70 Fun Facts About Curling

What is the target area at the end of a curling sheet called?

It is made of a centre circle and three rings, 4, 8 and 12 feet across, painted or laid in vinyl beneath the ice.

How many players are on a curling team in the standard game?

Each player throws two of the team's eight stones per end; the skip calls the shots and usually throws last.

What are curling stones made of?

The rock comes from just two places on earth: an island in the Firth of Clyde and a Welsh quarry.

What is a single round of play, in which both teams throw all their stones, called?

Games are usually eight or ten ends, and if the score is level extra ends break the tie.

What is the last stone thrown in an end called?

It is a big tactical advantage; the team that fails to score in one end gets it in the next.

What is the team captain who calls the shots called?

The word survives from Scots; when the skip throws, the vice-skip takes over the broom at the far end.

What does sweeping the ice in front of a moving stone do?

Brushing briefly melts a thin film of water, cutting friction; deciding when to sweep is the heart of the game's teamwork.

What are modern curling brush handles usually made of?

Lighter and stiffer than wood, they let sweepers move faster and press harder on the ice.

Which abbey's records hold the first written mention of a stones-on-ice contest, in February 1541?

The Renfrewshire abbey's note predates the first printed use of the word curling by nearly eighty years.

What is the date on the world's oldest known curling stone?

It shares a museum in Stirling with the world's oldest football.

Which painter's 1565 winter scenes show Flemish peasants playing a curling-like game?

Their game was Bavarian curling, or ice stock sport, played without brooms and with a vertical handle on the stone.

Why is curling nicknamed 'the roaring game'?

The pebble is a spray of frozen water droplets that gives the ice an orange-peel texture for the stone to ride on.

The word 'curling' first appeared in print in 1620 in which Scottish city?

It was in the preface and verses of a poem by Henry Adamson; the sport's world body is now based in the same city.

Which Scottish town's club claims to be the world's first, formed in 1716?

It also claims the oldest purpose-built curling pond, a shallow dammed pool at Colzium, and it is still going.

Which body does the IOC recognise as having written the first official rules of curling?

Founded as the Grand Caledonian in 1838, it is known as the mother club of curling and spawned today's world federation.

What did central Canadian curlers often throw instead of stones until the early 1900s?

Canada is the only country known to have done it; the stone-versus-iron split still had to be settled when the Brier was created in the 1920s.

Where was the first world curling championship, the Scotch Cup, held in 1959?

The Canadian team from Regina skipped by Ernie Richardson won it, and it was open only to men.

Since which Winter Olympics has curling been a full medal sport?

It had been a demonstration sport in 1932, 1988 and 1992 before finally being added to the programme.

Which country was retroactively awarded the first Olympic curling gold, from the 1924 Chamonix Games?

The IOC ruled in 2006 that the outdoor 1924 event counted as official; Sweden took silver and France bronze, and they were the only three teams entered.

At which Winter Olympics was mixed doubles curling first contested?

It had been rejected for 2010 as underdeveloped; Canada's Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris won the first gold.

How long is a curling sheet, roughly?

It is only 14.5 to 16.5 feet wide, and the ice surface is held at around minus 5 degrees Celsius.

What is the centre circle of the house called?

A stone must at least touch the outer 12-foot ring to count; otherwise the rings are just an aid to judging which stone is closer.

What are the foot-holds a thrower pushes off from called?

They sit 12 feet behind the centre of each house; a right-hander puts the right foot in the left hack.

A stone must be released before its front edge crosses which mark on the ice?

It must also clear the far hog line or it is 'hogged' and removed from play.

What is the 'Eye on the Hog'?

Lights on the handle glow green for a legal throw or red for a foul; at about US$650 each they are beyond most clubs.

Between what weights must a competition curling stone fall?

That is 38 to 44 pounds, with a maximum circumference of 36 inches; only a narrow ring on the concave bottom touches the ice.

Which Scottish island supplies the rock for curling stones?

It sits in the Firth of Clyde, is now a bird sanctuary full of gannets, and is nicknamed Paddy's Milestone for being halfway between Belfast and Glasgow.

The other source of rock for curling stones is the Trefor quarry, in which country?

Its pink, blue and grey stone goes exclusively to the Canada Curling Stone Company, which supplied the 2002 Olympics.

Which Mauchline firm has made curling stones from Ailsa Craig granite since 1851?

It has supplied every Olympic stone since 2006; a 2020 harvest from the island yielded about 3,000 tons.

What were most curling brooms made of before the 1950s?

Fern Marchessault of Montreal inverted the straw in the centre in 1958 to create the 'Blackjack'; brushes eventually won out.

What was 'broomgate'?

At least 34 elite teams pledged not to use them, and since 2016 only one standard brush head is allowed in competition.

What material is typically on the sole of the sliding shoe?

The other foot wears a gripper; a slip-on gripper can cover the slider when a player is not throwing.

What is a 'burned' stone?

Players are expected to call the infraction on themselves, a good example of the Spirit of Curling.

Under World Curling's 2018-19 free guard zone rule, how many stones precede guard removal?

The five-rock rule replaced the four-rock version for World Curling play from 2018-19 after the 'tick' shot blunted the old rule.

The free guard zone rule grew out of a suggestion by which curler for a 1990 event in Moncton?

'Howard's Rule' was a response to teams peeling every opponent stone out of play, which was sound strategy but dull to watch.

What is a 'blank end'?

