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Rock & Roll

Mike Hackworth

(Updated: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 1:46 PM)

A granite rock, a sheet of ice a broom and a target 42 yards away. Seems simple enough!

When the weather brings the regular winter sports to a grinding halt, I can have a turn at the obscure sports that I don't normally get to cover in the daily news.

In the summer it is the game of Pétanque, a game which can be played by anyone.

But in the winter we have many to choose from, so I will settle on one that I grew up playing on the frozen winter ice of Lake Erie, curling.

Curling is the sport of kings - mainly Danish and other frozen country kings, but kings none the less.

Now don't stop reading and start wrapping the trash in the sports pages, hear me out, you may learn something new.

Curling, originated in Scotland in the 16th Century and its basic premise and scoring system is similar to Pétanque, is also known as "the roaring game" because of the sound the stones make while traveling over the pebbles (droplets of water applied to the playing surface).

More on that later. It is played between two teams of four players and has been a Winter Olympics' game since 1998.

Each team is comprised of four individuals (men and/or women) and team members are designated by names relating to their respective position or skill level to the team.

Skip/Captain - Most experienced curler and is responsible for the team's strategy of play. Throws last.

Third/Vice - Second most experienced curler. Works closely with the skip in implementing strategy. Throws third.

Second - Third most experienced curler. Throws second.

Lead - Least experienced curler. Throws first.

Each team takes turns pushing a 42-pound solid granite stone or "Rock" along the ice towards a 12-foot wide set of concentric circles called the house, with the object being to get the stone as close to the innermost circle, the "button" or "tee," as possible.

A team scores a point for each rock that is closer to the tee than their opponent's nearest rock, as long as the rock is within a six-foot radius of the button.

For those of you who need that competitive aggressive edge, you can knock your opponent's rock away from the scoring rings and button.

A game consists of 10 "ends." In an end, each team member, always in the same order, delivers two rocks while the other team members sweep frantically with brushes to momentarily melt the ice and reduces the friction of the rock.

After the rock has passed the button line, the opposing team members sweep the ice to try and coax the rock out of the rink.

Once all 16 rocks have been delivered, the score is added up and the scoring team gets to go first on the next end. The team with the most points at the end of 10 ends is the winner.

The "magic' of the ice

The curling sheet is an area of ice 146 to 150 feet in length by 14-feet-6-inches to 16-feet-5-inches in width, as close to level as possible.

The ice is most often frozen by means of a refrigeration plant that cools a brine solution running the length of the sheet in pipes beneath it.

The key to the preparation of the playing surface is the spraying of water droplets, called "pebble," onto the ice.

Due to the friction between the stone and pebble, the stone turns to the inside or outside, causing the stone to "curl."

The amount of curl can change during a game as the pebble wears. The surface of the ice is maintained at a temperature around 23 °F.

There you have it, in a nutshell, sort of. So the next time that it is on the WideWorld of Sports, take it in with all of its excitement.