We have tried a number of winter sports during our time in Norway, but the two we’ve been doing consistently are cross country skiing and curling. The skiing is a natural fit since it’s Norway’s national pastime, and we’ve written about it a couple of times in the past (here, here, and here). As for curling, we’ve been playing every other week or so since October in a league set up by the Trondheim Curlingklubb.
The Trondheim Curlingklubb has three leagues. While the A and B divisions contain teams with matching pants who have played together for years, the C division primarily consists of teams where there is one person who has played before, and three rank amateurs. This is true for our team, called We Saw This on TV Once.[1] Our team captain, or “skip,” is our neighbor Tom Adams, who plays competitively in Canada when he’s not on sabbatical. Along with Gavin and I, his wife Ariane is the fourth member of our team. Pretty much every C division match, somebody falls down.
A curling match is played as a series of “ends,” where each player on both teams shoots two stones, for a total of sixteen stones. The skip calls the shot by indicating where to aim and which way to “curl,” or spin your stone. The remaining two players sweep, which helps control its speed and direction. The game is about more than hitting the bullseye every time – the goal is to protect well-placed stones and remove opponents’ stones by knocking them out. It’s quite strategic (if you’re good enough to execute a strategy).
The club provides gear for us, which includes brooms and special curling shoes with one slippery sole and one grippy sole. The slippery sole is used for gliding while taking a shot, and the grippy sole is used to provide stability while standing on the ice. For extra stability, there is a rubber cover that you can put over the slippery sole when it’s not in use.
The right shoe is grippy and the left one is slippery. The slippery shoe has a rubber cover.
Shooting is my favorite part of the game. It requires a lot of concentration and finesse, and there is always a new shot to try to master. It’s really fun when you shoot a stone that goes exactly where you want it to go, which happens for me maybe 35% of the time. Sweeping is the hardest part, because to do it well, you have to put almost all of your weight into it. I was never really able to get the right angle or leverage on the broom. Gavin was by far the best sweeper on our team and got a real workout from it, usually going down to one layer pretty quickly in the temperature-controlled ice hall. By comparison I always wore a fleece jacket and insulated snow pants.[2]
We arrived for our final match last Sunday. Having lost our first playoff game, we were now playing for fifth place (out of eight teams) in the league. Fifth place, or even sixth (if we lost) would not be bad. At the beginning of the season, Gavin was really concerned that we might be so terrible that no one would even have fun playing against us and winning. Here is why:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fcpn5RKJTc&w=560&h=315]
But that hasn’t entirely been the case. To everyone’s great surprise, we won our first match, after which we hoped we might be some kind of curling prodigies. This high was short-lived, however, as we lost the next four matches.
It wasn’t until late January that we notched another win. This win came against a team of three 10 year olds and their coach. The 10 year olds could execute some shots, but were often wildly off the mark. They liked to poke each other with their brooms, and we had to take a break in the middle of the match so they could regain their focus. We won by one point.
I’m not ashamed to be proud of my victory over these children.
But that win gave us some momentum, and we won the last regular season game to give us a record of 3-4 and secure a spot in the playoffs.
Our first playoff match was unsuccessful. Not only did we lose, but Ariane slipped on the ice while sweeping, breaking her nose and getting a concussion. The opposing team had to drive her to the ER. She is really tough though, and bounced back to play our final playoff game despite some lingering symptoms.
And we won! Fifth place — not bad! Thanks Tom and Ari for playing with us!
[1] Other good team names include Ice Ice Babies, Rolling Stones, and Game of Stones.
[2] I wear snow pants as regular pants several times a week. Returning to a culture that has higher standards for dress is going to be difficult!
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