The ancient game of curling goes back to the 1500’s and is played by 4-man teams using “stones” and “brooms”. Each stone weighs about 40 pounds and costs about $500. Players push the stones over ice to a desired target 78 feet away. The brooms are used to scrub the ice and make the stone slide farther and straighter on the ice. There is a lot of strategy on how and where you place your stone in relation to the scoring target and your opponent’s stones. Curling has been described as something between shuffleboard and chess.

On Saturday, January 9th, 7 members of Champaign Ski Club participated in the Ski Kounsel of Illinois (SKI) sponsored event which also included members of Bloomington, Peoria, River City and Springfield Ski Clubs. Champaign was represented by Tony & Deb Curcio, Randy & Judy Haydel, Chris Haydel, John Gentry and Mark Andrews. The event was at the Waltham Curling Club in Triumph, Illinois dubbed the oldest curling club in Illinois.

The curling club members take the sport seriously and we tried to honor that with our gentlemanly play. But this game is harder than it looks and takes some practice to become good at it. We had 4 hours of ice time to get good. About half of the 36 players were first timers. After an orientation and some practice time, we split up into 4-man teams ensuring every team had 2 first timers. 

The game of curling is not what you would call dangerous; however there were a few people who fell on the ice. One woman from Peoria had to have the paramedics take her to the hospital after she fell onto one of the stones and separated her shoulder. Another player fell backwards landing on his butt, then his back and finally hit his head on the ice. He was Ok but sat out the rest of the games. It could have been worse.

Slipping on the ice and falling is a part of the game you need to be aware of and prevent by using controlled movements on the ice. Last year (my first time) when I first stepped onto the ice I immediately fell on my butt. Nothing was hurt but my pride. However, I was not about to repeat that again.

The sport of curling uses distinct terminology like “Hack”, “Hog Line” and “Skip”, to describe: a starting block used to push off from; a foul line on both ends of the “Sheet” or ice that marks the release of the stone and determines if a stone is in play; and the Skip is the person that predetermines the location of where the stones will be thrown.

Fortunately for the ski clubs, curling is a social game that one can enjoy while drinking beer. It’s kind of like bowling, throwing darts or playing pool. The theme for the day was based on the Olympics. Each team was named for a country that will likely have a curling team in the Olympics. The Great Britain team won so look for the Brits to win it all for real.

The US Olympic Committee selects a curling team based on tournament play. It truly is a competition that an every day person can enter and win. Club teams play each other in a sort of round robin tournament. The winning men’s team is from Duluth, Minnesota and the winning women’s team is from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

I encourage everyone to follow the US Olympic Curling team and recommend curling to anyone. See you next year.