Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
No separate feed starting 10 mins later. You haven’t paused a live feed, you are watching it on a feed started 10 mins later. That not live is it? Not that any of this can be policed.
Winter Olympics
- Thread starter winjim
- Start date
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No separate feed starting 10 mins later. You haven’t paused a live feed, you are watching it on a feed started 10 mins later. That not live is it? Not that any of this can be policed.
glasgowcyclist
Charming but somewhat feckless
- Location
- Scotland
The weight of her massive balls won’t have helped.
Mad Doug Biker
Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
- Location
- Craggy Island
Scotland... Sorry, 'Great Britain' peak too soon and end up in the Bronze Medal game against Italy tomorrow in the mixed doubles.
Dang, I like Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat* too.
* - I've even played against Bruce's brother, Colin (who also happens to be an England International) before.**
FYI... We lost. 😆
** - An indication as to how small the world of Curling is in the UK.
Dang, I like Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat* too.
* - I've even played against Bruce's brother, Colin (who also happens to be an England International) before.**
FYI... We lost. 😆
** - An indication as to how small the world of Curling is in the UK.
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Beebo
Firm and Fruity
- Location
- Hexleybeef
Can you answer my question?
If you are playing an away match at another rink, do you travel with 6 massive stones in the back of your car? Or do you borrow stones at the away venue?
Mad Doug Biker
Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
- Location
- Craggy Island
Generally, no, it's not like the days of old where everyone brought one or two to play on a frozen pond somewhere, potentially causing a lack of efficiency*
They weigh 40 - 44 pounds each anyway, so good luck with THAT! 😆
All stones (16, 8 stones each, not 6) are provided for each ice sheet at an ice rink. The stones 'live' there.
Our current location has 4 'ice sheets', so there needs to be at least 64 stones present at all times, not to mention spares, etc.
* - The stones need to be sat on ice/sat outside for a certain length of time so that any heat has been eliminated from the granite, even the very centre. This helps with efficiency - If you were to take a stone from inside someone's house, etc, they wouldn't really slide properly (I tried once 😆).
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Bonefish Blues
Banging donk
- Location
- 52 Festive Road
We had an hour doing this at Christmas. Good fun, and absolutely nowt like the real thing I'm sure.
https://www.kingscross.co.uk/event/...n92YnNLV-yIk4eVsiQ-tvufIKxL5vReMaAjEYEALw_wcB
https://www.kingscross.co.uk/event/...n92YnNLV-yIk4eVsiQ-tvufIKxL5vReMaAjEYEALw_wcB
Mad Doug Biker
Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
- Location
- Craggy Island
What's more, during a serious competition, the stones are rotated, so in theory, you never play the same stones (or combination) in more than one game.
The idea is that because it's a natural material (granite), not all stones are identical, so to a very skilled player, a certain stone or group of them could potentially give an unfair advantage.
It is a skill to be able to pair up stones with very similar characteristics as a set to be played with (I say 'pair up' as each player plays two stones each (in a standard game anyway, although things like the mixed doubles is different, for obvious reasons). Each stone is numbered and assigned to a certain ice sheet, so you always know what is what (unless some devious twat changes the handles of course! 😆))
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Mad Doug Biker
Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
- Location
- Craggy Island
As an introduction, that's a fairly low impact way of starting, so well done!! I believe there is still (or was) the Curling rink at 'Fentons', near to Tunbridge Wells and also one in Cambridge (sadly facilities are limited in England, with *probably* the top location being in Preston (The Flower Bowl at Garston)).
The difference between what I presume was a synthetic surface and on ice though is that, just like granite, ice is unpredictable and will usually 'change' during a game due to atmospheric pressures and also, sometimes simply the actions of your game on the ice surface.
Sometimes there will be very little 'swing' (curl) on the ice, so stones will play as straight as a die at the start of a game, but by the end, there might be several feet of swing (or vice versa) so the 'Skip' and the other players need to be very aware of how the stones are reacting to the ice surface.
The prices might seem major at first, until you realise that the cost of energy is high and for such a facility, the costs are huge.
At our rink, we pay something like £9 and hour, so if you add that up over a team of 4 (or 8) for 2 hours, then... 🙈
I pay a fixed amount by direct debit each month to my club, with me being charged for when I play (so if you don't play for a while, then your money starts to add up!).
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Bonefish Blues
Banging donk
- Location
- 52 Festive Road
Yes, the Tunbridge Wells one's still in operation - we all enjoyed ourselves so much that I looked up the nearest 'proper' location perhaps for a next Christmas meet up. A nice sociable thing to do, accuracy not improved by copious glühwein though 
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Do kids start with pebbles?
Shadow
member
- Location
- edge of the south downs
Huge surprise. But they did play a howler. Totally lost end #5 (might have been end #6), when the Swedes took 3.
However, you still should clean up with the bronze and should take 2 more medals when the 'proper' curling starts. Whereas the canucks finished out of contention in 5th. And lost to Estonia, not good.
Beebo
Firm and Fruity
- Location
- Hexleybeef
They have a lot of work to do.
