Eddie probably wouldn't go but so what

January 5, 2010 7:09 PM

Last month, extreme weather conditions in the Pacific brought us The Eddie. Right now in Scotland, a serious cold snap means there's an even rarer sporting event on the verge of occurring: The Grand Match.

Not sure about the sport of curling? Let these enthusiasts from 1980s Winnipeg show you how fun it can be!

posted by grounded (23 comments total)

HARD! HURRY HURRY HURRY

Sounds like a fine time to be had.

Here near San Jose curlers have to make do and curl on the Shark's home ice - a hockey arena - when it's unused.

So. Painful.
posted by GuyZero at 7:39 PM on January 5, 2010

Curling is way more fun than it ought to be. And getting drunk at the curling club is a Winnipeg tradition.
posted by clvrmnky at 7:47 PM on January 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
posted by edgeways at 7:48 PM on January 5, 2010 [4 favorites]

I think getting drunk at the curling club is just straight out Tradition.. I know it is here in Duluth and haven't encountered a place it hasn't been.
posted by edgeways at 7:49 PM on January 5, 2010

I'm pretty confident that the tradition is really just getting drunk at any sporting event.

(Sporting event is optional.)
posted by oddman at 8:01 PM on January 5, 2010

The other night I was talking to a friend of mine from Edmonton. He said that people smoked cigarettes while they curled. That's a sport I could get behind.
posted by marxchivist at 8:25 PM on January 5, 2010

Eddie might not go, but Stephen would
posted by ArgentCorvid at 8:52 PM on January 5, 2010

Curling is consistently the one thing that I watch in the Winter Olympics. Being in Los Angeles, you can imagine that the NBC coverage of curling isn't so great; this is true, it's usually relegated to late-night Tivo recordings on CNBC of highlights.

I was up in Toronto during the 2002 Winter Olympics. Curling was on goddamn primetime, number one spot, in front of all that crappy ice dancing, human interest stories, and whatever other crap NBC slogs out in between Home Depot commercials. It was great; I've never wanted to stay in a hotel room and sit and watch tv more than I did those few days.
posted by mark242 at 8:55 PM on January 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

You should see Canadian TV during when the various Briars are on. As a kid my dad used to spend entire Sundays watching curling. It is a big primetime Canadian sport every single winter.

I'm pretty confident that the tradition is really just getting drunk at any sporting event.

It is rare for the participants to get drunk at a sporting event other then curling. After, commonly.
posted by GuyZero at 9:04 PM on January 5, 2010

I love Curling. I totally got sucked into it completely during the 2006 winter olympics, where, via the various NBC coverage streams on DISH Network and my trusty DVR, I got to watch EVERY curling match in the entire olympics. By the time I saw even a few games, I was completely hooked.

I tried for about 4 months after that to find curling teams here in the Spokane area, and even contacts the US Curling Association about starting up a league here in Spokane. Long story short -- none of the ice rinks here will allow it to happen because you have to pebble the ice and they consider curling to be too Canadian for Spokane (the exact words I was told by one rink manager). Which is funny, as we're, like, nearly IN Canada. *sigh*

I'd totally play curling if I could. One of the few team sports I could see joining. Maybe someday.

*puts up post-it note to self to start checking DVR schedule for curling events from Vancouver*
posted by hippybear at 9:41 PM on January 5, 2010

I also got hooked on curling in 2006. I generally loathe the Winter Olympics because it messes up my beloved TV schedule, but the curling was pretty great. I'm a baseball fan, so I guess I'm accustomed to caring about a team of guys making very serious faces while competing at something which is essentially a meaningless game. Curling is just a little teeny bit sillier in a way that I find oddly appealing. And unlike most other winter Olympic events other than hockey, there's actual competitive team on team sport going on with play by play and point scoring. I also like that, since we're not talking about hardcore athletes, I really could feel like these were regular folks, just like me, competing in the Olympics.

So huzzah curling! I hope they get to have a Grand Match, if for no other reason than the idea of experiencing the tradition of competitive Scottish curling going back to 1847 is esoteric in the most delightful way.
posted by mostlymartha at 9:55 PM on January 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Jim Paterson, convenor of the grand match committee, said: "The last one was in 1979. It was a perfectly sunny day on perfect ice. Anyone who has been to one will remember it for the rest of their lives. The sound of the rocks is unreal."

Also, that is awesome.
posted by mostlymartha at 9:57 PM on January 5, 2010

"This is not a sport. It's housework."
posted by ErikaB at 10:10 PM on January 5, 2010

I fell in love with curling when my good friend Bubba pointed out that it is one of the best things to watch while existing on the couch very hungover.
posted by Uncle at 10:16 PM on January 5, 2010

If you've never seen any curling, and you think you might, do yourself a big favor and get, um, tired and drunk before you do. If you don't drink, or anything like that, be with someone you like who does. It is definitely the state within which to discover that people do this.
posted by carping demon at 11:50 PM on January 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

I can't wait for the 2010 Olympic women's curling. I ended up turning it on in 2006, and it was UK v. Japan.

These huge British women, wearing sovereign rings and gold chains, looking like they just staggered out of the pub, where they were knocking back several pints of Stella and smacking around some slapper who was looking at their man, up against the Japan team, who were tiny and slender and looked like they should be doing the ski jump, or something else where being light matters...

UK won, and probably celebrated with Irn-Bru and sausage rolls.
posted by Katemonkey at 1:15 AM on January 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

I remember when the old players in Scotland would shout "Soup!" (sweep) and called the rocks "stones". I must be old ... hey, I remember playing at Crossmyloof.
posted by scruss at 4:44 AM on January 6, 2010

I would not mind going at all. The scenery is worth the trip.
posted by elmono at 5:28 AM on January 6, 2010

I love curling, but that's prolly due to the fact that growing up in Buffalo, rocks, ice and brooms were pretty much a year round fixture.
posted by minimii at 6:32 AM on January 6, 2010

It is rare for the participants to get drunk at a sporting event other then curling. After, commonly.

OH HAI. HAS U MET RUGBY?
posted by The Bellman at 8:13 AM on January 6, 2010

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
posted by edgeways at 10:48 PM on January 5

Oh, hell yeah. And the background track is by The Fat Man from Canada, Maynard Ferguson.

God, some things go great together.
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:37 AM on January 6, 2010

you can imagine that the NBC coverage of curling isn't so great; this is true, it's usually relegated to late-night Tivo recordings on CNBC of highlights

Actually I thought NBC did a decent job with the curling last Olympics. In fact I think they pretty much expanded their coverage of it because they found it was getting surprisingly high ratings. I remember watching several of the matches live in the mornings, and Tivoing some for later. It's true that the main NBC channel didn't show whole matches in prime time but they did feature it a few times, particularly as the US team was doing so well.
posted by dnash at 11:13 AM on January 6, 2010

Actually I thought NBC did a decent job with the curling last Olympics.

They did more than an excellent job. If you looked across the spectrum of NBC channels which were being used for Olympic coverage (which I guess included NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo or Univision, whichever they own, and maybe one or two others), they carried EVERY curling match, either live or via delay. Yes, some of them were shown in the middle of the night, very few of them were in "prime time", but they were ALL carried, as opposed to other sports where only upper level rounds were shown. DVR FTW!
posted by hippybear at 3:21 PM on January 6, 2010 [1 favorite]