What is "curling"?

Question

I was visiting Canada yesterday and saw some fliers and papers about "curling". What is this? I'm very interested in Canada and it's history.

Answer 1

Think of shuffle board....played on a long sheet of ice. 4 players per team..each player throws 2 rocks. the target consists of 3 rings painted under the ice....largest is 12 ft in diameter, second is 8 ft, third is 4 ft, and there is a button in the middle, guessing about 1 ft in diameter. Players slide their rocks down the ice, aiming at the broom held at the other end, by the Skip. As you release the stone, you give the rock a slight twist...clockwise (in-turn) or counter-clockwise (out-turn). The stone will actually turn and curl in that direction (inturn to the right and out turn to the left), as it slides down the ice...thus the name curling..the other players on your team, can sweep in front of the stone (with curling brooms or brushes), as the stone slides down. By doing so, they can actually make the stone slide faster, by polishing the ice, and also, make it curl more by sweeping. After all stones are delivered, which constitutes an "End" the stones closest to the button in the middle of the rings count points....e.g. If one team has the closest stone to the button, they count one. If they have 3 stones closer than the opposing team, then they count 3. Stones must be touching, or on the circles to count. Games usually consist of ten ends. at the end of the 10 ends, the team which has the most points wins the game. if you are really interested, check your local sports channels....Someone should cover the World Championships. As well, it is an Olympic event in which the U.S. enters a team.

Answer 2

Curling is a winter sport that is popular in Canada, Scotland, Swedan, United Kingdom, and other European countries. The objective of the game is to get as many stones closest to the button of the house (center of a 12 foot circle) Each team has 8 rocks per end, and there are 8 ends in a game (following World Curling Tour - some games have 10 ends)

For more information about curling and curling in Canada, I suggest http://www.curling.ca for more information. If you would like to try it out, find your local curling club. Some regions of Canada have been playing for about a month or so and other regions it will be starting in the next couple of weeks.

Answer 3

Think of horse shoes where the goal is to get around or near a stake in the ground.
Now make the "stake" a circle under the ice and the "horseshoes" are heavy stones with handles on top and you can knock out someone elses stone to get a higher score. It is odd to watch because the stones are slid with a dramatic smoothness, then people with brooms run along side the sliding stone to frantically brush a clear path to encourage it to curve it in the desired direction.
If you have every played that table top hockey thing with steel pucks on a wood surface with a sandy coating, it works the same way.

Answer 4

It's a game where you push rocks along the ice and try to get it to land in a target.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curling