Officiating: Measuring

Granite Curling Club will be hosting the U.S. mixed doubles national event in December (more details are online under the Championships page) and providing a Level I and Level II official’s training course prior to that on November 15th from 11:00 am to 3:00 PM. The clinic is open to the public, membership and curling officials alike.

In preparation for the clinic and to help general curlers, a new section has been added to the club’s web site detailing the techniques for measuring rocks using the official USCA method. A description of the process and a set of videos may be seen online at CurlingSeattle.org.

Open House Photos in the Seattle Times

Cyndy sent us a link to a nice series of photos in the Seattle Times from last weekend’s open house. There was a bachelor party in attendance which made for a nice storyline to the photos.

Thanks for the tip, Cyndy!

More Olympic Curling Tickets Are Available

If you are  United States resident head on over to http://www.cosport.com/. They just sent me an e-mail saying a third round of individual tickets are on sale. I checked and there are several Curling games still up for grabs, including the USA vs. Canada men’s prelim game on Monday, February 22nd, 2010. For only $88 a ticket! Get ‘em while they’re still available.

Olympic 2010 Curling Draws Announced

The World Curling Federation announced the Olympic 2010 draw schedule yesterday.

The Canada vs. USA women’s game is on Sunday, February 21st, at 9am. The men’s equivalent is on Monday, February 22nd, at 9am.

(As an aside, is everyone glad we’re not trying to do a summer spiel this week?)

Year-End Video is Posted

Tom made a great video with all the year’s curling highlights in it, and we showed it at the annual meeting. If you couldn’t make the meeting, or just want to watch the video again, he’s posted it to YouTube. Enjoy!

A Thank You from the Senior Women

Emily dropped me a line and asked me to share the following from teh senior women’s team:

We would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all the curlers who supported us in our endeavors at the World Curling Championships in Dunedin, New Zealand.  Especially the Wednesday Night Women’s League. You are the best!

A special thanks to our blogmistress at home, Nicole Way.  She was right on top of keeping our blogsite updated. Hopefully we will have some pictures posted soon.

New Zealand is a fantastic country!  Beautiful landscapes, wonderful friendly people, great food, and they love curling.  We curled some good games, made new friends, had a fabulous time and were proud to represent our club and country in this world event. So, thanks one and all.

Sharon Vukich, Joan Fish, Cathie Murphy, Aija Edwards

Coach: Emily Good

Handler: Jake Vukich

Chauffeur: Murphy (who did a superb job of driving on the "wrong" side of the road)

Level 1 and 2 Instructor Classes in San Francisco

Gabrielle dropped us a line from San Francisco to let us know they’re running a Level 1 and 2 instructor class June 16th (Level 1) and June 2nd (Level 2). For more details see their website.

Local Curlers Eliminated at World Mixed Championships

 
Cristin Clark at the World Mixed Doubles Championship

USA eliminated from playoff contention at 2009 World Mixed Doubles Championship

USA’s Brady and Cristin Clark won’t advance to the playoffs in their debut at the 2009 World Mixed Doubles Championship at the Olympic Ice Stadium in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

The Clarks (Lynnwood, Wash.) dropped to 2-4 in the standings after losing this morning to Denmark’s Per and Christine Svensen, 8-6. With two games remaining in the round robin, the Americans have now been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. The Clarks curl out of Seattle’s Granite Curling Club (www.curlingseattle.org)

Starting with the last-rock advantage, the Americans jumped out to a 2-0 lead but Denmark quickly reciprocated. The third end proved to be the back-breaker for the U.S. as the Danes were able to steal four points from the Americans. They’d try to get back in the game but couldn’t put up enough offense to stay alive in the playoff hunt.

After winning two straight games, Team USA lost 10-6 to China’s Zhipeng Zhang and Yue Sun on Tuesday, dropping them to 2-3. "This is a really tough format without the sweepers. It’s a lot tougher when you’re jumping up to sweep and trying to communicate the line. To be honest, I miss my front end," Brady Clark said.

The playoffs begin Friday with the gold- and bronze-medal games set for Saturday. This is the second year of this world championship event. Next year’s event will take place in Chelyabinsk, Russia, at the same time as the World Senior Championships.

Seattle Times Article on Kusak Glass

The Sunday times has a nice article about Anton “Chuck” Kusak and Kusak Cut Glass Works.

What, you may ask, does this have to do with curling? Well the folks at Kusak Glass (including our very own Al Nance) have supplied us with our award crystal for as long as I can remember. All the lovely stuff we hand out at our annual meeting is carefully engraved and supplied by their talented craftsmen.

WCF Set to Ban Yelling

In a stunning move, rumors are flying that the World Curling Federation is set to ban yelling in all competitive curling matches. There’s scant details at the moment, but the sources I’ve contacted confirm the rule is all but complete.

The change is, apparently, due to the various workplace health and safety regulations in many of the WCF member countries. The US, for example, limits daily noise exposure at 110dB to less than 1/2 an hour a day. Testing at the 2009 Brier showed Russ Howard’s yelling peaked at 111dB. When I heard the pending rule change I did a quick test at our club and was shocked: Betty and April reached 108dB on a regular basis.

What is unclear at this point is whether this will also result in a reversal of rule R10(b):

Teams must not use electronic communication equipment, or any device to modify the voice, during a game.

Fans of the game will remember this rule was instituted a few years ago when one of the skips had a cold and lost his voice (anyone remember who it was? Russ maybe?) and tried to use some Motorola walkie talkies to communicate with the front end.

Without yelling and the ability to use modern devices like walkie talkies, it makes one wonder how skips will communicate effectively with their sweepers.

As always, we welcome your comments below.