Game 4 Recap

This time we're playing a team on the competitive list and our first A level team of the season.  My team got a handicap of 1 point.  Their team had only two losses last year, so I think the 1 point is justified.

For the first two ends, my play was really terrible.  I hogged my first three rocks and my fourth rock was way off line.  Fortunately, the opposing skip also was having an off night and after two ends, my team was up 4-0. 

Then, they took control for the next two ends.  Here's a diagram for one of the shots they made. 

The skip would tell me later this was  luck, but at the time, I was thinking, "That's why they're A level".  I would happen to make a nice (lucky) shot to turn what could have been a score of 4 for them to a score of 2 so that was a relief.

So after the fourth end, my team is up 4-3.  In the fifth end, their team completely broke down.  By the opposing skip's second shot, my team is sitting 4 and they have just one rock in play up front.  And surprisingly, the opposing skip hogged his shot.  Wow.  Like everyone else, Vice and I will point out where we would like the rock to end up before setting the broom.  This time however, Vice pointed to the entire house and said anywhere.  I had just enough on the shot and we scored 5. 

In the next end, Lead made a couple really nice biters.  The opposing skip went for the takeout both times, except that left their rocks in front of the house.  Was that the right strategy?  I'm not sure.   Would it have been better just to try to draw behind them?  The takeout was the much more reliable shot, but I think you want as many rocks in play in an effort to score at least 3.

Anyway, everyone made their takeouts and they only scored one for that end.  That was the game after 6 ends.  This brings the record to 3-1 with a 1-1 record vs. "competitive" teams.

Curling Book Review - Curl to Win

I'm at home today to stay with the little guy, who's running a fever.  But he's asleep right now, so maybe I can write a quick post during his nap.

I don't feel like writing about a curling patent right now, but I thought I'd write about my favorite curling book: Russ Howard's Curl to Win.  There are seven chapters which can be summed up as: General, Delivery, Sweeping, Game Plan, Strategy, Team Building, and Mental Toughness, but the reason that I like this book so much is the chapter on strategy. 

On a side note, I happen to play a little bit of poker (not very well) and my favorite poker books are the Harrington on Hold 'em series by Dan Harrington.  Basically, the books are comprised of a number of poker scenarios and the author walks you through the thought process and goes through the advantages and disadvantages that a player could make in all of these scenarios. 

Back to curling, Curl to Win has twenty scenarios covered in the strategy chapter.  Howard doesn't go over all of the possible choices (as I have in several of my strategy posts), but he gives a good comparison on how most curlers may play the shot and what is likely to be the better strategy.  I have yet to see a better set of strategy discussion in any other curling book, though Colleen Jones' Curling Secrets has a pretty good strategy discussion as well.

I also think the section on delivery would help curlers of all levels.  It's always good to go over fundamentals and there's a good summary of differents practice drills to help on your accuracy.  Maybe Vice and I will go through some of the drills when curling starts up again. 

Anyway, since most of us have no curling for summer, I'd suggest giving this book a read in preparation for the winter. 

(Just finished writing this post and he's still asleep.)

Analyzing a Bond Girls End

There was no curling this past week, so let's take a closer look at the final end of a Bond Girls match vs. New Jersey.  As of this posting, New Jersey has the best record in the Curling Club Nationals and will be vying for the championship later today.  Here's the video in case you want to watch. 



I'm going to talk about the tenth end, which starts at roughly the 2:24 mark.  After scoring 6 points in the first 3 ends, the Bond Girls would give up 7 points over the next 6 ends.  Fortunately, the Bond Girls are only down one coming home and they have hammer.  That didn't work out for them in their earlier game against Wisconsin, but let's see what happens here.  (In case you didn't watch the movie, the Bond Girls are yellow.)  Also, I have no idea what the time situation was at that moment, but no one really seemed too rushed. 

New Jersey's first rock was in the house.  A good call to see if they can force a takeout game for the end. 

