Last week we acknowledged Curling Day in Saskatchewan.聽
I was tempted to test my once finely-honed skills on the old pebbled ice patch.聽
Then I poured another round and dropped the idea.聽
My career as a curler was short-lived and one notch below gruesome, beginning and ending at high school.
In our home town back then, we had a natural ice surface for both hockey and curling 鈥� separate buildings though 鈥� our town wasn鈥檛 THAT small.聽
But that did mean curlers were at the mercy of mother nature.聽
As a result, all of the important bonspiels were played in January and February when decent ice was pretty well assured. This was all before global warming became a hot topic. In those days, we just called them mild winters or tough winters and the only gas that was passed that we had to worry about, didn鈥檛 come from burning carbon.
The top local high school teams got to play in the mens鈥� and women鈥檚 leagues and the rest of the high schoolers got to curl after they were done!
That meant the annual high school bonspiel was scheduled for March or April.聽
Needless to say, we encountered less than dubious ice conditions when we attacked the tournament with our hefty corn brooms and non-slider boots.聽
Take into consideration the men in those days, drank coffee (or other liquids) and smoked cigarettes while sweeping rocks. It was a different time.
The local ice-maker would be the guy who was sober.
We would take to the hacks that were gouged out thanks to dropped curling rocks from ice-caked mittens.聽
And I swear to this day 鈥� and I hope someone can confirm this 鈥� there was a short-lived era where some smart-alec curlers who started the long slides, were able to fling themselves out of the hack and slide half-way down the ice before letting go of the rock, which quickly led to the invocation of the hog line release rule. Am I right? Please say yes. Otherwise, I am delusional because some of us tried long-slide adventures and I don鈥檛 recall any rule telling me I had to let go at the hog line!
The high school bonspiel in my senior year, I finally decided I was skip material; although my usual strategy, if I saw a build-up in the house, was to instruct my third to 鈥渢hrow a heater and let鈥檚 see what happens.鈥� It usually wasn鈥檛 a sound decision, but my options were limited by my inability to foresee anything beyond the next shot.聽
The best part was when Jeannette鈥檚 pants split at the seam and she had to finish the game with her jacket tied around her waist.聽
As a skip, I lost my first two games, unsurprisingly.聽
My buddy Vern then asked me to sub skip a game for him because he had to work. I did, and we won the late afternoon game because we had a stronger team. I don鈥檛 mean more skilled, just stronger. The ice was melting, there were frost boils on the surface and sweeping meant you moved the water out of the way. My team (Vern鈥檚) was stronger. They moved the water and we got three rocks in the house in eight ends. The other team got nada rocks into the house. They were wimps on the brooms and rock heaving. My strategy for 鈥渢hrow the burners鈥� finally worked.聽
Vern鈥檚 team went on to win the B-side trophy.聽
Parksie鈥檚 team went on to infamy in four straight, thus ending my bonspiel days.聽
So, Jeannette鈥檚 split pants remain as my highlighted curling moment I suppose. 聽
