PRINCE GEORGE – “Well the objective of curling is to deliver the rocks down to the other end of the ice and score the most points by getting them into the house. The circles,” explains Don McDermid, General Manager of the Prince George Golf and Curling Club.
And there are two circles or houses. One at each end. Then there are the rocks. There are eight of those for each team.
“Hockey has three periods, curling has eight ends. You throw all eight rocks, two per player, four players per team. Eight rocks in total. That’s one end of play. Then you throw them back and that’s your second end for a total of eight ends. The team with the highest score after eight ends wins the game.”
“Hurry hard.”
We’ve all heard about the curlers and their screaming at team members once the rock is thrown. Those are the skips giving rather forceful instructions to the rest of the team members. Curling has a language all its own.
“You’ll hear the term ‘hack.’ It’s where you put your feet in. The house is the objective for the directed to get their rocks in. You’ll hear a term like ‘draw.’ That means to curl the rock into the button area. You’ll hear take out, where you want to remove the stone. And then the teams will have different, unique, terms for their own team if you’re watching it on TV.”
But one common part of the game is what’s called “the hammer.” And who gets the hammer is determined right off the top.
“At the start, there’s a coin flip in league play. In 2020 Worlds, you see what’s called “draw to the button.” It’s a more competitive way of doing it. Normally it’s a coin flip.The team that wins the coin flip elects to take the hammer, or the last shot. Or they can pick a colour, if they’re supersticious, of rock.”
Hopefully, that helps a little bit to understand this popular sport, one of the world’s oldest team sports, inherited from Scotland in the 16th Century.
