Every four years during the Winter Olympics, the world once again becomes infatuated by curling. Luckily, after years of renting ice at area hockey rinks, the Circle City Curling Club just opened its brand-new facility in Anderson late last year, where it offers learn-to-curl workshops so potential athletes can try out Canada’s second-best export. A sport where a schlubby, middle-aged person like me could potentially become an Olympic athlete? Sign me up!
So How Do You Play?
Teams have four players who take turns delivering a 38- to 44-pound curling rock down an approximately 150-foot sheet of pebbled ice toward the 12-foot bull’s-eye called the “house.” A player can put a bit of rotation on the polished-granite stone, causing it to curve or curl, hence the sport’s name. (Fun fact: All curling stones come from a quarry in Wales or Scotland.) The team captain, called the skip, points to the spot on the ice where they want the rock to wind up. Two other players, meanwhile, glide in front of the stone on either side, brushing its path with brooms. The faster those players brush, the farther the stone travels, typically. Oh, and teams can knock their opponents’ rocks right out of its house, so it pays to be strategic when deciding where on the ice to place them. The team that gets closest to the house’s center—aka the “button”—scores the points. It’s like the unholy love child of bowling and chess, on ice for good measure. The $50 Learn to Curl sessions include instruction, ice time, and equipment. 1735 W. 53rd St., Anderson, 765-400-4883, circlecitycurling.com ■
