WAUPACA REPUBLICAN

January 4, 1889

 

THE GAME OF CURLING

 

A Description of Scotland’s National Game.

 

 

An Exhilarating Sport That is Fast becoming Americanized

How It Is Played

A Pastime That Involves Plenty of Action and Excitement

 

            The game to which curling bears the greatest similarity is quoits; in each the object is to throw an article in such a way that it shall come to rest as near as possible to a given mark.  There the resemblance ceases.  The quoits is as unlike the curling stone as can be imagined.  Instead of a pound and a half iron disk, or thing, we have a rock that must weigh at least thirty pounds, but may not exceed fifty.  The shape of the curling stone is similar to a much-flattened orange.  According to the rules its height must be at least one-eighth of its circumference, and this must not be greater than thirty-six inches.  Into one side of the stone is fastened a handle which the player grasps when he throws his stone.  A curler’s outfit consists of two of these ponderous toys and a broom.  The space required to play the game is forty-two yards long by seven wide.  This is called a rink.  Near each end the goals, or marks, are put down on the ice so that they are thirty-eight yards apart.  These are called the “tees”.  Four yards back of each one a circle eighteen inches in diameter is drawn, within which the player must place his right foot when throwing his stone.  A circle seven feet in radius, drawn about each tee, indicates how close the stone must be left to the tee in order that it shall count at lest as a shot.  Four men play on each side in each rink.  The captain of a side is known as the “skip”, a corruption, perhaps, of the nautical term skipper.

            When the game is ready to begin the skips take their positions at one of the tees, and the remaining four men arrange themselves along the intermediate space.  The skips have absolute authority over their respective sides, directing the play of each individual.  One of the men at the further tee, with his foot within the eighteen-inch ring, throws his stone along the ice, aiming for the tee where his skip stands.  If the skip sees any snow or dust, or other obstruction in the path of the on-coming stone, he can order his men on the middle line of the rink to sweep it away with his broom.  No player has any right to touch the stone with his broom, but at the command of his skip he may remove any obstruction in its path.  When the first stone has been thrown and has come to rest near the tee, a player on the opposing side takes his turn.  His object, of course, is to lay his stone nearer the tee than that of his opponent, but he awaits fro instructions from his skip as to how he shall try to throw.  If his opponent has left his stone directly in his path the skip may command him to play against it, to knock it if possible beyond the seven-foot ring, or at all events further from the tee than it now is. The player may or may not succeed in filling his skip’s desire.  The opponent then plays his second stone and the second player likewise.  One pair having played they take up their brooms and go down to the middle of the rink, while another pair take their place at the initial tee.  The skips play last, one curler from each side assuming the directing of the critical tee.  When all the stones have been cast the umpire counts up the points scored by each side, deciding, as in quoits, by the proximity of the stones to the object tee.  That constitutes an “end”, and sometimes a definite number of ends are played to constitute a game and sometimes a definite time is played, in each case the scores of completed “ends” being aggregated to arrive at a result.  An experienced player thus describes the “five points” of the game:

“Curling is a game that does not depend for success upon the exercise of great muscular strength.  When the ice is in such condition that it takes a good deal of muscle to propel the stone to the tee, we do not consider it good curling.  People unfamiliar with the sport might think a forty-pound stone rather heavy for a plaything, but few would prove so slight as to be unable to throw it more than forty rods over keen ice.  Curling seems to me superior to all other sports in that, while individual excellence is cultivated to the highest extent, yet team-playing is equally important, and more required than in any other game I know about.  In curling, every man has to be on the alert every instant; he is never wholly idle, and must be ready to obey the command of his skip promptly and intelligently.  I know no sport where the leader or director or captain, whatever may be his title, has as great responsibility as the skip in curling.  The player forty-two rods away cannot distinguish accurately the relative positions of the stones already at rest near the tee; he cannot see with certainty just what it will be best for him to accomplish. The skip decides for him, and from his position at the tee decides the play.  Now, suppose the player has started his stone; the skip may think it not coming fast enough to reach the desired point, and he therefore orders his men who are in the middle of the rink to sweep with their brooms in front of the curling stone.  You have no idea how much difference the sweeping makes. If snow is falling it can readily be understood that the brooms must be used actively, but on a clear, cold day they are indispensable. The continual sliding of the stones over the ice makes a slight ice dust; dust may be blown from the land, too, and the slightest obstruction will have its effect in marring or helping a fine shot; or if the skip thinks the stone is too fast he will not allow his sweepers to use their brooms, hoping that he minute obstructions may retard it sufficiently to bring it to rest at the required spot.  It sometimes keeps a sweeper pretty busy to run ahead of the stones weeping the path. In order to get about quickly on the ice the curlers wear rubbers.

            “The important thing for a curler to learn is just how much force is required to propel his stone a given distance.  No two stones, of course, are exactly alike in shape or weight, and it is necessary that the player should have a pair that are as nearly mates as possible.  Otherwise he would be continually sending the lighter one too far and the heavier not far enough.  After acquiring the proper judgment as to force, the curler must learn how to curve.  The necessity for this is seen if we suppose that an opponent has delivered his stone so that it rests directly in front of the tee, but several feet away.  If the next player then throws his stone so as to hit the first one, aiming to knock it beyond the tee and outside the seven-foot circle, he is likely to do no more than knock it still nearer the tee, his own stone coming to rest further away. Therefore, he will endeavor by throwing with a peculiar twist, known as either the “in turn”, or “out turn”, according to the curve desired, to send the stone so that it shall curve round that of his opponent and come to rest between it and the tee.  I have often seen a stone so skillfully curved that it would go straight for another stone, left on guard, as we say, when it stops on the straight line defined by the two tees, until it began to lose its impetus, when it would deflect to the left or right as much as five feet, and then curve about until it stopped on the same straight line on which it set out, leaving the guard stone away in the rear.  Skill in curving admits of many fine points in play, as the caroming of one stone upon another so as to knock the one at rest out of a good position, or the caroming of one stone upon another in such a way that the one in motion will then deflect and bring up against a third.