I am a Canadian and I have been since birth.I feel the odd sense of national pride occasionally and I enjoy wearing a toque in the winter and I like moose.
I don't love hockey.I wouldn't say that I hate hockey, I just am don't really get all the fuss about it.Although going to a hockey game is fine and not the worst thing to do, mostly, I'm bored and glassy-eyed when people are talking about the playoffs. I am completely left out of the national pastime.
Up until a few months ago, I felt about curling like I do about hockey: mildly amused that it was considered an Olympic sport and mystified about why people watch it on TV.I mentioned in a previous column that my husband and I and two of our best friends took an afternoon curling lesson and really enjoyed it. I think we were all surprised how much we enjoyed it.We had so much fun that I considered watching it on TV to try and figure out the rules (I didn't).
After the sheer joy that we all felt after we played, as a group, we decided to enter into a bonspiel. For those of you not in the know, a "bonspiel," is a curling tournament. I don't know why it's called a bonspiel and I'm uninterested in researching the term to find out why.I prefer to think that it's called a bonspiel because curling is a majestic and mysterious sport and uses its own language to confuse and obfuscate the uninitiated in the magic of curling.
Curling also uses a number of other terms that are unintelligible to the beginner: Hog Line, Hammer, Sheet, End, In-turn, Hogged Stone, Swingy Ice, Pebble and so on and so forth.
Not understanding the terminology however, does not hinder your enjoyment of the game - perhaps, maybe to our lucky opponents in the bonspiel.
The first night of the 'Spiel (can I shorten the term to seem cool?) was costume night.Picture this: four novice curlers who barely have any understanding of the game, dressed like lumberjacks in red plaid, toques and suspenders, arriving for their first game fortified by a little lager and an enthusiastic attitude.
Shortly, the keen beginners discovered that there is a secret handshake and password (shake hands, make eye contact and say, "good curling") and have to ask their opponents how do you determine which team goes first (answer: coin toss) and how does the scoreboard work (answer: still unclear).
We played, had a huge amount of fun and lost handily. For an entire weekend, we were curlers. We even played for six straight hours on day two due to our spectacular losses leading to back-to-back games.The four of us were sad on the final day that we lost; not sad because we lost the game, but because we were out of the tournament and couldn't play anymore.
Thank you to the organizers of the Tri-Mill Bonspiel.It was a blast and a great introduction to curling.
