Scott Tournament of Hearts

For those in Canada, you know what this refers to - for everyone else, it's a curling competition (specifically the ladies Canadian Championships).

The event came to a location close to us this year, so we bought tickets to the final match. In this case it was British Columbia (our most Western province) against Team Canada (not our Olympic team, but the team to the world curling championships from last year that finished a disappointing 3rd).

The event was held at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario......here is the outside:



John Labatt was the founder of Labatt breweries, Canada's second largest/oldest brewer, and founded in London.

The best way I can describe curling is that it's like Bocci but played on ice. The object is to get your rocks closest to the middle of the house (rings) and the closest rocks score points. Each team slides a number of rocks down the ice (which has frozen drops on it to form little bumps to let the stones slide) and tries to set-up guards to block the opposing team, and they sometimes draw to the middle of the rings (called the button) and also sometimes throw very hard to take out opposing players stones. There is a lot of strategy involved, and it's actually much more difficult to do than it looks.

Canada is certainly a big country in curling. For us to win the World and Olympic titles is more of an expectation than a goal (although the sport is growing and there are more countries contending all the time). Consequently, out national championships tend to be very high level events.

The final began on Sunday on sheet "C". The play moves from one end to the other as the game moves on:



Each player has a chance to throw (slide) two stones and the head of the team usually calls the shots and strategy. The other members sometimes sweep the ice with broom to create friction, which can change the speed a trajectory of a stone in motion, but only to a limited degree. In this photo the stone is coming towards our end, and you can see two people sweeping ahead of it:



Of course this is a televised event, so below us you can see where those running the coverage were sitting:



The head of Team Canada (the "skip") is watching a stone come down the ice as the skip for the opposing team watches on:



It was a decent sized crowd - the lower bowl of the Centre holds 6,000 people, and the upper another 3,000 or so. There were some empty seats, but over the week of the competition, over 100,000 people came to the rink:



In the end Team BC beat Team Canada, and becomes the new Team Canada for the Worlds coming up in a couple of weeks.



I shot some video, but it's a bit overexposed in some cases since the ice comes out so bright under the lights. Here are two shots from when the action is coming towards out end. The only disadvantage to our seats was that the view of the house was blocked by the players in some cases.

In this first one, you can see a hit on one stone - it was a good shot as you can hear the crowd react:

http://media.putfile.com/Curling99

Here is another where the shot was for the team to hit their own stone back onto one from the competition, and knock the competition's yellow stone out of the rings, while keeping theirs in for a score. Another good shot!

http://media.putfile.com/Curling-2

Anyway, most Canadians enjoy curling as an activity or to watch (with the exception of John - Atomic) so it was an interesting way to spend an afternoon.

Thanks for looking.

[Launch Mini]

Good post. and way to go BC ( local team for me)
I think I heard you cheering on TV

I won't be surprised if no one else posts to this thread. It IS curling, after all...

Great pix Al. Glad you had a good time. We were doing another 'Canadian' activity yesterday. We took C skating on the Rideau Canal (world's longest skating 'rink'). Actually I skated and pulled her behind in her toboggan, and we stopped for some hot chocolate and a Beaver Tail before we turned for home.

[JJ Irani]

Al,

Thanks for taking all that effort and trouble to post those great pics. Yes, I've watched curling on TV and found it quite fascinating. Not a popular sport here in NZ, but it is a fascinating one nevertheless.

Thanks - JJ

[Rockrolex]

OK, so you guys in the frozen North took a sunny, warm weather game of shuffleboard and put it on ice. What's so original about that?

[dman]

Cool post Al.

I gotta tell you, Dylan made a broom out of his tinker toys and runs up and down the hall yelling "harder"! It is the funniest thing I have ever seen.

Originally Posted by dman

Cool post Al.

I gotta tell you, Dylan made a broom out of his tinker toys and runs up and down the hall yelling "harder"! It is the funniest thing I have ever seen.

Daren, you gotta get him yelling at the top of his lungs:

"HURRY, HURRY HARD!"

[padi56]

Great pictures Al believe the art of curling started in Scotland in the sixteenth century, as a primitive game of quoits on ice.

[dman]

Originally Posted by Atomic

Daren, you gotta get him yelling at the top of his lungs:

"HURRY, HURRY HARD!"

I'm trying to get him to do long division.

Curling would only get my attention if the rocks had explosives in them such that if they touched, they'd blow up.

Now THAT would be good TV!

"he blowed up good.... real good."

[dman]

Originally Posted by Atomic

Curling would only get my attention if the rocks had explosives in them such that if they touched, they'd blow up.

Now THAT would be good TV!

"he blowed up good.... real good."

I am not sure why, but that sport has me hooked. I really do enjoy watching it on TV. Especially the womens team from Sweeden.

[C.J.]

Great thread, Al. Thanks for bringing us along again I enjoyed watching this in the Olympics. It looks pretty difficult

Originally Posted by Atomic

"he blowed up good.... real good."

SCTV - the best show that ever was.........

Originally Posted by Avalon

SCTV - the best show that ever was.........

So you like Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol HeRock. I loved watching The Fishin' Musician, particularly the one with Wendy O Williams! Not every day you get to see a punk singer topless with bandaids on her nipples out fishing with John Candy (rest is soul).

Best show on TV, particularly considering their budget constraints and the times.