CURLING QUEUE: Folks of All Ages Lining Up to “Take it to the House.”

House. Rock. Sweep.

That’s the language spoken nightly at the Eau Claire Expo Center, by a sport fluent in all ages and skill levels.

“We’ve been around for more than 50 years,” said Jeff Thompson, manager of the Eau Claire Curling Club. “We have approximately 300 members at our club. We have league outings every night of the week.”

Eau Claire is “ice zero” for this sport that originated in Scotland in the 1500’s. “There are more curlers in Canada than the rest of the world combined,” Thompson claims, “but Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota is the epicenter here in the US. Though this year they opened a brand new dedicated club in Arizona, and one in North Carolina. And this year the national championship for curling is being held in Jacksonville, Florida.”

Curling is inclusive, and it’s forgiving, no matter the Wisconsin wind chill.  When it’s cold outside, things are warm and fuzzy inside.

“Curling is a great winter sport to get people out of their houses and connecting with others,” said Kimera Way, convener for the Friday night league. “What’s so great about curling is literally anyone can do it. It’s one of those inter-generational sports where we see grandfathers with granddaughters and entire families out there curling.  The ice is a great equalizer, which makes this one of the few sports where a lot of people can be out doing the same thing on a Sunday afternoon or a Tuesday night and all having a shared experience.  It’s a tremendous sport for bringing people – community – together.”

According to Jeff Thompson, you can take the slippery sport at your own speed. “The first medal Olympics was in 1998. Mike Peplinski played in those Olympics. Jeff Goodland from our club is the reigning US National Senior Men’s champion. So it’s very good for both recreational and competitive folks. My son Charlie is 13 and has been actively curling for five years. His goals are the Olympics, National Championships and World Championships. He trains year-round and competes as often as possible.”

“I’ve been curling for nearly 10 years and some nights I think I’m ok and some nights you would think I just started,” said Way.  “I always say it’s a bit like golf – you hit one great shot and you think ‘Ok, I’ve got this game’ and then the next 10 stink.  What’s fun about curling is on any given night, any given end, any given shot, even the freshest rookie can make a shot that bests the seasoned professional.  The variables of the ice surface, the speed, and just goofy things happening on ice make every shot either grand or awful.  Obviously the more you curl the greater the percentage of good shots but even great curlers can have a bad night.”

Let’s take that golf analogy one rock further – to curling’s elusive “hole-in-one.”

“The ‘hole in one’ of curling or pitching a perfect game in baseball is scoring eight points in one end – or an 8-ender.  That means that every rock thrown by one team counts for points,” said Way.  “Scoring an 8-ender against a decent team is really difficult.  If a team scores an 8-ender, you take pictures, toss back a celebratory drink and send the other team home.  I’ve seen it happen once in the time I’ve been curling at the EC Curling Club and that was by a team of four women on another night.  They had lots of pictures.”

“It’s far more rare than a hole-in-one in golf because in golf you don’t have an opponent trying to remove your stones to prevent it,” added Thompson. “There have been four eight-ends scored in the modern (50+ year) history of our club. I’ve come close, but never scored an eight-end.”

Curling may just be the perfect game, as created. There’s no physical contact with opponents, no clipping, no trash-talking, and unlike another game played on ice, no checking.

“Actually there is a really strong code of ethics associated with curling – it truly is a ‘gentleman’s/woman’s sport.’  With curling there are rules governing play but as important are the rules of etiquette.  You always start the game shaking everyone’s hand and saying ‘Good Curling.’  You also end the game shaking hands with a ‘Good Game or something comment.’  Always.  You always report your own infractions.  When the other team is throwing their rocks, you are to stand aside and not block their line of vision or their lanes for sweeping.  You are supposed to move only after they release their stone.  Only the skips and their thirds (assistant skip or third person throwing the rock) can stand behind the tee line and they aren’t supposed to put their brooms on the ice so as to confuse the person throwing the rock.  Everyone is supposed to stand outside the rings at the end of an end until the thirds determine the score and for sure you can’t touch any rocks until the score is agreed upon. The third is the only one who can put a score up on the board.   The only real noise you will hear on the ice during a game is the skip yelling at his/her sweepers to SWEEEEEEEEEP!

“I think that’s one of the things I love about the game is the etiquette of it all.  By all means be competitive but do so in a polite manner.”

Thompson added that it is bad form to cheer for an opponent’s misses, though it is proper tradition to share a drink with your opponent after each and every game. Straight up, not on the rock.

 

Steve Betchkal

Chief Videojournalist

CVCTV

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