Curling with the Monday Sports Night group

I went curling a few weeks ago at the Richmond Hill Curling Club. It was my second time. Our Monday Sports Night group organized it.

This time we received more detailed instruction which was helpful. We were told the function of the skip is to direct the person who will be throwing the stone. He also guides the sweepers in telling them when to sweep or when not to.

We were told the three things to remember when throwing the stone. The skip will tell you where they want you to throw it. He'll tell you which way he wants you to spin the stone by sticking his arm out in that direction. For instance, if he sticks his right arm out you have to turn the front of the stone to 2:00 and turn it to the middle upon release. The stone will curl left then. And we have to try to determine the weight of the toss. Too hard and you’ll throw it through the house, too soft and you won’t make it pass the hog line (resulting in the stone being removed).

Sweeping helps speed up a thrown rock. If it doesn’t have enough weight the sweepers can sweep hard to make the stone go further. The skip will direct the sweepers on whether or not to sweep depending on where he wants the rock to go.

Anyway, we had a fun game. It was pretty close we actually ended up tied 3-3 after four ends. We had a one stone toss to determine the winner. The team with the person who throws the rock closest to the button (the dot in the middle of the rings) would win. Unfortunately Philip from the other team beat us after his wife, Michelle, who threw for our team ended up short of the rings.