First, curling outside. Crampit curling is when you stand on a metal rack on the ice and chuck the stones down the ice. There’s no gliding out of the hack and no carbon fiber brooms. The brooms are just like the ones you would use to sweep your kitchen floor. You can crampit curl inside, but most of the crampit curlers here do it on outdoor rinks.
However, when the weather is right and the ponds and dams start freezing over, the curling masters start measuring the depth of the ice on their favorite natural outdoor spots. Once the ice is thick enough (to hold the curlers and two 44 lb stones for each curler), they call a bonspiel. While for us, a bonspiel is any tournament, a bonspiel here is usually an outdoor curling tournament only.
The call came in on Wednesday that the President’s Crampit Trophy bonspiel would be happening on Friday in The Styx Valley. At Wednesday night curling league, Edwin found out I would be heading that way anyway to watch Todd curling in the New Zealand Nationals, so asked me if I would like to be on his team. YAHOO!!! I’d been hoping that we would get the chance to do this while we’re here, because it’s a huge part of New Zealand curling.
On Friday, Brandon, Les, and Tony (average age 65) picked me up at 6am, and we headed off to meet two other truckloads of curlers (average age 65) in the next town. Together, we caravanned up to The Styx. After 2 hours, miles of dirt roads, and taking the last turn through a cow pasture, we were there.
A couple things to know about crampit curling.
- There were 72 curlers. I only saw 5 women, and the average age was easily 50.
- You play 21 END GAMES!! Typical curling games are 8-10 ends. This was a one day bonspiel, so we played two 21 end games. For two day bonspiels, you play two 21 end games each day.
- Curlers wear their club colors EVERYWHERE. In the pictures, you’ll see hats that match sweaters that match broom covers that match the pom poms on their curling stones.
- You may be ordered by your skip to “Take a drink!” When this happens, you take the person who plays your position on the other team to have a beer or some whisky. I chose whisky (less liquid = less peeing in the outhouse).
- It’s completely catered. In comes a crew that serves morning tea (a snack) which includes hot coffee, tea, and curlers coffee (which is delicious!!!! I don’t know what’s in it, but it’s yummy) as well as buns with jam and cheese and crackers. Over the fire, they are cooking lunch which was also delicious – Swede (aka Swedish turnip), peas, potatoes, and stewed venison with carrots. And then there’s afternoon tea!!
- When an outdoor bonspiel happens, it makes the front page of the paper. Click here to see the actual article in the paper and click here to see the online slideshow (where there is a picture of me...taking pictures).
Skips in the house
Those are my two stones. I know I was lead and should have thrown guards, but whatever.
Note the matching hat, sweater, broom cover, and pom poms on the stones
Lunch!
Forced 'water' break
Teams come prepared
Holes in the ice just make it more interesting.
Me and my team...Frank, me, Edwin, and Dave.
While I was curling outside, Todd was curling inside in the New Zealand National Championships at Maniototo Curling International Indoor Curling Rink in Naseby.
Todd here, finally taking my turn to tell you about curling in the New Zealand Nationals curling tournament. A few weeks back, three other men at the club in Dunedin invited me to play with them on a team, and I was more than happy to say yes. So my skip Charlie, lead Richard, second Reece and I all arrived at the Naseby rink a little before noon on Friday. Turns out that I was sliding into the Vice position. Unfortunately we never really got a chance to all play together before this weekend, so we had a bit of learning to do with each other. The pre-tournament meeting included the introduction of representatives from New Zealand Curling who would be looking at players for selection to the national team after the weekend. Yikes!!
There were 9 mens teams and 5 womens teams. They divided the men into two pools, and we all played a round robin for two days. Our team had 4 games for sure. On Friday we lost both but were given a win from the first game, because the other team only had three players. Their fourth arrived later, so in order to fully participate, they had to forfeit their game against us. On Saturday morning, we played team Becker (the eventual winners). This is the team that had two members who played on the New Zealand Olympic curling team in Torino in 2006. They had been destroying teams, most shaking after 6 ends. We were hanging in, trading single points the first two ends, down 2-1 after the 3rd end, then we gave up the 4 spot, oops. We made it to the 8th only down 9-2, respectable under the circumstances, so we played it all the way out. We got beat, but we played well.
We won our last game, even though it took an extra end, but it was a good win nonetheless. We ended up 2-2 and tied for 2nd in our pool. Unfortunately the tie breaker was the pre-game draw shot that was also determined hammer for the 1st end. Our team had me do the first three games, two of which I put through, oops. Our skip did the fourth game, and he ended up short. Needless to say, our draw score did not qualify us, and we ended up third in our pool. Too bad because the top two played in the semifinals and finals on Sunday.
Regardless, it was a great experience and a lot of good curlers. I think I was the only American in the bunch. There were several former Canadians and a few Scots. Definitely worth every minute of it. So long from me for now. Back to Laura. . . .
We also had the chance to try lugeing at the Naseby Outdoor Luge. You can watch a video in the previous blog post. Scary but fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment