Curling, Etcetera_ A Whole Bunch of Stuff About the Roaring Game - Bob Weeks [39]
A SPIKED TROPHY
In 1902-03, the first visit by a group of Scottish curlers to Canada took place, with the Scots playing a lengthy string of games that took them from Halifax to Winnipeg, with stops at most major cities in between. Such a success was the tour that in 1909, a group of Canadian curlers went the other way.
With the event becoming a friendly rivalry of significance, it began to catch the attention of a great many curling enthusiasts, including Donald Smith, Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal. Smith spent his early years in Canada, working with the Hudson’s Bay Company, eventually becoming the president of the firm. He also was a Member of Parliament and was a founding member of the Canadian Pacific Railway, becoming such an important figure in that operation that when the transcontinental railroad was being completed, Smith was selected to drive the last spike.
Smith returned to Great Britain in his later years to take his spot in the House of Lords. He so loved both continents and the game of curling that he decided to present a trophy for regular competition between the two sides of touring curlers. Thus, in 1909, the Canadian team was the first to win the Strathcona Cup.
Today the Scots travel to Canada in years that end in a three, while the Canadians go the other way in years that end in an eight. The trophy used to make the transatlantic trip with the defending champions, but now is considered so valuable that it resides permanently in Scotland.
NORTHERN AFFAIR
Every team in the Brier represents a single province or territory, with the exception of Northern Ontario. The reason it has a spot in the field is history and respect. While the definitive answer to its inclusion is unknown (some say the size of the province and the overall population necessitated two entries), when the first Brier was held in 1927, it is believed a rink from Northern Ontario was invited by Brier organizers to make the field an even number. Although two other teams—Montreal and Toronto—were removed from the invitation list in 1931, Northern Ontario remains.
When asked why Northern Ontario stayed in the field, David M. Stewart, head of the Macdonald Tobacco Company, said, “When you invite someone into your living room, you don’t invite them to leave just because the numbers aren’t right.”
STONES OF A DIFFERENT MATERIAL
It’s rare today to see a curling stone made of something other than granite, but in the early days of the sport, when rocks were difficult to come by, ardent players used almost anything they could get their hands on to play their favourite sport. Here are a few examples:
• Cannonballs: this story has never been conclusively proven, but as the story goes, in the late 1700s, British soldiers melted down cannonballs and used them to curl on the Plains of Abraham.
• Jam cans: in western Canada, schoolchildren who were too small to play with the 42-pound granite stones used jam can “rocks”—cans that were filled with rocks or cement with a piece of wire or other material stuck into them for a handle.
• Thunder mugs: in some spots on the Prairies, thunder mugs (yes, those bedpans from days gone by) were, like jam cans, filled with granite and used for playing pieces.
• Irons: perhaps a derivative of the cannonballs, iron “stones” were, as the name suggests, made of iron and about a third the size of a traditional curling rock. Their weight made it next to impossible to play takeouts. Irons were used prominently in Quebec and eastern Ontario.
• Wooden stones: plugs of wood—sometimes off the end of telephone poles—were used to provide lightweight stones for young people. They were also utilized in areas where curlers were unable to afford regular rocks.
• Little rocks: Developed in the 1990s, smaller versions of regular rocks made of plastic appeared in curling rinks across Canada. These allowed children as young as five to start playing, and resulted in a huge boom of pint-sized players.
This pint-sized curler is lining up a