Curling

How It's Played

Curling can be looked at as lawn bowling on ice. The playing area, or "rink," is 46 yards long and 14 feet wide. At each end is a house, 12 feet in diameter. A mark called the button or tee in the center of the house is surrounded by concentric circles. The circles simply make it easier to judge distances; they have no effect on scoring.

Instead of rolling balls, curlers slide round stones down the ice, attempting to get as close as possible to the button. A stone has a maximum diameter of 36 inches and a maximum weight of 44 pounds. There's a handle at the top, and the bottom is concave to reduce friction.

Teams are made up of four players, led by a captain, or "skip". Each player delivers two stones, alternating with an opponent. The unique feature of curling is that a player's teammates use brooms to sweep the ice ahead of the stone, allowing it to go farther.

After all eight players are finished, the end (or inning) is complete. A team scores one point for each stone that's nearer to the tee than any of the other team's stones. Thus, only one team can score in any given end and the number of points can range from one to eight. If there are no stones in the house, or if the closest stones from the opposing teams are the same distance from the tee, there is no scoring for that end. A match is usually made up of 10 to 12 ends.

Curling is a highly tactical sport. Knocking an opponent's stone out of scoring territory is an important part of the sport, as is protecting a teammate's stone to make it difficult for an opponent to dislodge. Expert curlers, by putting spin on a stone, can make it curve (or "curl") a considerable distance to place it behind blocking stones.