Lucky me. This is my last day in the office for 12 days. But this is no ordinary holiday. Tomorrow I travel to Aberdeen (just inside the arctic circle, or at least felt that way last time I was there) to represent, ahem, a Country at the European Curling Championships in Aberdeen. The Championship proper kicks off on saturday and ends a week on saturday. The best teams in European curling will all be present (although luckily we don't have to play all of them). For the Country I represent the targets are a place in the top tier of European countries and qualification for the World Championships - this has not been achieved for some time so would represent a significant step up.
Before we get ahead of ourselves answers to some FAQ.
Q) Do you mean hurling?
A) No, dummy, this is not Hurling. Hurling involves the outdoors, sticks, a little ball, goals and broken jaws. Curling (these days, at least) is played indoors, involves 40lb (20kg) stones being athletically thrown down a 150ft (46m) smooth ice surface on the tactical direction of one player while two others slide beside the stone and when required brush its path to keep it straighter and go further. The tactical decisions as to what to do with each stone has led to curling being likened to chess on ice. Curling is an Olympic sport in which GB has realistic medal hopes in Vancouver. And so far, no broken jaws...
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh6YcRmYSYw (a less than 2 minute clip of top level competitive curling)
Q) Do you wear skates?
A) No, only similarity between curling and skating is the venue. Curling ice is colder (-2.5c), has a pebble of water spray frozen on it which is the surface on which the stone travels, must be flat and clean - even a small amount of dirt can cause a stone to "pick up" and veer off course. Curling shoes where one foot has a teflon sliding sole and the other a grippy rubber sole are worn. Watch the clip above and you will see the players are generally sliding on one foot and propelling themselves with the other.
Q) How long does a game last?
A) Depends on the competition. At the European games are 10 ends long which will translate to between 2.5 and 3 hours.
Q) Its just like bowls, isn't it?
A) It would be just like bowls if it were not for the ice (which is slippy, doh!), the sweeping, 8 stones per side per end, the athleticism.... Don't believe me? Try it for yourself: http://www.fentonsrink.co.uk/
Q) Are you a thrower or a brusher?
A) Four players in a team. All throw 2 stones. Skip directs play and throws last 2 stones. Lead (that's me) throws first two and then sweeps remaining six. Second throws second two and sweeps the first two and last four. Third sweeps the first four, throws the next two and directs play when the skip throws his two. From this you can deduce the most physically taxing positions are lead and second while the most mentally taxing is skip. It is very much a team sport - successful play involves coordination of effort. Most teams believe their skip is mentally taxed.
Q) Which country is it you are representing?
A) Enough questions for now.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment