Game 8 Recap

We had a game a few weeks ago, but I've been out of town and didn't get a chance to do a recap.  This was a close game, but not nearly as exciting as the week before.  We gave up two points to our opponents again this week, but this seemed more deserved as they hadn't won a game yet all season and they have two first year curlers on their team.  Also, I had my entire team together for the game, which actually hasn't happened for a little while.

I'm thinking that the key shot of the game, at least for the opposing skip is shown below.  As you can see, my team is sitting shot, but my opponent is second shot, and then I have two more rocks bunched up in the center.  The situation is my opposing skip has hammer and it's his last shot.  My team is up by one I believe, but the score may have been tied. 

The opposing skip decided that his shot would be to play off his rock and then get a roll sideways into his own rock, which would take out shot rock.  He ended up hitting his rock square and didn't get a roll at all.  My team scored one.

Someone was watching this from upstairs and really believed that there was a way to get all three of my rocks out.  At least for me (and the opposing skip), predicting what would really end up being an explosion of rocks is pretty difficult.  I had also thought it would have been possible for the opposing skip to draw (or possibly throw a takeout) to his rock and then take out my shot rock.  While that's possible, there's also the danger that you take out your own rock and now I'm scoring two or more for the end.  I actually think the call was correct because while there was a high degree of difficulty for the shot, the risk that something worse could happen was fairly small compared to some of the other alternatives.

Game 7 Recap

This one was a heartbreaker.  My team had the game in hand, but we lost on the last shot of the game when the opposing skip made a beautiful draw that barely made it past multiple guards.  Final score was 9-7 and that takes our record down to 4-3.  Sigh.  I'll break down the final four shots of the game here.  It's the eighth end and I'm down 1.  With my first shot, I play a guard to block off any shots on the right side.  I actually threw it light, but my guys barely swept it across the hog line.

With his first shot of the end, the opposing skip went for a takeout on shot rock and his rock stayed.

With my shot, I also went for a takeout.  I thought the shot was perfect because my rock rolled behind a little bit of cover.

But then the skip made an absolutely gorgeous shot to win the game.  That rock barely made it past both guards.

It was really the most exciting game I've been a part of.  I made some pretty dumb mistakes early on.  For example, I had to make a takeout to score four, but then messed it up and the other team scored one.  At one point, my team was down six, but I made a beautiful (and very lucky) double takeout to score three.  The other team played really well though.  I was surprised that they're a D level team and got two points against us.  But I don't think I could've done any better on that last end.

Sub Game Recap

For the first time this season, I subbed and I'm happy to say that I helped the team get their second win of the season.

I actually played pretty poorly.  I had 3 rocks in a row that I overthrew.  In my defense, the ice was really fast.  By that third rock (a guard), I came out so slow that I thought I was going to hog it, but the rock stopped in the four foot.  I also had my first stumble in a while.  Basically the entire game, the skip called for me to slide to the right.  For some reason, the only time I was going left, I fell over.  I just felt my broom kind of slip and then I was down. 

So after six ends, my team was up 4.  My shots of the end were a guard and a rock in the house (which was also shot rock), but by my skip's turn, those rocks were long gone.  Takeouts were missed by the team's second and third and now the opposing team was sitting two.  Opposing team also has hammer.

My skip called and made the double takeout on rocks 1 and 2 and his rock was wide open for a takeout.  His next shot was a missed takeout and all of a sudden the opposing team scored four for the end and tied the game. 

I was thinking about this shot though and thought that maybe the best shot was to instead play the freeze to rock 1.  If you get the freeze perfectly, you've saved two and you have a shot at getting a takeout on the next shot.  If it's short, you have a chance to raise on your next shot.  If there's too much weight, you probably move rock 2, but your rock likely stays and is not as wide open for a takeout.  Now, I know that a hard takeout is the easier shot, but I hope that I at least think about this possibility in the future.

Back to the game though, they scored four, but we had hammer in the eighth end and fortunately we scored 1 to win it 7-6.

On playing lead, I sometimes forget how much my other guys work than me.  I usually wear gloves, a hat, and a long sleeve tee (pants too!) when I curl.  By the fourth end, gloves and hat were off and my sleeves were up.  Maybe I'm just not in good shape, but I don't think I'd want to wear a sweater the way some of these other teams do.  But when you play lead, it's kinda nice to not have to think as much.

Game 6 Recap

Before the game, I was surprised to see that my opponents got two points for their handicap.  I guess that means that my team is now a B level, so that's good for us.  To sum up, we won 8-5 in the 6th end (a couple rocks were left so we didn't technically finish the end) so another good win for my team.  My opponents had really only started curling in spring league from a few months ago so that's good for them.