But Marissa called a freeze for Donna, which I consider the right call.  At least see what happens before doing a takeout.  Donna's throw was a little bit too heavy, but a good stone. 

After New Jersey missed their takeout completely to take out their own rock, Donna drew to the other side to split the house.  Good call and good throw.

New Jersey then missed freeze, which left a wide open takeout.  Jen made the shot. However, New Jersey, made a nice bump/freeze shot.  (There should be a better name for this.)

Marissa goes for the takeout, even if it takes out their own instead.  New Jersey's rock does jam against a yellow, but is open.  Still, a nice rock from Jen.  I would have called the same thing for Second and ask that he put lots of weight on it (and hope he hits the broom).

I'm not sure if New Jersey had shot rock after that.  However, they went for a draw, which ended up being more open than they would have liked.  I think if this were my game, I might have thrown a guard if I was shot rock, but the draw keeps the pressure on to make some takeouts.

Cindy missed the open takeout.  New Jersey then threw a guard (the right call in my opinion).  In the next shot, Marissa called for a runback on the left side to raise their rock inside the four foot.  However, Cindy's shot perfectly made it past the guard and the yellow rock to bump New Jersey's rock and take shot rock.  Wow.

New Jersey missed a takeout with their next rock and Marissa threw a well placed guard on the left side.

New Jersey has two choices here I think.  You have the draw on the right side.  Really, you have to be perfect on weight and line because you're either drawing to the button or hoping to bump the yellow stone.  Another, more interesting, option is the runback.  If the red rock is hit on the nose, it would go straight down the center.  Maybe it stays, but hopefully, it at least leaves you sitting one.  Of course, this is a dangerous shot and a number of things could go wrong.  New Jersey went for the draw.  (I probably would have too.)

They missed just a little long on weight.  This was good for the Bond Girls as it gave them an additional backstop if necessary.  Of course, Marissa didn't need it at all and drew perfectly to the button.

Whew.  That was a long post.  I guess that's what happens when you have video to remind you of every little thing.  But a very exciting finish and an awesome win for the Bond Girls.

Game 16 Recap

Finally, a win; the final score was 8-4.  We haven't had a win since Game 11 and that was roughly six weeks ago.  This brings our record to 8-6 with 2 incomplete games and I'm not sure yet if/when we'll get around to those incompletes. 

But before we get to my own game, I actually subbed in a game right before.  I warned my skip that I had a game in two hours so if they went long I might not make it.  Of course, as it turns out, in the last end, the opposing team scored three to tie up the game (my skip had some bad misses).  So we had to go to an extra end, but I really just had enough time to throw my own rock so I didn't sweep any rocks in that last end.  Fortunately, they were able to pull out the win. 

I want to spotlight one scenario from this game.  My team has hammer and is red.  If I recall, we were up by two or three.  It's the first shot for my team's third. 

Now, I tend to play a bit more of an offense game, but I thought the most logical shot was to take out one or more of the guards.  Really, I figured you would just throw the rock down the middle (shown in red) and you couldn't help but hit something.  My thinking is my team is up and this end is ripe for a steal if the other team can make a nice raise. Instead, my skip called the hit and roll off the rock in the house (shown in black).  For both of the third's rocks, we went for that shot and missed it on both sides.  Fortunately, the other team basically missed all of their shots (too bad after setting up a nice end).  Then, with his last shot, my skip was able to draw in a rock (shown in green) to score one, though I think that shot was more difficult than it needed to be.

On to my game.  I had hoped to have my whole team together for the first time in a little while, but alas, Lead was sick.  He had tried to call me, but I was subbing.  Oh well.  We just played with the three of us.  We started out pretty poorly.  In the first end, the opposing team was sitting four, but because we had hammer, I was able to cut that down to them just stealing one.  Fortunately, we settled down after that. 

I can't really remember any major strategy decisions, but here's a shot I should've made. I guess like most other skips (I assume), I remember shots I missed.

In this situation, my team is up two (I think), we're yellow, we have hammer, and it's my last shot.



