GENTLEMEN’S GAME

For an onlooker, the game of curling might seem strange, funny and even silly. It is, indeed, hard for an outsider to figure out what the players’ actions are about. But experts say that curling is ice billiards, ice chess, and even ice poker. All at once!

It is compared with billiards by delicate sharpness of delivery, with billiards – by the speed of assessing the position and taking the only right decision, and with poker – by the degree of excitement. The opinions are quite contradictory. Perhaps, it would be worth while to form my own impression?

So, curling is a form of bowling on ice. Modern curling is a sports game on ice where two teams, four players each, compete in the sharpness of stone (special sports objects made of granite) delivery.

Canada is considered to be the trendsetter in the modern curling world. Over a million people practice this sport in the country. Curling is second to ice hockey in popularity. National championships gather up to several tens of thousands of spectators. There are even dedicated TV channels broadcasting only curling!

In Russia this sport is not very common yet, we do not have many teams. However, our players have already participated in the Olympic Games and gained good reputation there. In recent years, curling has been finding its way in more and more parts of our country: Moscow and Moscow region, Saint Petersburg and Leningrad region, Vologda region, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk region, Chelyabinsk - here is an incomplete geographical list of curling penetration in Russia.

Curling Development History

Curling’s official year of birth is 1511. It is commonly supposed so, as the inscription on the oldest of the playing stones found goes, “Stirling 1511”. Stirling is a Scotch city, and Scotland is considered to be the birthplace of curling. At about the same time, in Holland, curling was depicted in Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s and Jacob Grimmer’s canvases, and Scotch poems and prose featured a reference to the game that very soon started to gain popularity in Europe and later conquered America.

In the XVI–XVII centuries, curling was played with stones that fell from the mountains. The players tried to find stones relatively equal in weight and shape. When chipped from the rock, the stones had niches that the players used as handles gripping the stones with their thumb and forefinger.

In the XVIII–XIX centuries, curling, on equal terms with archery and golf, became a pastime for real gentlemen. 1775 was the starting year for production of round stones with metal handles, and when Royal Caledonian Club was founded in 1838, the dimensions and shape of granite stones were standardized.

The XIX century saw the emergence of several varieties of this sport – Scotch, German and Swiss. In their essence, they differed little. At the turn of the XX century, curling gained reputation of a prestigious game for the middle class.

After World War II, the number of countries where curling was practiced grew. It led to the need for holding regular competitions including international ones. In 1950, a number of European and American national federations initiated the foundation of the World Curling Federation under whose auspices European Championships were held starting from 1951.

The world’s largest curling competition is the championship held annually in Winnipeg (Canada). In 1988, as many as 1424 teams competed on 187 ice sheets. During the competition season, curling tournaments in Europe and America are held every weekend with all sorts of participants – from beginners to world champions.

In the process of evolution, curling becomes more and more aesthetical and sportive, and the excitement inherent in this game made it very popular in Europe, America, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Today curling is played in sixty countries, among them Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, England, USA, Canada, Japan, Korea, China, France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, and Russia.

Long Way to the Olympics

In 1994, at the session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), it was decided to include curling in the official program of the XVIII Winter Olympic Games in Nagano.

Before that, curling had several appearances in the unofficial Olympic program. In 1924, at the first Winter Games in the French city of Chamonix, it was introduced as a demonstration event. In 1932, in Lake Placid, curling once again demonstrated its virtues at Winter Olympics, but it did not succeed in making it into the Olympic program. So curlers abandoned the attempts for 25 years. It has not been until 1957 that an international organization was created to protect curlers’ interests and bid for the game’s introduction into the Olympic Games program.

At Winter Olympic Games in Nagano (1998), an ice hockey rink was used for curling debut. Men’s Switzerland and women’s Canada became the winners of the first gold medals then.

Game Rules and Curler Code

Curling field of play is an elongated rectangle 44.5 m long and 4.75 m wide. The main component of the layout is the target circle 3.66m in diameter called a house. A game consists of ten separate independent parts called ends.

In each end, teams take turns to play their eight stones. When playing a stone, a player on the team pushes out of the hack and after a short slide lets the stone go forward. When doing so, the player is trying to control the effort so that the stone, having reached the target area at the opposite side of the sheet, would stop at the necessary point pushing another stone or forcing it out of bounds.

Partners on the team are allowed to sweep the ice with special brushes or brooms along the stone’s movement, which enables them to correct partially the length of the stone’s delivery and its trajectory. After all sixteen stones in the end have been played, the points are counted. The points won by the teams in all ends are summed up thus determining the winner. An average game lasts around two hours.

A couple of words on the curlers’ moral code. On the field of play, one should behave in a conspicuously suave way; in no case should one celebrate the opponent’s miss, for it’s a gentlemen’s game! It is, however, allowed to smile at your own luck.

Equipment

Curling stones weigh almost 20 kilograms and are made of polished granite. An approximate price of this object is 300 dollars. The brooms that the ice is swept with are also unusual. Their heads are made of synthetic material and can rotate freely in all planes.

Curling footwear is also extraordinary. For one foot, a slider with a slip sole is used, for the other – an antislider with a non-slip sole. The slider sole is teflon or plastic. Professionals use special curling shoes. A professional curler would also need a special suit, while any comfortable outfit, for instance, the kind worn to a skating-rink, would be quite enough for a beginner.

Curling is a game for any age and fitness level, although two-hour sweeping does take a lot of energy! Still, it is worth while trying your hand at this sport, and the most enthusiastic ones can create their teams and compete in tournaments.

Irina Bogdanova