One of the highlights include a double from my opponents first second.  To explain, their second was going to be late so they had one of their buddies play the first end.  This guy had never curled before, but on his second shot, they called a takeout.  As it so happens, the guy got a double.  I'm pretty sure that I didn't get a double my first year, let alone in my first end, so that was pretty cool for them.

Another interesting situation happened in the fourth end.  My team is down one and we don't have hammer.  As you can see below, my team is sitting four with some decent cover.

I thought a guard covering my team's rocks was the best shot.  As it turns out, I was a little heavy, but now my team is sitting five.  I actually can't remember the opposing skip's next shot, but I know nothing was affected by the shot.

Now, there's a decision.  The opposing skip has two shots, right?  One is a takeout on the right side and hopefully he gets two rocks, but probably has no shot at scoring.  The other is a draw on the left side.  There's a chance at getting shot rock but if it's in the house it might reduce the score a little.  The more logical shot is probably a guard against the draw on the right, but Vice and I quickly agreed to the guard on the right side.  The other team really hadn't made any draws during the entire game.  Their two scoring ends required some fairly difficult raises and runbacks (and a little luck).  Anyway, I got a good guard up front and the opposing skip wildly missed his draw (both on line and on weight). 

This was my team's first end this season where we scored four or more.  We were up 8-4 after that and that was pretty much it.  Record's now 4-2 with three more games to go in this half of the season.

Game 5 Recap

Another win for my team, bringing our record to a respectable 3-2.  Lead was out at the last minute and I couldn't find a sub on short notice so we just played with three people.  Our opponents got a one point handicap so I guess we're supposed to be better than them.  I guess we are as the final score was 8-5.  Second was probably player of the game as there were several times when after his three stones there were two guards and a buried rock in the house.  Also, there were a couple interesting shots. 

First, I'll highlight Vice's improbable double.  In the setup below we can see that there are two yellow stones close, but not touching.  I called a hard takeout with the idea that if we get the hit on the left side, we'd get both of them.  (Note: There were other rocks, but I don't remember them.)

Of course, it didn't turn out that way.  The rock curled over to the right side of the target rock.  But it rolled all the way across the house and right into the other yellow in the house for the double.  Vice will tell you that he saw that possibility, but don't believe him.  Still, it was pretty cool to see and looked very Olympic-like.

In addition, the opposing skip made an absolutely gorgeous shot that was basically all luck.  The situation is my team is up 6 in the 7th end and the opposing skip is going to throw is last rock.  Now, in the setup below, we can see that the guy had little to work with.  I'm not really sure what was communicated between the opposing skip and third, but the third was standing around the center and Vice and I ask him what the shot was.  The third said he had no idea.  I ask if he's sure and Vice actually goes over and helps him setup the double raise takeout.

As it turns out, the raised rock actually bounces off another rock before taking out my stone in the center.  It was amazing.

Second thinks we were being condescending by helping the other team with this and he's probably right.  However, I think everybody learned something and we all got to see a cool miracle type shot.

Game 4 Recap

A good win last night for my team.  The final score was 10-4 and that brings the record up to 2-2.  Also, this team was A-level and we got 2 points.  However, their third was out and they don't even think they're A level when the team's intact.  The highlight of the game was a triple takeout by me.  Of course, getting the triple was all luck and the setup for the double was pretty easy.

It was just a matter of hitting the first rock with enough weight to move all three and I wasn't even sure that I'd get the angle to get the triple.  It wasn't that long ago that I wrote here that I wasn't sure if I'd ever have a triple. 

The opposing skip last night is one of those really loud shouters.  (I'm the opposite where sometimes my teammates don't hear me.)  And he's really visibly negative when a throw is off line or weight.  It's just really jarring to be standing behind the guy and to feel how loud he's shouting.  Kind of on this note, when I was in a different league, I nicknamed an opposing skip "Porn Star" because of his habit of shouting "HARD" as loud as possible. 

Anyway, it was a good win for the team.  I'm a little worried that they'll adjust us up to B level next week, but if that's the consequences for being 2-2, that's fine with me.

11-8-10 Highlight of the Week

This shot from Jennifer Jones happens to be the first hit when searching for "curling shot" on youtube.



Can you imagine even going for a takeout off a corner guard?  Now, I've actually called a shot off a corner guard maybe twice.  There's so little margin of error for the angle it has to hit at and the shot was missed pretty terribly.

