Missing in Curling

I was once sparing in a club game, and yes, I recall it this vividly. They accidentally threw their first through, so we called a corner guard. It slipped in the rings, and they thoughtfully flashed it. So, we’re sitting one on the wing, and throwing. The skip called to split the rings.

I let it be, it was after all, a club game, but this is an example of getting silly because of misses. A better call in this situation is to throw a guard on your own rock. Some people will play that. Most though, will split the rings and play the rest of the end for a deuce.

I bring all of this up because it occurred to me that if Peter Smith makes either one of his draws in the tenth end of the World Curling Final, Kevin Martin might win.

Peter missed just enough though. He chapped off on his first, and tickled a guard on his second. One might score both shots a 3, maybe even a two on his first. But in hindsight, I would give them both a 5. They took the double peel out of Marc Kennedy’s hands. Marc Kennedy, the guy throwing 93%, who makes double peels leaving the driveway in the morning just because he can, throws two hack weight hit and rolls in the tenth end of the World Championship with the score tied.

If that’s not the perfect example of a miss making you lost your mind, I’m not sure what is.

This is how you play the tenth end. They throw a center guard. You try the tick (or go top eight). They throw another center guard, you try the tick, or go top eight depending on what happened on leads first (ie, make the tick, and you tick again. Miss it, and you go top eight).

Regardless, they come around. And you double peel, since your second happens to be Marc Kennedy, a decent thrower of the rock who rarely if ever misses.

That’s how it’s drawn up. It changes because Peter Smith misses tantalizingly enough. He doesn’t miss so bad that peeling the guards is the only shot. And he doesn’t make it well enough so that peeling the guards is the only shot. Think about it: if he locks the rock on his first one, the double peel is the only call.

He missed just enough to get KMart thinking about, what? About going for the win on second’s rocks? No, he misses just enough to throw the script out the window. To generate a new, entirely baffling script that sees Martin toss a rock away, lest he lost the game right there, on his first rock.

Funny how a miss turns an end.

Best team ever?

Image by mutantlog via Flickr

Glenn Howard's team just one their fourth Ontario Championship, basically kicking the crap out of the field again. One can wonder from this two things:

1. Does everyone else in Ontario suck?
2. Is Glenn Howard's team the greatest ever?

This was actually asked on a blog post by Bob Weeks. I answered it there, and elaborate here.

To answer the question of is Team Howard the best team in Ontario, I want to take you back to the lat final versus Martin.

If you recall, in the seventh end Howard was up one with playing Martin. Martin was sitting two, with lots of guards around. Originally Howard was going to just pick out one of Martin's and give up a steal of one.

Then, as he sat in the hack, he saw a whole to shot rock and decided to play for one through a little port. The port consists of a guard and second shot rock, so the miss is to hit second shot (in essence, playing the original call).

As Howard throws the rock, I swear I don’t think there’s a team on the tour that doesn’t sweep it to ensure it hits more of the top one. They are relaxed, not screaming right off, or sweep. It hits just enough of the top rock, and just enough of the back one to just get three by enough.

My point: either they froze, or they are so confident in outcomes that they wait for the outcome.

I remember when I used to deal blackjack. I could tell who was going to beat the table because they were the ones who were not afraid to lose.

To me, that last shot is indication that they are not in the least bit afraid to lose. It hit a comfortable amount of the rock, but again, there aren’t too many teams, if any, that let that curl.

They are 4 relaxed guys who simply aren't afraid to miss. That might be because they have the greatest pure thrower of the rock at skip, but it also might be because they've learned as a team that misses will come, but they will also be overcome.

As a team, I think they are the best curling has ever seen.

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