Few  things are more discouraging than not being able to complete the full eight ends because the teams on the ice have exceeded the time allotted for the game. Whether you’re ahead or behind, it just feels wrong. It’s also frustrating if you’re waiting for two teams to finish a game so you can start yours.  

Barring unforeseen circumstances, we should be able to complete every game in the amount of time that is scheduled. So why do we see games that extend beyond it? How does it happen?

Well, we’ve all seen the skip who agonizes over every decision. I’m sure there are games when I’ve taken too long to make a call or spent a lot of time figuring out a complicated end. Some decisions are more difficult than others. But if you think your skip is taking a long time to make every call or there is team consultation on every shot, find a tactful way to tell him or her to speed up. I tend to go with something like, “C’mon, call  something already!” You might have something better. 

But skips aren’t always the culprits. Sometimes, the problem lies with the other players on the team being slow to get ready to deliver their own stones. When it’s your turn to throw, make sure you’re getting in the hack while the opposition stone is on its way to towards the other end. Clean your rock and be ready to go when things come to rest. If you’re playing front end, you probably have a good idea of the shot you’re going to be asked to make. It saves time if you think about making that shot before it’s even called. If every player on the ice gets things in motion just five or ten seconds quicker, you can be sure that there will be plenty of time to complete the game.

There’s also an ebb and flow to every curling game. At competitive events, there are clocks that give each team a certain amount of time to complete their shots. If there are a couple of ends that take a bit longer because they’re complicated, you’ll see front ends pick up the pace. So if you’re on the ice and you realize your team just took a long time to complete an end, make an extra effort to be quick in the next one. 

That said, there’s no need to rush. This is curling, after all, a game that demands patience and thinking. But when games move quickly, the sport is more fun to play.

We’re into the holiday season now so make sure you check your league schedules. It can be a difficult time to find subs — spares, for any Canadians — to try to  plan ahead if you know you’re going to be unable to make a game.

Happy holidays to everyone at PCC.

When you throw a rock now, it actually curls. And not just the one or maybe two feet in certain spots that we’re used to seeing at Plainfield. In fact, right now, the rocks are curling a ton. Throw it at the edge of the 12-foot and it winds up at the button.

What happened, you ask? Well, for the first time since our rocks with inserts were purchased in 2003, they were re-textured. Sanded, actually. This is something that most clubs are now doing on a regular basis and just a few paragraphs down, I’ve copied Bill Nickle’s account of the process.

What’s exciting is that we’ll be able to start playing the kind of game at Plainfield that is more interesting for everyone. With more curl from the stones, come-around draws become a shot that can be made with some consistency. (Sometimes in the past, there were guards that you could not possible bury behind, even if you papered the front stone with your shooter.) Down-weight tap backs can be played. In short, we should see more rocks in play, be able to attempt a wider variety of shots than before and play a a style of game — at least when it comes to strategy, if not always execution — that is more similar to what we see the curlers on television do.

Of course, progress always has a few bumps along the way. Right now, the amount of curl is a bit extreme. The good news? That will change fairly quickly as the new surfaces get more use. Expect it to take a week or two before the rocks settle down and assume a more comfortable amount of curl. The speed should improve as well.

You’ll want to make sure that you have a very positive release with our “new” stones. In other words, you’ll want to put more rotation on the rock when you release it. What’s often called a “soft” release — the in-turn or out-turn just barely started as the rock leaves the hand — will either curl very dramatically or lose its handle.

As promised, here’s Bill’s report on the process:

On Tuesday afternoon, our curling stones were footprinted and ‘re-textured’ in an effort to put some curl back into curling.  From all the intelligence we could gather it seemed clear that our rocks needed some work and that re-texturing was a common course of action.  Over time, the running surface of the rocks becomes too smooth with countless trips up and down the ice.

Some smoothing is due to wear and some is from an accumulation of dirt in the rock (if you look at what the club brooms collect, you can imagine how much dirt builds up on the stone).  If there’s not enough friction between granite and ice, there won’t be enough reaction to cause the curl.  Our stones were new in 2003, so we were seeing the effects of 5 years of use.

By re-texturing the running surface (sanding is too vulgar a term), we clean and add a little grain to the rock.  Using specific instructions and a fixture provided by Canada Curling Stone, the manufacturer of our stone, the work was carried out.