Paul Lukas on the Curling Show

I'm a regular listener for Dean Gemmell's Curling Show podcast.  I've been backed up on my podcasts, but just now listened to the Paul Lukas podcast from last week.  Now, most of these podcasts are interviews with top players in the curling world with some coaches thrown in there too.  And of course, most of the interviews are fairly standard and sometimes border on bland.  (I blame it on the fact that Canadians in general might be too nice.)  Like, a couple of Canada's top curlers are going to curl for Russia in 2014.  But no one's saying anything like, "That's such a betrayal" or "I hope they fail."  Along these lines, wouldn't it be funny to read about an affair between, say, "curlgar" Cheryl Bernard and John Morris.  That would be interesting curling news to read. 

Anyway, I thought the Lukas interview was kind of interesting.  His blog is uniwatchblog and one of his big interests is clothing in sports.  He also recently curled for the first time earlier this year and even played in a bonspiel in Duluth.

He and Dean were talking about how there's no "official" type curling clothing.  Like how if I say bowling shirt, you have a picture in your mind how that looks.  That got me thinking about all the crazy clothes you can see at the curling club.  There's a guy that always curls in a kilt.  There's the purple guy who wears purple and has a corn broom painted purple.  There's a number of velvet tracksuits (ensconced in velvet for any Seinfeld fans).  And of course, there are the old school cardigan sweaters.  My team has tossed around ideas for matching clothes, but we haven't hit on anything we all like. 

Anyway, it was an interesting podcast.  Go check it out.

Game 3 Recap

Another loss for my team which brings our record to 1-2.  The final score was 6-5 and it was a close game the whole way.  I even had a chance to win it in on my last shot but totally choked and the shot was short.  It was probably off line too, but it didn't have a chance.  We were up against an A-level team and my team (who I've now deduced is C-level) got 2 points.  It felt good to know that my team can kind of hang with an A-level team.  We actually beat this team last year, though it kind of came on a technicality (they moved a rock before it was scored and decided to give us the point for it.)  But this is a team that should be way better than us since they play and bonspiel all the time. 

So the situation was tied after the seventh end and my team had hammer for the final end.  Their first shot was in the house, as shown here:

I decided to call a freeze, but it ended up a little short, like this.  In retrospect, that might have been the call that ruined the end.  I only had to score one to win.  Maybe it would have been best to keep everything clean so that I'd have a clear shot at the end. 

As it turns out, basically every rock was still in play with 1 rock left to go for each skip.  It something like this.  There were a bunch of guards up front, but I don't really remember where they all were.  Our two (red) rocks up front were supposed to guard against raises, but I guess they ended up too close to my oppononents' stones.  The opposing skip made a beautiful shot for one.

Supposedly, cursing's not allowed on the ice, but I definitely let out an F-bomb after that shot.  The pressure was on and I couldn't make my shot.  Oh well.  It was a good game though.

WaterSpiel

I got my issue of the Curling News recently and saw an ad for something called the WaterSpiel, which would be the first bonspiel held on a cruise ship.  Seems kind of weird though.  There are going to be three sheets and they're only going to be 50 feet long, which is only a third of the normal 150 feet.  (Sadly, I just had to look that up.)  The sheets will also only be 10 feet wide. 

And basically, you're going to be curling while on the ship and then you might even have to play while the ship is in port too.  Imagine if the ship tips a little and all the rocks move.  With the short sheet, I feel like it'd be so easy to put way too much weight on a shot.  And to hog a shot probably would require the ship tipping towards you or something.  I might even fault a shot because the hogline's going to be closer than normal.

But still, it'd be kind of fun.  And really it's not that different from playing shuffleboard on a cruise ship.  I hope it works out for them and they continue to hold the event.  I can't make it, but maybe someday when I can work it into the budget.  Let me know though what you think at stpaulcurlers@gmail.com

Game 2 Recap

I wasn't there last sunday (Vegas Baby!), so my teammates had to play without their skip.  Unfortunately for my team, we lost 10-1.  Also, apparently, this team had a +1 handicap against my team so they might be a little better than that.  I'm sure that my presence would not have helped a blowout like that.

Also, the only time they scored, in that end, they actually had 6 rocks in scoring position, but I guess the other team found a way to only make it one.  Oh well. 

This reminds me of a time when my team had our first seven rocks in scoring position.  In my mind, I was thinking that I had a chance at an 8 ender.  Unfortunately, we didn't have hammer and the other team scored 1 in that end.  That might be the closest I'll ever get. 

I'm back tonight so we'll see how game 3 goes.

