Curling, Etcetera_ A Whole Bunch of Stuff About the Roaring Game - Bob Weeks [3]
• She was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, but moved to Madison, Wisconsin, when very young, when her father was transferred there for business.
• She posed nude for a calendar created to promote women’s curling.
• She won the U.S. national title four times.
• Her father, Wally, played in two World Championships, finishing third both times.
• Her good-luck charm is a ticket from the gold-medal women’s curling game at the 1998 Olympics, autographed by the members of the winning Sandra Schmirler team.
CURLING IN PRINT
One of the earliest mentions of curling in print is found in Thomas Pennant’s book Tour Through Scotland, published in 1772. He describes the game as follows:
“Of all the sports in those parts, that of curling is the favorite. It is an amusement of the winter, and played upon the ice, by sliding from one mark to another, great stones of 40 to 70 lbs weight, of a hemispherical form, with a wooden or iron handle on top. The object of the player is to lay his stone as near the mark as possible, to guard that of his partner which has been well laid before, or to strike off that of his antagonist.”
MOTOR CITY, CANADA
Cross-border curling: The Detroit Curling Club is a member of the Ontario Curling Association.
STONE STANDARD
For many years, curling stones came in all sorts of shapes and sizes. While there was an attempt made to somewhat standardize the stones over time, in the early 1800s the Grand Caledonian Curling Club came up with a scale for the ratio of diameter to thickness, shown below. Prior to this scale, rocks were often twice as wide as they were thick.
The Scale
When the weight of the stone is under the maximum height not to be more than
35 lbs 4.25 inches
38 lbs 4.5 inches
41 lbs. 4.75 inches
44 lbs. 5 inches
47 lbs. 5.25 inches
50 lbs. 5.5 inches
“Whatever the diameter or weight, the height ought never to exceed 6 1/8 inches, nor be less than 4¼ inches. None [ought] to be allowed in a set game of greater diameter than 12 inches, nor of a greater weight than 50 lbs. Imperial.”
THE 12 RULES OF CURLING
When the Toronto Curling Club began play in Canada’s largest centre, it did so on the frozen shoreline of Lake Ontario. The club was originally made up mostly of transplanted Scots who came from a variety of villages in the homeland and, as a result, had a variety of rules owing to the changes from village to village. So one of the first tasks of the new group was to craft an original set of Rules of the Game, which they did in about 1840. There were just 12 “laws” set out for play, some of which are still in use today:
1. The rink to be forty-two yards from tee to tee, unless otherwise agreed upon by the parties.When a game is begun the rink cannot be changed or altered unless by the consent of a majority of players, and it can be shortened only when it is apparent that a majority cannot play the length.
2. The hog score must be distant from the tee one-sixth part of the length of the rink. Every stone to be deemed a hog, the sole of which, when at rest, does not completely clear the length.
3. Every player to foot so that in delivering his stone, it shall pass over the tee.
4. The order of playing adopted at the beginning must not be changed during a game.
5. Curling stones must be of a circular shape. No stone to be changed during a game unless it happens to be broken; and the largest fragment of such stone to count, without any necessity of playing it more. If a stone roll or be upset, it must be placed on its sole where it stops. Should the handle quit a stone in delivery, the player must keep hold of it, otherwise he will not be entitled to replay the shot.
6. The player may sweep his own stone the whole length of the rink; his party not to sweep until it has passed the first hog score, and his adversaries not to sweep until it has passed the tee—the sweeping to be always to a side.
7. None of the players, on any account, to cross or go upon the middle of