The Great Australian,
Canadian Curling Challenge
Another weekend has passed and another opportunity to try
something new, this time it was curling. The ancient ?? sport of throwing a
rock down the ice, think of it as lawn bowls on ice. According to our resident Scotsman
Ken Pratt, curling was invented in Scotland along with most other things Lol
and the Scottish were the first world champions. Though if challenged Ken will
admit that was because Scotland was the only team entered.
Curling is one of those winter sports the Canadians are justifiably
proud to say they are the world champions of and judging from the performance
of our group, the Australians will not be wresting that title away from them
anytime soon.
The weekend started for some of the Aussies with trips to
Mountsberg Park and Crawford Lake, however as the Nightingales live close to
both locations and had previously visited we opted out of the activities and
met up with everyone at Tom and Ginette’s place, these were the Canadian Family
who organised the weekend and arranged a sumptuous harvest feast on Saturday
night. Again as always it is fun to get together with this group, we have all
become one big happy family and hopefully will keep in close contact when we
get back home.
Sunday morning; early rise and drive to the Curling Rink at
Milton for the big day. Excitement and completion was high. Calum; believing Ken
Pratt who had his Uncle Ernest visiting and both being Scottish would know
something about the game, had already organised a team of himself Ryan, Ken and
Ernest, so this was the team to beat.
Tom being the organiser and a PE teach gave all a run down
on the game. After the obligatory safety brief??? (ice is hard, head is soft,
you work it out) we were shown the equipment; a stone (22Kg of granite with a
handle), a broom (quite appropriate really being Halloween), a slipper for one
foot and a grip for the other and the ice. Simple really, “how hard could it
be???” Ok, lesson number 1 always put the foot with the gripper on it on the
ice first, there is a reason the other shoe is called a slipper. Tom made it
look so easy, everyone else found it challenging at first. Once sliding on the
ice was mastered we were then shown how to use the broom. Broom’s of old were
the traditional straw ones and their purpose was to clean the ice, nowadays the
brooms have foam pads and they are actually used to melt the top layer of ice
so that the stone slides better. Whether our efforts at sweeping actually achieved
that purpose I don’t know.
The stone; 22Kg of granite. First thing we were told is
always slide the stone to where ever you want it to be, if you try to pick it
up and subsequently drop it, you’ll crack the ice and then it’s “NO CURLING FOR
YOU!!” not that most people could have picked up the stone with one hand. The
stones may have been large and heavy but this is deceptive they slide very
easily along the ice. So second lesson always have someone at the end of the
rink to stop or slow down a wayward stone before it does any damage.
As I mentioned curling is similar to Lawn Bowls, the only
real difference being instead of trying to be closest to a little white ball
you are trying to get your stone closest to the centre of the bullseye. Teams
usually consist of four players; each player taking it in turns to slide two
stones. Two of the team will move down the rink slightly ahead of the stone
furiously trying to melt the ice and the forth member waits at the other end
and directs the other players as to where he wants them to put their stones.
Easier said than done, as I said it takes relatively little force to get a
stone to glide down the ice so get them to stop exactly where you want them or
getting them to rebound off other stones is an exact science and a game for
mathmaticians
Once we had all received direction on what to do we were then
let loose in teams of three or four. Ernest opted out so it was, Ken, Ryan and
Callum against Chelle, Kev and Rebecca, while Tash, Katie and I took on Helen,
Pierre and Jacques, a little one sided I must admit but we didn’t mind. The
rest of the group broke up into their teams and we eventually had four games
going.
The rink was booked for two hours so ultimately it allowed
us to get four ends in. No one knows who the eventual champions were, but
somewhere along the line Ken Pratt did manage to pick up a medal (though I’m
not sure if awarding it to one’s self counts).
Midday and it was off to do what Aussies are best at,
drinking. There was a pub around the corner so we all retired there for lunch,
as it was too wet, bleak and cold to be exploring Milton. After lunch most then
went our own ways. The Barnards, McMahons, Ken, Francesca, Ernest and Nightingale’s
all headed off to a nearby apple and pumpkin farm to check out pumpkins for
Halloween. Nobody bought one but the challenge has been set down for the best
carved pumpkin, so I’ve got to come up with some ideas? Once again Ken out did
himself, hiding behind a tree in the haunted forest and jumping out and scaring
Chelle and Francesca half to death, only pity was I didn’t catch it on camera.
Chelle will never forgive him for that. Late afternoon the rest of us split up,
to catch up later in the week or on the weekend at Algonquin. So ended another
great weekend, next week we are back off up north of Toronto to once again go
looking for moose and bear.
