button…ON PURPOSE!
The bigger problem than stones, though, is variation in ice conditions. Even a duffer like me can tell if the ice is fast or slow. Adjusting my delivery appropriately is another story, since my delivery ain’t so hot to begin with . . .
Want to impress your peers? If asked to pick color, pick yellow and then say, “The red 6-rock on this sheet is curling funny.” You can make it up on the spot, but not only will the other players think you’ve memorized rock behavior, but you’ve planted a bug in the head of the guy who throws red-6.
I sometimes think I can tell the difference. The ice at our club seems to start slow and speed up after a couple ends. And there were times it seemed one side of the sheet was faster than the other. I thought I was starting to get a sense for it, but this weekend my weight was all over the map, so now I’m not sure anymore.
But you’re right, if I want to compare stones, sweeping, etc. I have to take the changing ice into account. Once I know the device is consistent, two shots within a minute on freshly pebbled ice should reveal a difference in stones, if there is any. And you’d really want to repeat the test, sometimes with the order of stones reversed. I just think it would be an interesting challenge to factor out all the variables; and the biggest one (I suspect) is the person throwing the stone.
The team we played against did not throw in order. I heard them talking after the coin flip and the skip told the lead to throw 1 and 7. (Didn’t hear the rest.) Either she thinks she knows something about the stones, or it’s gamesmanship, I don’t know.
Does your club do a procession onto the ice before the finals of a bonspiel? We were led to the far end by our club bagpiper, formed a line abreast and walked to the near hog line, then everybody had a shot of Drambuie. I don’t know if that’s just our club, though. (I volunteered to be half of a Chinese dragon costume for a women’s tournament earlier in the year, but it kept shedding feathers so the idea was scrapped.)
Many, many pictures from the tournament are up. I’ll find a not-completely-hideous one of me for the Picture Pages. There was a Hawaiian theme; our piper wore a grass skirt.
Mine, too. But then once in a while they nip the pebble better and it’s fast right from the beginning, and the leads in the first end sail their rocks through the house.
Sometimes we get slow-fast-slow where the ice speeds up in the early ends as we nip down the pebble, but then slows down again toward the end as the pebble starts breaking down completely.
Oh yes, that can happen. It can be quite challenging. Once I played at a club, not my own, where the ice was a jet runway down the middle but sludge off to both sides. Yuck.
Yeah, the experts will do that–and the wannabe experts and wanna-act-like-experts as well! I think with different rocks, it’s not so much a matter of weight variation as that sometimes a rock will curl funny if the grinding has worn down. If enough people complain about one of our rocks then we’ll re-grind it. But for my money it’s more important (and difficult enough) to read the ice–the ice affects all of the rocks.
Oh yes. Not that I have any firsthand experience, since my teams don’t usually make the finals!
I had ice like that a few weeks ago in one of my leagues. I thought I was throwing pretty well, and I had a few games I was quite proud of. I just couldn’t seem to dial it in during the tournament. Had some shots that I thought were right on the money that slid ten feet long. Maybe my league skips just knew what shots to call for me.
There’s one guy in my club who subbed for my skip twice on Friday nights, and I had great games. He even saw me a couple days later and said he needed my lead stones on his current team. On Saturday evening, I had a few good ends and looked through the windows of the warm room and he was watching. It’s like he brings me luck. It’s weird.
Keep at it. For every game we won, I kept telling myself not to get my hopes up, and that the bonspiel had already gone better than I hoped. When we won the final I thought “how the hell did we do that?” Now it’s kinda cool to think there’ll be a trophy in the case with my name on it for years to come.
If you’re ever in Boston during the season, you will be my guest.