The obvious goal is to take out the red stone and then we'd (hopefully) score four.  How to call it?  Well, we knew rocks tended to curl a little more to the outside on that side.  So I had Vice hold the broom on the edge of the four foot (as opposed to right next to the red rock) and then I threw takeout weight (the black arrow).  To our surprise, the rock curled all the way over to our own stone (the green arrow) so we only scored two.  Of course, in retrospect, I now wonder if I should've thrown an in turn (the red arrow) and thrown back line weight and used the red rock as a back stop.  I'm now thinking there would've been a greater chance to score three.  But I guess it didn't matter as we won by four.

Anyway, it was a good two games and it was good to get back on track.

Curling Source Shot of the Week #2

No curling game this week, so we'll go elsewhere for a curling scenario.  Curling Source has another shot of the week.  Here's the situation: "It is the 5th end of an 8 end game, your are loosing [sic] 4-2. You have hammer and are shooting blue with just your last rock to come. Would you go for 2 or take the safe 1?"

1. Long cross house double for 2
2. Hack weight hit through port for 2
3. Draw for 1
4. Runback either blue onto yellow for 2

For the first option, which I assume means taking out both yellow rocks, there'd have to be a lot more guards up there to make that the only option I'd take.  I also feel the hack weight hit option has a higher degree of difficulty since it'd have to get by both guards and it requires a fairly specific weight. 

So now I'd have to decide between the draw or the runback.  Assuming I have made a draw or two already in the game, I guess I would just go for the draw.  As much as I'd love to go for two, I'd rather go for the easier point and take my chances later in the game.  I'd lean towards the runback if I had crappy draws earlier in the game. 

Game 13 Recap

Another heartbreaking loss brings the record down to 7-5.  Starting off the second half 1-2 is pretty bad for our second half championship chances.  The final score was 7-6 after an extra end.  The opposing team was also a B level team so no points for either team and it was nice to have the whole team back together again.  This was a fairly memorable game for me so we'll go through the last few ends.

In the shot below, it's the sixth end.  The score is tied at 4-4 and the opposing tam has hammer.  My team is yellow and it's my first stone.  I felt good that we had a lot of guards and I thought we'd have some good opportunities with that.  (In an earlier end, the opposing team had six guards in front of the house and there was basically nothing for my shots.)  At this point, we can see that their rock is just barely closer.  We figured that our rock only has to move up by an inch or two to be shot. 

As indicated by the arrows, there were two shots available.  Lead and I were thinking about going for the double raise (the arrows on the right) and Vice and Second were thinking about going for the takeout (arrow on the left).  The double raise was the more difficult shot but if made, it would take some sort of double takeout to remove it.  However, if I made the takeout and got the roll, that might put the team in position to steal two.  I thought that possibility was enticing, but I ended up going just a little too wide for the takeout.  As it turns out, their next shot was a guard on that takeout and then my next shot was the original double raise that I had first envisioned, which I also missed.  They scored one for the end; it's now 4-5.

So now we're in the seventh end and while my team has hammer, we're in a pretty tight spot for my first shot (I think it was my first shot).  They have shot rock and we figured we had two choices again. There's the double take out (arrows on the left) or the raise takeout (arrows on the right).  I felt like the angle on the double takeout was easier to hit, but there's also a good chance that you only get the front stone.  The angle for the runback was more difficult as it has to get by the guard and hit at a specific point, but I felt a little better about moving our rock instead of theirs. 

Unfortunately, I barely missed the runback.  They ended up stealing one so now the score is 4-6 and we're in the eighth end.  My team again has hammer and they did very well placing their guards again.  (I think we had some high guards in play, but I don't remember and they're not really relevant here.)  Just to let you know that I can occasionally make good shots, this was the setup for what could've been the last shot of the game.  I didn't feel good about trying to go through any of the ports so the runback was the shot, but I did make it to send it to an extra end.  

