Teams are allowed to surrender before the tenth end if it seems unlikely they can come back. Teams alternate throws, so stones are continuously knocked in and out of the house, this is why points are only tallied after the end. Because of this, the team with the last throw has a major scoring advantage.
This last stone is referred to as the " hammer " and it is typically expected that the team with the hammer will win the end. After each end, the hammer switches to the team that didn't score, and if it was a blank end no points the hammer does not change teams. Typically the score is just kept by the players, but during events a scoreboard will be used. Once all the stones have been thrown and the end is finished the score will be tallied. Throughout the curling match the score for each team is the sum of the points they have scored in each end.
There are two different ways the score can be displayed. The most common method has three rows with the middle row displaying numbers in ascending order. The middle row represents a team's point total and the rows above and below are for each team to keep track.
After an end, if a team's point total has changed, they will put the number of the end in the spot corresponding to their total score. With the other method the ends are displayed at the top and the points scored in each end are listed below.
In curling there are no rounds, instead they use ends. An end in curling lasts as long as it takes for each team to throw all eight of their stones. Scottish immigrants spread the sport to North America: the first Canadian curling club opened in Montreal in , and the first American club appeared in Pontiac, Mich. Curling first appeared as a medal sport at the Olympics in Chamonix, France.
Only the men held a tournament, and Great Britain won gold the entire team was Scottish. Curling made five appearances as an Olympic demonstration sport — in Lake Placid in , Garmisch-Partenkirchen in , Innsbruck in , Calgary in and Albertville in — before the sport was added to the Olympic program in Nagano in Olympic curling stones weigh between 38 and 44 pounds; the granite is harvested from Ailsa Craig, an island off the west coast of Scotland that resembles, from a distance, a curling stone.
A curling match consist of 10 ends, which are equivalent to innings in baseball. In each end, the four players on both teams alternate throwing stones. The lead throws first, followed by the second , then the third — or vice-skip — then finally, the skip. Each of the four players on the competing teams throws two stones per end, for a total of 16 stones.
The skip not only throws the last stone in an end — which often determines the scoring — but also directs the overall strategy. To execute a shot, a curler pushes a foot off the hack, a piece of rubber akin to a starting block. The curler slides across the ice, or sheet, to the hog line, and must release the stone before it touches the line. The stone then heads for the house — the area with four concentric circles on the other side of the sheet that loosely resembles a dartboard.
The house is the scoring area. Only one team can score during a curling end. The team with the most stones closest to the curling bullseye — the button — is awarded points.
So if, after 16 stones are thrown, Team A has a stone right on the button, and Team B has a stone a few feet off the button, Team A scores a point. Monitor Daily Current Issue. A Christian Science Perspective. Monitor Movie Guide. Monitor Daily. Photos of the Week.
British skip Eve Muirhead directs her team on strategy and how to maneuver its stones during the match against Russia Thursday.
February 21, By Mark Sappenfield Staff writer sappenfieldm. Vancouver, British Columbia. You've read of free articles. Subscribe to continue. Mark Sappenfield. Our work isn't possible without your support. Digital subscription includes: Unlimited access to CSMonitor. The Monitor Daily email. No advertising. Cancel anytime. Related stories In South Korea, a new Cinderella story is unfolding — on ice Winter Olympics viewers join in Croatia will make its first-ever appearance in World Cup final.
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