Curling

World Curling Championships
(5-Apr-07)

In April, Edmonton was host to the Ford World Men's Curling Championship.
Bill from work had a spare ticket for the Canada vs Australia game, so he invited me along.



Out came the Aussies. I bet you didn't know that Australia had a curling team, now did you?
Neither did I. Turns out that they are all ex-Canadians - except for the ex-Scot that is :-)





The Australian Canadians chat with the Canadian Canadians.



And the games begin. For the uninitiated (me before watching this game), the teams take turns sliding rocks down the ice to the target shaped thingy at the other end. The team with the closest rock to the centre of the target wins the round, and gets a point for every rock they have that is closer to the target than any of the other team's rocks.

For the Glenwoodians, it's just like the whiskey bottle coin toss at the trivia nights.



So one dude pushes the rock, and the others sweep their broom things to slicken up the ice to control the speed and direction of the rock.







At the end of the round, they work out who is closest, and how many points the winner gets.



Of course, the Aussies didn't really stand much chance against the Canadians, but they gave it a fair go. Not bad when you consider that there are no curling rinks anywhere in Australia for these guys to practice on...



Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

(or perhaps as the crowd was chanting,
Canada! Canada! Canada! Eh! Eh! Eh!)