Curling For Dummies
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Curling, probably more than any other sport, has its own unique terminology (like hurry hard and burning a rock, among others). Here are the key curling words and phrases you need to know to blend in at your next bonspiel:

  • Blank end: An end where no points are scored.

  • Bonspiel: A tournament in which curlers compete.

  • Burning a rock: A rules infraction that happens when a player touches a stone as it’s traveling down the sheet.

  • Button: The very center of the target rings or house.

  • Cashspiel: A tournament in which curlers compete for money.

  • Delivery: The action of throwing a stone to the other end of the playing surface.

  • Eight-ender: A perfect end where every one of the team’s stones scores a point.

  • End: The way a curling game is divided. An end is like an inning in a baseball game. A curling game has either eight or ten ends.

  • Gripper: The sole of one of your curling shoes. It helps you keep your footing on the ice. See slider.

  • Hammer: The last rock of the end.

  • Hack: The foothold in the ice you use to push off from when you deliver the stone.

  • House: Also known as the rings, this is the name of the giant bull’s eye at either end of the sheet of ice. It consists of a set of concentric circles, called the 12-foot, 8-foot, 4-foot, and the Button.

  • Hurry hard: A directive given to sweepers by the skip or third, to begin sweeping.

  • Rink: A curling team; also the name of a curling facility

  • Rock: Also known as a stone, the granite playing utensil that a curler delivers. Regular-sized rocks weigh approximately 44 pounds.

  • Sheet: The frozen playing surface on which the game is played.

  • Slider: The sole of one of your curling shoes. It helps you move or slide along the ice.

  • Tee line: The line on the playing surface that runs through the middle of the house.

  • Weight: The amount of force used to deliver a stone.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book author:

Bob Weeks is a senior reporter and analyst for The Sports Network in Canada. He was the editor of the Ontario Curling Report for 30 years, and the curling columnist for The Globe and Mail for more than 25 years.

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