About the Club
The Wine Country Curling Club of Northern California (WCC) is dedicated to promote the sport of curling in Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Sacramento, Yolo and neighboring counties. WCC actively pursues participation by providing various programs such as wheelchair, senior and junior curling. During curling season, we curl every Saturday evenings on 5 sheets of permanently painted (arena) ice.
WCC is run by volunteers and supported by membership dues, donations, and fundraising events. The club accepts people of all physical abilities. WCC is recognized by the United States Curling Association and is part of Mountain Pacific Curling Region (MoPac).
WCC 501(c)3 status is pending with the IRS. Please contact Jerome Larson or Shil K. for more info.
Contact Us
SnailMail: 551 Davis Street, Vacaville, CA 95688
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Telephone: (Club) 707-374-3920 (Rink) 707-455-0225
Website: winecountrycurling.org
Email Directory:
President
Secretary
Wheelchair Curling
Vacaville Ice Sports www.vacavilleicesports.com
About the Sport
Curling is a team sport with similarities to bowls and shuffleboard, played by two teams of four players each on a rectangular sheet of carefully prepared ice. Teams take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones down the ice towards the target (called the house). Two sweepers with brooms accompany each rock and use timing equipment and their best judgment, along with direction from their teammates, to help direct the stones to their resting place. The complex nature of stone placement and shot selection has led some to refer to curling as “chess on ice.
Surface
The curling sheet, by World Curling Federation standards, is an area of ice 146 to 150 feet (45 to 46 m) in length by 14 feet 6 inches (4.4 m) to 16 feet 5 inches (5.0 m) in width,carefully prepared to be as close to level as possible. The ice is most often frozen by means of a refrigeration plant that cools a brine solution running lengthwise in numerous pipes under the curling sheet. A key part of the preparation of the playing surface is the spraying of water droplets, called “pebble,” onto the level ice. Due to the friction between the stone and pebble, the stone turns to the inside or outside, causing the stone to “curl.” The amount of curl can change during a game as the pebble wears. The surface of the ice is maintained at a temperature around 23 °F (?5 °C).
Game Play
Recreational games are most commonly eight ends. An end consists of each player from both teams throwing two rocks down the sheet with the players on each side alternating shots, for a total of sixteen rocks. If the teams are tied at the completion of ten ends, an extra end is played to break the tie. If the match is still tied after the extra end, play continues for as many ends as may be required to break the tie. The winner is the team with the highest score after all ends have been completed
Throwing
When throwing the rock, the player must release it before reaching the near hog line (players usually slide while releasing their shots) and it must completely cross the far hog line; otherwise, the rock is removed from play (hogged). The process of throwing a rock is known as the delivery. While not compulsory, most curlers deliver the rock from sliding out from the hack. When sliding out, one shoe (the one with the nonslippery sole) is positioned against one of the hacks (a position referred to as being in the hacks). For a right-handed curler, this means starting from the left hack, and vice versa for a left-handed curler.
Sweeping
When a rock is delivered, it is important that there be two players following the rock so that they are ready to sweep its path if needed. Sweeping is done for two reasons: to make the rock travel farther, and to make the rock travel straighter (curl less). When sweeping, pressure and speed of the brush head are key in slightly melting the pebbled ice in the path of the rock.
One of the interesting strategy aspects of curling is knowing when to sweep. When swept, a rock will usually travel both farther and straighter. In some situations, one of the two is often not desirable (for example, a rock may have too much weight, but needs sweeping to prevent curling into a guard), and the team must decide which is better: getting by the guard but traveling too far or hitting the guard.
Scoring
After both teams have delivered eight rocks, the team with the rock closest to the button is awarded one point for each of its own rocks that is closer than the opponent’s closest rock. Rocks that are not in the house (further from the center than the outer edge of the 12-foot (3.7 m) ring) do not score even if no opponent’s rock is closer. A rock is considered in the house if any portion of its edge is over any portion of the 12-foot (3.7 m) ring. Since the bottom of the rock is rounded, a rock just barely in the house will not have any actual contact with the ring, which will pass under the rounded edge of the stone, but it still counts. This type of rock is known as a “biter.”
Source: Wikipedia
