Winter Sports Club Review: Curling

Stone Soup Sweet Wednesday isn’t the only community building initiative in town. Last year, Nicole Quinlan and a small, dedicated group of 3rd, 4th, and 5th floor idealists founded the Winter Sports Club. The first activity was tubing which led to one of our founding club members being thrown off the property for violating the rules of tubing. I didn’t attend the first activity, but even if I had I wouldn’t go into more detail than that. Being secretive about clubs is the best way to swell membership demand.

One club that is not trying to be secretive is the Broomstones Club of Wayland. It’s fall in New England and that means one thing for the Broomstones – open houses to woo the next generation of curlers.

Broomstones is no joke and I know that because it has it’s own Wikipedia entry. According to Wiki, Broomstones “was established in 1968, the result of a merger between three Boston-area curling clubs. Members of the Brae Burn, Wellesley and Weston country clubs had been renting ice from The Country Club, and wanted to have their own ice.” Maybe not the historical significance of Shay’s Rebellion, but it’s the kind of uprising that would make the founding fathers of curling proud.

Last Friday, the Winter Sports Club kicked off its season with a sport that really can only be understood in relation to other sports because it makes no sense on its own. It’s like bowling meets shuffleboard meets a chess match on ice with baseball scoring. If you are confused take solace in the fact that it is tradition for the winning team to buy the losing team a round of beer.

Upon arriving, we are greeted by several members who seemed very pleased by the turn-out. After signing life and limb away on an application, we are led by Herb, a twenty-year member of the club, upstairs for the civic engagement portion of the open house. Now I know how Serve-a-thon participants feel during morning program – “I just want to paint a wall!” With all this talk of teamwork, 44lb stones, and sweeping, I’m ready to hit the ice.

In my 20 minutes on the ice, I quickly discovered I love throwing and I hate sweeping. The throwing part (called the “delivery”) involves putting your foot in a starting block, steadying your left hand on your broom and gripping the stone with your right hand, and then gently curling the stone down 146 feet of ice toward the target zone (known as the “house”). Fun doesn’t begin to describe how great throwing is.

The sweeping part involves two people (the “sweepers”) bending really low to the ice on your broom and sweeping feverishly in front of the stone for 22-24 seconds (the average time it takes for a stone to reach the house). Imagine being asked to rake leaves that aren’t there really aggressively and you’ll understand why I looked up at the instructor with eyes that pleaded “Is this really necessary?”



The fourth member of the team, known as the skip, takes position at the other end of the ice and calls for where he would like the stone to end up. The skip has the best job because he sets strategy, throws two stones, but never has to sweep.

After all four players on each team throw two stones, you tally the points. Whichever team has the most stones closer to the middle of the house (known as the “button”), wins that many points for that “end” (like an inning in baseball). There are 8 or 10 ends in a game.

We stepped off the ice and back into the clubhouse lodge for a feast fit for amateur curler players who have yet to pay dues. We came. We curled. I’m not sure we conquered but we did enjoy a nice meatball sandwich, hot cider, and good company. In the end, that’s what winter is all about.