Curling is shuffleboard on ice, and chess, and a little bit of housework. That's the joke,
anyway. Here's what you need to know before our Learn to Curl open house on
Saturday, October 30. Don't worry if it doesn't all make sense. It will after you've thrown
ten stones.
The Basics
The team. A curling team is called a rink, and it has four players: the lead, the
second, the vice (some places say "third") and the skip. Each player throws two stones per end,
alternating with the player in the same position on the other team. The lead throws first, the
skip throws last.
The stones. Each one is granite and weighs about 42 pounds, with a handle on top. A lot of
the world's curling stones come from one granite island off the coast of Scotland. Ours are
older than most of our members.
The throw. You push off from a foothold called the hack, slide out low on one foot (the one
with the slider on it), and let the stone go before you reach the near hog line, with a gentle
turn of the handle. That turn is what makes it curl. Turn it clockwise and it curls one way,
counterclockwise and it curls the other. The skip stands at the far end and holds his broom
where he wants you to aim.
The sweeping. Two teammates walk alongside the stone and sweep in front of it. Sweeping
makes the stone go a little farther and a little straighter. The skip yells at them when to
sweep. Yes, the yelling is part of it. "Hurry hard!" means sweep like you mean it.
The scoring. When all sixteen stones have been thrown, that's one end. Only one team
scores in an end: the team with the stone closest to the button gets one point for every stone
it has closer than the other team's best stone. A stone has to be touching the house to count.
League games here are eight ends, about two hours.
Hammer. Throwing the last stone of an end is a big advantage. The team that doesn't score
in an end gets the last stone in the next one.
The Etiquette (the most important part)
- Shake hands with everybody before the game and wish them "good curling." Shake hands again after.
- Stand still and stay quiet, off to the side, when the other team is throwing.
- Be ready to throw when it's your turn.
- If you touch a moving stone with your broom or your foot (that's "burning" it), say so right away. Nobody else has to catch you. Curlers call their own fouls.
- After the game the winners buy the first round. The losers buy the second. Nobody remembers who won by the third.
The Glossary
| Skip | The captain. Plans the strategy, holds the broom for the target, calls the sweeping, and throws the last two stones. Gets the credit and the blame. |
| Vice | Throws third, holds the broom when the skip throws, and agrees on the score at the end of each end with the other vice. |
| Second | Throws second, sweeps a lot, and usually gets the takeouts. (That's my position. It builds character.) |
| Lead | Throws first, usually guards and draws, and then sweeps for everybody else. Leads have the strongest arms in the club. |
| House | The target: the rings at each end of the sheet, twelve feet across. Ours are blue and red with white between, like the one on our front page. |
| Button | The small circle right in the center of the house. The bullseye. |
| Hog line | The thick line near each end. You have to let go of the stone before the near one, and the stone has to get past the far one or it's taken out of play ("hogged"). |
| Hack | The rubber foothold set into the ice that you push off from, like a sprinter's block. |
| Draw | A shot thrown just hard enough to stop where you want it, usually in the house. |
| Guard | A stone that stops in front of the house to protect another stone, or to block a path. |
| Takeout | A harder shot that knocks an opponent's stone out of play. Two at once is a double. Our Alice Weibel made a double last January that people are still talking about. |
| End | One round of play, sixteen stones, like an inning in baseball. |
| Hammer | The last stone of an end, and the advantage of having it. |
| Sweeping | Brushing the ice in front of a moving stone to make it travel farther and curl less. Some of our old-timers still use corn brooms. Most of us use brushes now. Both work, and both will wear you out. |
| Shaking hands | How every game starts and ends. Every one. |
| Buying the first round | The winners' job after the game. Then both rinks sit together in the clubroom. That part is called "curling" too, as far as we're concerned. |
| Bonspiel | A curling tournament, usually a weekend long, with rinks from other clubs. Ours is in January. |
| Pebble | The fine drops of water sprinkled on the ice before a game, which freeze into tiny bumps that the stones ride on. |
| Sheet | One playing lane of ice, about 146 feet long with a house at each end. We have three. |
That's plenty for now. Come out on October 30 and we'll show you the rest.
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