Curling for Dummies: Rules, Equipment, and Ice

Curling is a team kind of sport that is played on an ice surface. In turns, players of two opposing teams send special granite items (the stones) towards the target (house) that is drawn on the ice. There are four players in each team. The most accurate players will be the winners. Although this sport is connected with a lot of confusion by many, it is still an Olympic kind of sport, which identifies its popularity and importance in the world.

Ice and Equipment

The surface for curling play is also known as the curling sheet. It is a rectangular court of ice with the dimensions of 44.5-45 meters long and 4.5-5 meters wide. The shorter ice borders that are located at both its ends are called the backboards.

The center line is a perfectly centered marking that is drawn along the whole curling sheet. Also, there is the tee line that is parallel to the backboard and located 4.9 meters from it. The intersection of these lines marks the center for the house. These lines also divide this target into even quarters. As for the house itself, it consists of the button (the center), and three outer circles with diameters of 1.2, 2.4, and 3.6 meters. Each curling sheet has two houses on its ends. The button and the circles are the most important things responsible for earning some points. Similar to the tee line, the hog line is drawn 11 meters from the backboard.

The ends of the center line should have hacks (3.7 meters from the center of the button) i.e. rubber-covered holes that are used by the throwers to push against. As soon as the whole curling sheet is a piece of ice, there should be something for the players to feel stable. With this, some curling sheets can be equipped with moveable hacks, which is also convenient.

Although it is simply called the stone, the main curling item for play should follow a lot of requirements. First of all, it is made from granite that comes from a particular region of Scotland only. The stone characteristics are as follows: 17-19 kg weight, 90 cm circumference, and 11 cm height. Although the stone should be of a spherical form, its bottom should have the running surface i.e. a flat ring that is the only part of the stone that is in contact with the ice. The top of the stone is equipped with a handle for the players to take the stone and throw it.

The curling broom is an item used by curling players to sweep the ice in front of the moving stone to correct its direction. There are numerous types of such brushes but the most popular variants have fabric, hog hair or horsehair heads. Such brooms are light enough to make it quite easy for the players to use them.

There are no doubts that curling athletes should have special shoes. To be more exact, there are two different types of shoes used in curling. The difference is represented by soles. If a player needs his feet to slide over the ice, he chooses a Teflon sole. On the other hand, the grippers are used by those players who want to feel stable on the ice.

Gameplay

A curling game is played between two teams with four players in each. The players are the skip, the vice-skip, the second, and the third. Each of them has his own responsibilities. In short, the skip is responsible for the first two and the last two throws in each end, the vice skip discusses the strategy with the skip, the second throws the third and the fourth stones and deals with sweeping, and the third throws the fifth and the sixth stones.

Every game consists of 10 independent periods that can be called ends or innings. In each end, the teams should deliver eights stones each in turn. To start the delivery, a player should push against the hack and throw the stone. Depending on a present tactical goal, this player can either make the stone stop as closer to the button as possible or force the opponent’s stones out of the house. His partners can use their curling brooms to correct the stone direction. It is this process that is called sweeping.

After all 16 stones are delivered in a single end, the points are calculated. Considered are those stones only that are within the house. The end is won by a team that manages to deliver its stone closer to the center of the button. It gets one point for each stone that happens to be closer to the center that the nearest stone of the opposing team.

A special procedure is applied to identify the order, according to which the teams will make throws. The Last Stone Draw rule is applied before the first end. According to it, the captains of both teams deliver one stone each to the empty house. The team, the captain of which manages to deliver the ball closer to the center than his opponent does, gets the right to make the last throw in the starting end. In all the following ends, the right to make the last throw is given to the team that lost in the previous end. If it happens that an inning ends with now stones being within the house, the inning ends in a tie, and the right to make the last throw is preserved by the same team. That is why it can be sometimes more reasonable to send the last stone out of the house intentionally to preserve the advantage.

As for sweeping, it is possible to sweep not only own but also the opponent’s stones to make them cross the outer borders of the house. This right, however, comes into force only when the opponents’ stones cross the tee line. Moreover, sweeping in this line can be performed by only a single player of the opposing team.

According to the official rules, a player should release the stone handle before it crosses the pitch line; otherwise, the attempt is said to be illegal and the stone is removed from play. The delivery procedure is quite difficult, and there exist many ways of how the players can make the stone hit the target. In general, however, they can be subdivided into two groups in accordance with the skip’s intentions: he can either deliver his own ball into the house or force the opponents’ stone out of it. At the same time, professional players often place ‘defenders’ i.e. the stones that are used to cover their own successfully placed stones within the house, which creates certain hindrances for the opponents to force them out.

The first four deliveries of every end are governed by the so-called rule of Free Guard Zone. According to it, it is prohibited to force out the balls that are between the hog line and the center line of the house. The rule can be applied to those stones only that are not within the house. If a player violates the rule, his ball is sent out of play while the ball that was forced out is placed on its initial position. With this, no sanctions are applied if the ball is just removed, rather than forced out. The Free Guard Zone rule is canceled with the start of the fifth delivery. Since then, it is allowed to force out all the stones present on the ice.

A winner of a match is determined according to the sum of points gained by the opposing teams in all the ends. If the teams manage to gain a equal number of points after ten ends, the extra end should be played. The right to make the last throw in the extra end is given to the team that lost in the tenth end. So, the winner of the extra end is said to be the winner of the whole match.

Mixed Doubles Peculiarities

This is a young curling variation. Teams here include a man and a woman. Each of them performs both as the skip and as the sweep. Matches consist of 8 ends with 5 deliveries in each. The extra end is also possible in case of a tie after the regulation time. The peculiarities are also connected with delivery rules. One player makes the first and the last delivery, while the other one deals with the rest three throws. Finally, the rule of Free Guard Zone is also valid until the fourth delivery is made.

History

Curling appeared in Scotland in the early 16th century. Such an opinion is supported by the finding of an ancient curling stone with its surface saying “1511”. There are decent reasons to suppose it the year of the stone creation. In addition, there are a few mentions of curling in the Mediterranean monastic books dated 1541. With this in mind, the relative window or creating curling can be easily identified.

With reference to the sport, the word “curling” itself was firstly used in the 17th century. Poet Henry Adamson used it in his poem. Researchers believe the game obtained its name from the Scottish verb ‘curr’ denoting growling (in English, ‘purr’ is said to have the closest meaning), rather than from complex traces on ice caused by the stone movements. When the special stone was sliding over the ice, it was touching ice notches, which created the distinctive sound. That is why certain regions of Scotland play ‘Growling stones game’.

The 1924 Olympics witnessed curling demonstrated competitions for the first time. However, it was not until 1998 when curling became an official Olympic sport. Thus, the Nagano Winter Olympics was the first international medal event for cricket. Then, Switzerland won the men gold, while the women from Canada managed to win gold in their group.

In 2006, however, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) reconsidered the history and decided that 1924 curling competitions had been official. That is why the first curling Olympic medals were distributed as follows: Great Britain – gold, Sweden – silver, France – bronze.

The 2018 Olympics is the first tournament with the competition between mixed doubles.