The first step was to footprint the rocks.  This involved taking an impression of each rock’s running surface using a sheet of carbon paper and recording the rock’s serial number.  And thanks to Melanie for the rolling pin.  We now have a record of each stone, like a finger print, and can track changes to the running surface over time.  All our running surfaces were very consistent.

The next step was the re-texturing.  The fixture used consisted of a hard, flat, granite base.  A frame with clamps held a sheet of sandpaper securely in place on the base.  And two stops limited the length of stroke.  A stone was cleaned of any ice crystals, placed on the fixture and pushed and pulled across the sandpaper between the stops.  The stone was sanded twice more at 60 degree increments.  And that’s it.  Six strokes on the sandpaper, one final wipe down, and then ready for play.  A new sheet of 80 grit silicon carbide paper was installed and the process repeated with the next rock.

The rocks were all footprinted once again.  A before and after impression showed that the re-texturing process widened the running surface band slightly.

Don Baird tested the first completed stone and got 5 feet of curl.  He then gave his seal of approval- “I like it”.  We should expect to see an immediate increase in the amount of curl, with a slight decrease in speed. The rocks will settle in with a little less curl after the first week of play.

Re-texturing is a process that should be repeated on an as-needed basis, but no more frequently than once a year.  The borrowed fixture is fairly simple and is something the club should consider constructing for ourselves.  It’s also something that could be shared by neighboring clubs.

Thanks (or blame) to Aaron Dubberley, John Wilman, Don Baird, Jeff Hannon,and Bill Nickle.  And if anyone needs some 80 grit, wet/dry, silicon carbide sandpaper with very low miles, please see Aaron.

There is no way that picks will be completely eliminated. Some are called flat spot picks — they occur when a patch of ice loses its pebble and causes rocks to react differently. Flat spots tend to appear as a game wears on and while they can’t be avoided completely, we can reduce their frequency by taking care to keep our knees and hands off the ice as much as possible. I know that I’m guilty of putting a knee down after I throw sometimes — usually because my knee is screaming — but I try to pick it up as quickly as possible.

At our club, I expect that most picks are caused by debris. Our ice crew does an incredible job making very playable ice in a building that has a truly unique set of challenges. That’s why I think it’s incumbent upon us to make every effort to keep the surface as clean as possible.

First, consider your brush head. When we were putting the ice in at the start of the year, my lowly rank meant that I spent time cleaning brush heads. Not only were the club brooms very dirty but I noticed that many member brushes looked as though they needed some attention. When the fabric head brushes were first introduced, many of us thought that it would be the end of picks  — no more horse or hog hair to get between the running surface of the stone and the ice. But fabric brushes demand even greater attention than hair brushes because they accumulate more debris. You should clean yours just about every time you use it to sweep a rock. Rubbing it with your hand certainly works but the best way to clean it is with a nail brush — the club does provide some at the ends of each sheet. (I like to move them to the side benches during a game.) What’s more convenient is to keep a small brush of your own in your pocket. That way you can take it out as you’re walking back down the sheet and clean your brush while the other team throws its next stone. It only takes a few seconds but it will make a world of difference and also extend the life of your fabric head.

Second, think about your shoes. Most of us wear a gripper over our slider when we sweep. That gripper protects the slider when you’re off the ice surface but it — and your gripper shoe — are also picking up debris as you walk around the warm room, go behind the bar to get a beer, stop in the bathroom, head down to the basement or hunt for paper towels in the kitchen. Yes, you can clean your shoes on the board by the door to the ice shed. But it makes more sense to keep the bottoms of your shoes protected whenever you’re off the ice. I wear two of my old grippers — grippers do wear out and should be replaced — when I’m in the warm room, taking them off when I get into the ice shed and putting on a gripper I use only on the ice. Hospital shoe covers work well off the ice, too. Sure, there are going to be times when we’re all going to rush from the ice to the warm room without bothering to cover our shoes — the Smutty Nose is back on the tap! — but it’s pretty simple to them covered most of the time.

Reducing picks is like just about everything at a curling club — a group effort that requires everyone to pitch in. Let’s all try to do what we can to help out.

— Dean Gemmell