A team with last-stone advantage that cannot score two will often blank the end deliberately to keep it.

What is it called when the team without last-stone advantage scores in an end?

The alternative aim without last stone is to hold the opponents to a single point so the advantage comes back.

Which shot knocks an opposing stone out of play with the shooter rolling out too?

Freezes and come-arounds are draw shots; takeouts include the peel, hit-and-roll and double.

Before 'thinking time' clocks, how much playing time did a team get in a ten-end game?

Under the older rules each team had 73 minutes; the 'thinking time' system instead gives 38 minutes per ten ends, with the clock stopping once the stone crosses the tee line.

What is a curling tournament called?

Private railway stations were built in 19th-century Britain at Aboyne, Carsbreck and Drummuir just to serve curlers travelling to them.

The 'Spirit of Curling' forbids what common sporting behaviour?

Players are expected to congratulate good opposition shots and keep their own celebrations to a nod or a fist bump.

What is Canada's men's national curling championship called?

The name came from a brand of tobacco sold by the first sponsor, Macdonald Tobacco; its current sponsor is the restaurant chain Montana's.

What is Canada's women's national curling championship called?

The Scott paper brand became Scotties after a corporate shuffle; the winner returns the next year as 'Team Canada'.

Which Alberta skip, often called the greatest curler ever, won 2010 Olympic gold unbeaten?

He won four Briers and 15 Grand Slam titles, and pioneered the 'tick' shot against guards.

Which Manitoba skip became the first woman to go through an Olympics undefeated, in 2014?

She has won a record-tying six Canadian titles and more Tournament of Hearts games than anyone.

Which Swedish skip was the first to defend an Olympic curling title, winning in 2006 and 2010?

She added a third world title in 2011 with a new, younger team.

Which Swedish skip has won a record eight men's world championships?

His team also became the first men's side to win four world titles in a row, in 2022.

Which Swede held the Olympic, world mixed doubles and European titles all at once in November 2019?

As a junior she beat Rachel Homan's Canada 8-3 in the 2010 world junior final.

Which skip led the British women's team to Olympic curling gold in Salt Lake City in 2002?

She had a reputation at home for falling at the final hurdle of national championships before finally breaking through.

Which Scot became the youngest skip ever to win an Olympic curling medal, with bronze in Sochi 2014?

A four-time world junior champion, she carried her country's flag at Beijing 2022 and retired later that year.

What is unusual about the teams in wheelchair curling?

Stones are thrown from a stationary chair, by hand or with a delivery stick that hooks over the handle.

Which country won six of the first ten world mixed doubles titles?

The format also handed Russia and Hungary their first world curling titles of any kind.

How many stones does each team play per end in mixed doubles?

One of them is positioned in play before the end starts, and the idea was hatched by Curling Canada's Warren Hansen in 2001.

Which team got the 2018 Olympic mixed doubles bronze after a Russian failed a drug test?

Alexander Krushelnitsky's positive test stripped the Olympic Athletes from Russia of the medal they had won on the ice.

What did the sport's international governing body rename itself in 2024?

It began in 1966 as a committee of the Scottish mother club and now has 74 member associations, including Monaco since 2024.

Which 1969 James Bond film features scenes of curling?

The 2002 Canadian comedy Men with Brooms took a more satirical look at the game.

In the 2010 Simpsons episode 'Boy Meets Curl', Homer and Marge win curling gold with which couple?

The mixed team is picked for the Vancouver Games, eight years before mixed doubles actually joined the Olympics.

Roughly how many rotations does a typical stone make before coming to rest?

The turn is imparted by twisting the handle from about the two or ten o'clock position to twelve as it is released.

What is the 'Manitoba tuck'?

The other common delivery is the flat-foot slide.

The 1511 curling stone shares its Stirling museum with which other record-setting relic?

The 1511 stone turned up alongside one dated 1551 when an old pond was drained at Dunblane.

Founded in 1807, the oldest sports organisation still active in North America is in which city?

Scottish emigrants carried the game to Canada, and the first US curling club followed in 1830.

Which skip from Regina won the first world curling title at the 1959 Scotch Cup?

His family team from Regina dominated the late 1950s and early 1960s and is often called the best men's rink ever.

Which weavers played curling with heavy loom weights fitted with detachable handles?

Early stones were often just flat river rocks, and some had finger holes like bowling balls.

What is a stone that only just touches the outer 12-foot ring called?

Because a stone's bottom is rounded, a biter may not physically touch the ring at all, but it still counts.

What is the nickname for an eight-ender, the maximum possible score in a single end?

It is considered curling's perfect game; Kelly Scott famously scored one against Cathy King at the 2006 Players' Championships.

Which player on each team handles all scoring disputes?

When vice skips cannot agree on the closest stone, an official measures with a device that pivots at the centre of the button.

Curling is the official provincial sport of which Canadian province?

Manitoba, despite its small population, has won the Brier more often than any province except Alberta.

Which skip won the first Olympic women's curling gold in 1998 and died of cancer two years later?

Over 15,000 people attended her funeral, which was broadcast on national television.

The 'delivery stick', which lets a player push a stone without sliding, was invented in 1999 for whom?

An initiative launched in 2016 aims to allow sticks for players over 60 in World Curling senior championships.

In which 1965 Beatles film do villains booby-trap a curling stone with a bomb?

George spots the 'fiendish thingy' and everyone flees before the delayed blast blows a hole in the ice.