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Curling

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Snazzy sons of bitches, those guys.

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Dozens of the world's top curlers, including Olympic gold medallists Brad Gushue, Brad Jacobs and Jennifer Jones, say they won't use new broom technology that threatens to alter the sport dramatically by slowing down and changing the direction of a rock in motion.

A statement posted on Team Canada's website has been signed by at least 34 elite curling teams, saying they will not sweep with brooms that have "directional fabric" at World Curling Tour, Curling Champions Tour and Grand Slam of Curling competitions.

The move comes as the curlers wait for the sport's governing bodies to catch up and introduce new rules on broom technology.

"We want the skill of curling to determine who wins and we want the teams who've put in the hardest work to win. We don't want the teams with the best technology and whoever sponsors who to win," Team Canada lead Nolan Thiessen, who wrote the statement, told CBC News on Friday.

When a new gadget fundamentally alters a sport, the powers that be often step in and declare it illegal in competition.

Curling's top teams aren't waiting for the World Curling Federation or Curling Canada and are policing themselves. They hope other teams follow suit.

The statement was signed by 22 elite teams on Wednesday, including Gushue, Jacobs and Jones as well as former world champion Glenn Howard and international curlers such as Jaap van Dorp of the Netherlands and Niklas Edin of Sweden. Another 12 teams were added to the list of signatories on Thursday.

Changing the game

In the sport, a curler throwing the rock aims for the skip's broom with the knowledge the stone will curl as it approaches the house.

Powerful sweepers can "hold" the stone and delay its curl or "drag" it extra distance into the house, but throwing accuracy and the skip's line calling are still paramount in the game.

Archie Manavian
Hardline Curling president Archie Manavian says his company had not received any complaints about its product, the icePad, until the curlers' statement came out this week. (CBC)

New brushes hitting the market have recently changed all that.

"It's a type of fabric that allows you to virtually steer the rock," Howard told The Canadian Press. "I use the phrase 'joystick'. I can now joystick right, left, forward, back."

Coarse material on the broomheads creates a sandpaper effect on the ice. Jacobs describes it as "flattening" while others have described it as "scoring" or "scratching" the ice.

The bottom line is sweepers use the brush's impact on the ice to manipulate the rock in ways they never could before. As in any sport, if others are doing it and winning, you will do it too.

"It's like having a rock with a steering wheel on it and you can pretty much get it to go where you want to or influence it substantially," said Curling Canada's high-performance director, Gerry Peckham.
 
Hmm.

:thinking:


There has been one major change in sweeping technology in my lifetime. You used to only see corn brooms - now you never see one.

I don't recall there ever being controversy about the evolution to pushbrooms though. I mean, there are always people opposed to change no matter what, but as far as the game, it was simply an undeniable improvement. In fact teams that clung to the corn broom too long were sometimes villified because they tended to litter the ice (which was sometimes done strategically and became considered dirty pool.)

These new sweepers though, they are talking about scratching and scoring the ice. That makes me wonder. Doesn't sound right. Obviously that's what all these champions in opposition are thinking.

I'm sure I'll be hearing more about it.
 
So the Alberta rink skipped by Chelsea Carey has won the Scott Tournament of Hearts (which is the kinda ghey name for the Canadian womens championships.)

So they will be Team Canada at the Worlds in Swift Current Saskatchewan in a couple weeks.

Meanwhile the 2016 Brier (the mens) begins today. Some excellent rinks including former world champions and gold medalists competing.



I assumed you would want to know.

:handshake:
 
I'm going to tell you something amazing but I doubt you will appreciate the full amazingness of it.

Brad Jacobs has completed the round robin at 11-0.

That is 11 games against some of the best in the world - many former Canadian and World Champions - plus the Olympic gold medalist as mentioned. The Canadian championships are generally considered a much tougher field than a world championships or Olympics.

Undefeated.

Fokken slammage.


:curling:
 
Well now it's on. Jacobs actually took his first loss of the tourney - in the 1 versus 2 page playoff.

In the page system, that's not an elimination game, but it means he plays tonight - in about half an hour - against the winner of the 3/4 game (former Brier champ Kevin Koe from Alberta). That's an elimination game and the winner goes tomorrow against Gushue from Newfoundland/Labrador - who handed Jacobs that loss.

So it's on.
 
Aaaaaand Jacobs loses a second game in a row and he's out.

Maybe it's time for me to unadopt him. He seems like he could be the future. That is my thinking. He's young and a lot of the familiar repeat faces are old guise. So I see him as a guy who could DO WORK for like the next 20 years.

But he's got choky tendencies. No two ways about it.

It's hard to call someone a choker when he has won a Canadian Olympic trials - which is the most difficult curling tournament there is - and then the Olympic gold medal . . .

But damn that guy has fallen apart in a lot of big games.
 
Obviously.

So the championship game this evening is between Kevin Koe - a 2 time Canadian Champion (who did not win at the worlds either time) - and the feller who won the Gold Medal in Turin 2006, Brad Gushue.

No bad options there. I think I prefer Koe from Alberta.
 
Canadian women losing a couple key games and now have one left against Scotland with whom they are tied for the final playoff spot.

Winner advances, loser is out.

Basically, if either team wants gold, they need a 4 game winning streak starting RIGHT NOW.
 
Japan finished the round robin in first place.

It's the first time Japan has made a 1-2 page playoff game - and they have only made the playoffs (finished top 4 in the round robin) 3 times in 21 attempts.

On their way to this breakthrough result, they defeated Canada for the first time since 1999.
 
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