My Curling Gear - My Broom

As there's no game this week, I'll have some posts on equipment that I use.  I can pretty much say that I buy among the lowest priced of all the stuff out there.  (But if anyone would like me to try out their stuff for free, just let me know.)  Anyway, I use a Goldline Matrix, shown here.

Of course, Goldline doesn't make these any more, so I'm a little worried about replacing the brush head.  In Curl to Win, Russ Howard talks about replacing the brush head like every month.  And I plan on replacing the brush head this year (for the first time) when Goldline visits SPCC. 

But in general, I've been happy with the swivel head.  And I know that I'm supposed to care about how heavy the broom is, but I don't notice.  Of course, my teammates would say, "It's not like you sweep that much" (even though I sub from time to time.)  I guess I kinda wish it had that little ridge the newer brooms have which seems a little nicer for sliding, but it's not really important. 

To sum up, it's a nice broom, and I plan on keeping it as long as there are brush head replacements. 

10-17-10 Highlight of the Week

This is an absolutely insane shot by Glenn Howard from the 2009 Brier.  I can't even imagine coming up with this shot. 



No curling this week because of the St. Paul Cashspiel.  Vice (the last of my nicknames) and I were discussing if we'd ever enter the Cashspiel last year because they had a few extra spots at the time, but really, we've never played more than one game on a sunday during a bonspiel so really, we're not even close to that level.  Maybe someday.

Game 1 Recap

My team had its first game of the new season last night and I am happy to report that we won 10-4 after 7 ends.  And we also had a triple takeout by Second (this'll be his nickname here) who was actually playing third.  That was pretty cool.  Here's a picture of the shot. (Does anyone know of a good way to display curling shots?  I did this with Word and Snagit.) 

As Lead (another obvious nickname) put it, "The other two rocks were taken out by the breeze of the first."  Actually the rock on the bottom right was still in play after the triple takeout; it had only moved an inch or so back, but it was not longer biting.  Still, that was pretty cool and I don't even know if I'll ever have a triple so kudos to Second.  And kudos to the opposing team who had 3 double takeouts during the game. 

Good way to start the season.

10-10-10 Highlight of the Week

This was the first curling related video that shows up when you search youtube for runback.  Personally, I've never made a double runback, but the other team magically got one when they were going for a different shot.



My first match is in just a few hours.  Almost there...

First Practice

I met my third and my second last night at SPCC for a little practice.  It felt good to get out on the ice again.  It was also very cold.  I usually wear a hat and gloves during games and went out yesterday without them. 

I recently read Russ Howard's Curl to Win and he talked about how he doesn't recommend the tuck slide.  I happen to do a tuck when I slide and always felt like like it made me more accurate with my shots.  He talked about how you're a little less stable in the tuck and I definitely feel less stable when I'm going for a lot of weight (and sometimes when not going for a lot of weight).  I tried to think about not doing the tuck yesterday, but it just comes naturally to me.

There was a surprising number of people there.  Every sheet was in use last night pretty much the whole time I was there.  But this is one of the few times in the year where you can uninterrupted ice time, so it's understandable.

First game's on Sunday.  Can't wait.

Hurry Hard

Tomorrow's my first time on the ice in like 5 months.  Here's a video that's making the rounds which might serve as a little motivation.



We'll see how I do.

10-3-10 Highlight of the Week

I thought that one of the fun things I could do on this blog is highlight a cool shot.  This first one is one of John Morris' doubles from the gold medal game at the 2010 Olympics.



In my own experience, I've actually gotten a double once.  I'll also always remember getting my first runback.  It was either my first or second time skipping, which was actually during my first year of curling.  It was good to get a cool shot off and it got my confidence up.

Introduction

Hello.  I'm Skip and I'm a curler at the St. Paul Curling Club.  This will be my 5th year curling and I curl on Sundays.  I thought it'd be fun to talk about my experiences as a novice curler.  I'm the skip of my team, which for those of you who don't know, this is the person that tells the other players where to throw the rocks and is supposedly the best player on the team.  Some days though, the best player on the team is definitely not me.

As we go along, I plan on posting on my matches and maybe specific points of those matches.  This will also be good for keeping track of my record.  If you ask anyone on my team how we did last year, we'll tell you that we were around .500, but I'm not actually sure that was our record. 

I've recently read a number of curling books and I'll post on that and other curling related media.  I also plan on posting other people's videos of professional curlers just to inspire myself to make shots I have no business even trying to make.

Sound good?  Let me know what you think.  You can e-mail me at stpaulcurlers (at) gmail (dot) com.