However, my team didn't have hammer and we would only be playing one stone each.  Lead and Second's rocks ended up being too light.  Vice made a takeout and then I made the shot in the four foot so below is what the opposing skip had to deal with.  Of course, in retrospect, I should've had less broom so that my rock would be behind the guards, but we were worried it might curl a little too much and then crash into the guards. 

But the opposing skip made his takeout for one and took the game.  Oh well.  

Curling Source Shot of the Week #1

The Curling Source just posted their "Shot of the Week".  "It is a tie game in the 8th end of an 8 end game. You are shooting yellow and have last rock. It is your third's second rock of the end. What should you do?"
1. Hit and roll for shot
2. Draw top 4 for shot
3. Peel the guard
4. Run/Peel the gaurd into the top blue stone

Just thinking about my team, the easiest shot is a takeout for shot rock.  Now, to precisely get the correct roll is always kind of random for my team.  We're thinking about it, but we're never really sure whether or not it will happen.  And my first fear is always whether or not a shot will make it around a guard so I might call for a sweep a little too early just to make sure that I at least get the desired takeout.  And then once the rock gets past the guard, then I'll see about getting the roll. 
However, in this particular scenario, I'm more likely to call a freeze for Vice, though I'll ask for back line weight.  Ideally, the freeze makes would make our rock very difficult to takeout.  Depending on where it lands, it could be shot, or I could throw a rock that makes it shot.  If there's too much weight on that the shot and it ends up moving that stone back some (or out), that's not a terrible scenario either.  Our rock would most likely be open for a takeout, but as my team has hammer, I think I'm OK taking my chances with that, at least against the teams that I see on a weekly basis.  There's also the possibility that the shot ends up being a draw behind the guards for shot and I'll take that too.  I ask for more weight than is necessary mainly because I don't want the shot to be short and then act as a guard and then I'll have to do a more difficult runback.

Choice 4 would probably never occur to me.  To do a raise with that much distance needed is just too difficult for me to get that angle correct.  I think that's when someone knows that they're really good, when they can call and consistently make a raise from that far up.  But while peeling the guard isn't my first instinct, it's probably not a bad strategy if you have hammer.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.  Post your thoughts here or at The Curling Source.

Game 10 Recap

Not that you're keeping track, but you may have noticed that I jumped from Game 8 to Game 10 for my recaps.  Due to the holidays Game 9 has been postponed.  I'm guessing Game 9 doesn't really affect the league standings or else there might be some pressure to get the makeup game scheduled.

Anyway, my team played well and we posted an 8-2 win after 7 ends.  Supposedly, we're evenly matched as B level teams.  I would've guessed that their team would be much better as I've played against this skip before and their lead and second have been subs for me in the past. 

Vice was out at the last minute, but fortunately, I was able to find a sub an hour before the game.  My sub was in his first year, but while there was some trouble hitting the broom, I'm happy to say that his weight was pretty good the whole game. 

Here's a memorable shot, at least for me.  The situation is my team is up by 4 or 5 and we don't have hammer.  It's the second shot for Second (who's playing third).

I decided to call a guard to block the raise (rock #1).  My thinking was that I'd just make it very difficult to score.  As it turns out, due to a bad no sweep call by me, the rock didn't make it across the hog line.  The opposing team did make a raise, but was only able to score one for the end. 

The better call might have been to just take out that rock (#2), but I just wasn't positive that we could make that shot.  There was a danger to me that we'd have the wrong angle and all that happens is their rock gets raised into the house behind all the guards.  (There may have been other rocks that aren't pictured that may have made the takeout a little more difficult as well, but I don't remember.)  What I've also been thinking about is that by calling the guard, I was basically conceding the end with my best case scenario being a blanked end.  I was OK with that (my team's up), but if that takeout was made, the rock might have rolled into the house or might be set up for a raise with one of my shots.

I guess it didn't really matter as my team won, but it's always good to keep the more aggressive plays in mind.  I also thought it was interesting that in the previous end, all 16 rocks were in play at the end.  I think that's the first time that's ever happened in a game I've played in.

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.

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 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.