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Hurry Hard to the Curling Club!

The sport of curling demands good manners and good sportsmanship, and the bar is being raised for higher athleticism in its players.  More and more good tournaments are being shown on TV, and the competitive spirit is alive and well in curling rinks across the country!

Curling Basics

Teams for curling have 4 players: the Lead, Second, Third and Skip.  The Skip is in charge of the strategy for the other players, and tells them how to try to place their shots.  There are 2 teams involved in every game.

The rocks used in curling are called “stones” and each player throws 2 stones in every “End”. A game of curling includes 6 or 8 Ends, which each last about 15 minutes. (They play 10 Ends in championship games.)

The whole purpose of the game of curling is to get your team’s stones to stay on the target, called the “House” and earn points while you knock the other team’s stones off the House. 

The Skip stands in the House and directs his players as to where in the House the stones should end up.  The player releases their stone and once it passes the line on the ice called the “Hog Line”, the other 2 players of that team may sweep the ice with their brooms to make the stone go faster or farther.  Don’t touch the stone with your broom! Once it stops, it stays in that position until the completion of the End, or until someone else’s stone hits it and knocks it out.

If your stone does not make it to the Hog Line, it cannot be swept and won’t score.  As you improve your game, you will get better at stone placement in the House.  Shots can be planned to get to the centre circle of the House to win points, or can be used to try to block an opponent’s stones from the House.

Teams take turns throwing their stones, so it alternates. Red Lead/Yellow Lead/Red Lead/Yellow Lead, then the Seconds, one stone each until 2 are thrown, and so on.  When it is the Skip’s turn, the Third (or Vice-Skip) stands in the House and directs the play.

When all 8 stones are thrown for the End, the score is tallied. Every stone in the House counts for one point, but only the ones closest to the centre actually score.  

The House is made up of 4 rings. The centre is called the “Button”, then the 4 foot ring (red) the 8 foot ring (white) and the largest outer 12 foot ring (blue). If a stone is exactly on the “Button” that will count 1 point and ALL others will not count at all! 

The stones that count are the ones closest to the Button, so imagine a yellow stone on the 12 foot, and 2 yellows on the 8 foot, but there are 2 reds on the 4 foot.  Red scores 2, yellow scores zero since red is closer to the Button.

Curling is also a game of etiquette (or manners) so it is almost as important to thank your opponents for the game win or lose as it is to get points with your stones!  Curling is an excellent sport—easy and fun to learn, and not too costly!

For complete rules of curling, check at the curling club where you go to play for a quick lesson, or visit www.curling.ca!