Curling
Curling
is a precision team sport similar to bowls or bocce, played
on a rectangular sheet of prepared ice by two teams of
four players each, using heavy polished granite stones
which they slide down the ice towards a target area called
the house. Points are scored for the number of stones that
a team has closer to the center of the target than the
closest of the other team's stones. The level of precision
and complex nature of the strategic thinking required to
win has led curling to be referred to as "chess on
ice."
Origins
and history
The game is thought to be invented in late medieval Scotland, with the first
written reference to a contest using stones on ice coming from the records of
Paisley Abbey, Renfrew, in February, 1541. Two paintings (both dated 1565 [])
by Pieter Brueghel the Elder depict Dutch peasants curling (Scotland and the
Low Countries had strong trading and cultural links during this period, which
is also evident in the history of golf).
The word curling first
appears in print in 1220 in Perth, Scotland, in the preface and
the verses of a poem by Henry Adamson. The game was (and still
is, in Scotland) also known as "the roaring game" because
of the sound the stones make while traveling over the pebble
(droplets of water applied to the playing surface). The word
derives from the Scots language verb curr [1] which describes
a low rumble (a cognate of the English language verb purr). The
word does not take its name from the motion of the stones, which
due to their deviation from a straight-line trajectory are said
to curl.
In the early history
of curling, the rocks were simply flat-bottomed river stones
which were sometimes notched or shape; the thrower had little
control over the rock, and relied more on luck than skill to
win, unlike today's reliance on skill and strategy. Outdoor curling
was very popular in Scotland between the sixteenth and the nineteenth
centuries as the climate provided good ice conditions every winter.
Scotland is home to the international governing body for curling,
the World Curling Federation, Perth, which originated as a committee
of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, the mother club of curling.
Today the game is most firmly established in Canada, having been
taken there by Scottish emigrants. The Royal Montreal Curling
Club, the oldest active athletic club of any kind in North America,
was established in 1807. The first curling club in the United
States began in 1830, and the game was introduced to Switzerland
and Sweden before the end of the nineteenth century, also by
Scots. Today, curling is played all over Europe and has spread
to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and even the People's Republic
of China and Korea.
The first world curling championship in the sport was limited to men and was
known as the "Scotch Cup" held in Falkirk and Edinburgh, Scotland,
in 1959. The first ever world title was won by the Canadian team from Regina,
Saskatchewan, skipped by Ernie Richardson. (The skip is the team captain,
see below.)
Curling has been an
official sport in the Winter Olympic Games since the 1998 Winter
Olympics. In February 2006, the International Olympic Committee
retroactively decided that the curling competition from the 1924
Winter Olympics (originally called Semaine des Sports d'Hiver
or International Winter Sports Week) would be considered official
Olympic events and no longer be considered demonstration events.
Thus, the first Olympic medals in curling, which at the time
was played outside, were awarded for the 1924 Winter Games with
the gold medal won by Great Britain and Ireland, two silver medals
by Sweden and the bronze by France.
The first curling club
in the United States was organized in 1831 only 30 miles from
Detroit at Orchard Lake, Michigan. Called the 'Orchard Lake Curling
Club', the club used hickory block 'stones'. A Detroit Curling
Club was started back in 1840 when Michigan only had a population
of 212,000 and had only been in the Union for three years! Along
about this time an organization, called the 'Thistle Club' was
founded, and curling being a winter sport, was played when the
ice was right on the Detroit River at the foot of Joseph Campau,
on the bay, and at the old Recreation Park. These clubs became
the 'Granite Club' and in 1885 the present Detroit Curling Club
was organized.
Playing surface
Rocks must land between the hog line (bottom of photo) and the back line (behind
the rings) and between the boards or out lines (on the sides).The curling sheet
is an area of ice 146 feet (45.5 m) in length by 14 feet 2 inches (4.318 m)
to 15 feet 7 inches (4.75 m) in width, carefully prepared to be as close to
level as possible. A key part of the preparation is the spraying of water droplets
onto the level ice. These water droplets are called pebbles. Due to the friction
between the stone and pebble, the stone turns to the inside or outside, causing
the stone's path to 'curl'. The curl can change during a game as the pebble
wears. The surface of the ice is maintained at a temperature near 23°F
(-5°C).
Making and
maintaining perfect ice conditions at a curling club is as much
an art as a science. Most curling clubs have an ice maker whose
main job is to care for the ice. At the major curling championships,
ice maintenance is extremely important. Two well known professional
ice makers Shorty Jenkins and Hans Wuthrich reside in Canada.
Large events such as the Brier or other national championships
are typically held in an arena which presents a challenge to
the ice maker as they must constantly monitor and adjust the
ice and air temperatures as well as air humidity levels to ensure
a good playing surface. It is common for each sheet of ice to
have multiple sensors embedded to monitor surface temperature
as well as probes set up in the seating area to monitor humidity
and in the compressor room to monitor brine supply and return
temperatures.
Occasionally,
small ice crystals, "ice picks", will bond on the bottom
of the stone (called the "running surface"), which
increase friction and change the stone's path. As the pebble
wears down, more ice picks develop, especially if the water is
not treated to remove excess minerals.
Which foot they use is determined by whether they are left- or right-handed.On
the sheet, a 12 foot (3.7 m) wide set of concentric rings, called the house,
is painted near each end of the rink. The centre of the house is marked
by the junction of two lines that divide the house into quarters and is
known as the button. The two lines are the centre line, which is drawn
lengthwise down the centre of the sheet, and the tee line, drawn 16 feet
(4.9 m) from the backboard and parallel to it. Two other lines, the hoglines,
are drawn parallel to each backboard and 37 feet (11.3 m) from it.
The rings that
surround the button are defined by their diameter as the four-foot,
eight-foot, and twelve-foot rings. They are usually distinguished
by colour. The inner rings are merely a visual aid for judging
which stone is closer to the centre; they do not affect scoring;
however, a stone that is not at least touching the outside of
the 12-foot ring (i.e. more than 6 feet from the centre) is not
in the house and therefore does not score (see below).
Twelve feet
behind the button are located the hacks. A hack is a device used
to provide traction to the curler making a shot; the curler places
the foot he or she will push off with in the hack. On indoor
rinks there are usually two fixed hacks, rubber-lined holes,
one each side of the centre line with the inside edge no more
than three inches (7.6 cm) from the centre line and the front
edge on the hack line. A single moveable hack may also be used.
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Curling. (2007, January 10). In Wikipedia, The
Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:11, January 12, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Curling&oldid=99849808 |
