Amanda goes Curling

When you share living quarters with a man, you find yourself watching a lot of sports.

Football, basketball, hockey, racing (both auto and horse), the occasional baseball game — all have made appearances on my television set. Generally, I don't complain. But when I found the male resident of my home watching curling on TV, I was somewhat baffled.

Curling, as you might know, is the sport in which men and women chuck a big rock across a sheet of ice, with the goal of getting said rock inside a bull's-eye at the other end.

Granted, the sport is played in the Olympics and is highly regarded in some circles. But, honestly, I never found it that interesting. To me, curling just seemed like a frozen version of shuffleboard. When I voiced this opinion to my companion, he looked at me with a mixture of pity and contempt. It was a look that said "Why, oh Lord, did you saddle me with someone so backward and ignorant?"

Thus shamed, I decided to learn more about curling and contacted the Nutmeg Curling Club. The club started in 1960, at the Country Club of Darien, and moved to Bridgeport's Wonderland of Ice last October.

In that time, the club's membership has grown from 40 to 150. It has a schedule of leagues throughout the season, including a program for high school students. I called club President Jennifer Stannard and told her that I wanted to make curling the subject of my next Amanda Goes, and she agreed to meet at Wonderland of Ice for a quick lesson.

Stannard,

who lives in Stamford, has been curling for 18 years, and got into it after a friend invited her to an open house at the Darien club. "I loved it," she said. "It was something I could do with my son."

Her son is now grown and in the Navy, a career that doesn't allow him a lot of time to hone his curling skills. But he still plays when he can, and Stannard herself remains passionate about the sport.

Stannard assured me that, while curling is difficult to master, it's pretty easy to learn. It can also be played by people at any age (the club's oldest member is close to 90 years old).

For my curling lesson, Stannard asked me to wear warm, comfortable clothes and clean sneakers. Unlike most ice sports, you don't wear skates to curl. Stannard actually has special curling shoes but, for beginners, sneakers are fine.

Stannard gave me a quick rundown of the rules of curling, and I learned that the sport is more intricate than it looks on television.

Curling is played by two teams of four. Each team member has two turns to throw the big rock — called the stone — across the ice. The goal, as I previously mentioned, is to get the stone into the bull's-eye, known as the "house." Players are supposed to get the stone as close to the center of the house as possible.

After a player delivers the stone, two other players wielding brooms walk along in front of it and, if need be, brush vigorously at the ice along the stone's path. This is called sweeping, and is supposed to make the stone move further, increasing its chance of landing in the house.

Meanwhile, the other team tries both to get its stones to the center of the house, and to knock your team's stones out of the house.

Each team has a player called skip, who is sort of the captain. He or she stands by the house and tells the other players when to sweep and where to aim the stone.

Admittedly, this all sounded a lot harder than shuffleboard. I was little intimidated.

The morning of my lesson coincided with the club's open league hours, in which dedicated curlers get together to play. Stannard and I moved out of their way to the other side of the ice, and began the first part of my curling lesson: learning to throw a stone.

Stannard gave me a rubber attachment that I was to stretch over the sole of my left sneaker. This was a gripper and its purpose is to give the player's foot more traction. She also gave me a bootie, which I was to pull over my right sneaker. This would allow my foot to slide more easily on the ice.

Players throw their stones from a hack, a sort of starting block on one side of the ice. Stannard told me to crouch with my left foot in the hack, and my right foot on the ice.

Then, I was to slide my right foot forward, with the knee bent, and extend my other leg behind it. This was a disconcerting prospect. My balance is dismal in the most ideal circumstances, and I was certain that crouching and sliding on ice could only result in me falling on my butt.

But Stannard told me to give it a try. She had me practice without the stone first.

I slid my right foot forward, keeping my knee bent and, much to my shock, my left leg just naturally trailed behind. It was as if my body just knew what to do. I tried it a few more times, then Stannard had me do it with the stone. The stone is 42 pounds of granite. Thankfully, I didn't have to lift it. All Stannard wanted me to do was grip the handle with my right hand. In my left hand, I held onto a small plastic bar called a stabilizer, which is supposed to help you keep your balance. Then, while gripping both the stone and the stabilizer, I was to slide forward like I had done before. Surprisingly, I was able to maintain my balance every time. Ok, that's a lie. Once I slipped and landed on my knees. But, overall, I was doing well.

The next step was actually releasing the stone, and making it curl in certain directions. To make the stone curl to my left, I was to position the stone with the handle at the two o'clock position, then spin it to the twelve o'clock position before releasing. To curl it right, I would do the same thing, except I would start with the handle in the 10 o'clock position.

Stannard said the skip gives the order of where to aim the stone using hand signals. Now that I knew all the steps for throwing a stone, Stannard sent me back to the hack and had me execute the whole maneuver from start to finish.

I got in the starting position, with my left foot in the hack, and my right foot on the ice. I crouched down, then slid my right foot forward a little, then back, then forward again, keeping my right knee bent and my left leg extended. Once I was in position, I released the stone.

Whee!!!

The stone slid down the ice. Not far down the ice, but it did slide and I continued to avoid falling on my bottom. By my standards, this was a raging success.

Stannard had me try a few more times and, with each try, my technique got smoother, and my aim got a little better. Plus, I was having fun.

Once I'd learned how to deliver a stone, Stannard taught me how to sweep. The friction of the brooms on the ice creates a kind of slick, which allows the stone to move further. Stannard said a good sweeper can extend the path of a stone by about 12 feet.

If throwing the stone was relatively easy, sweeping was tough. Stannard gave me a broom, had me grip it with both hands, and the two of us shuffled down the ice together, brushing vigorously with the brooms.

Imagine doing housework in the freezing cold, and you kind of have an idea what sweeping is like. When my tutorial was finished, Stannard had me join the open league group on the other side of the ice, and asked if I could throw a couple of stones to them. They generously agreed.

I got into position, slid out and released my stone. It was pathetic. My stone barely made it half way across the ice.

This was slightly embarrassing, but Stannard warmly encouraged me to try again. I stepped up again, concentrated, released my stone and Woo-hoo!

My stone made it to the other side of the ice, and landed at the edge of the house. Success!

Stannard offered to let me play with the team for a while, but I needed to get back to the office. Still, I enjoyed my curling lesson. It gave me a new respect for the sport.

I probably won't be taking it up as a hobby any time soon, but, at the very least, I will no longer balk at watching it on TV.

The Nutmeg Curling Club has its club championship finals today at noon at Wonderland of Ice, 123 Glenwood Ave., Bridgeport.

Membership in the club is $125 for a seven-week trial, and $300 for a year membership. The fee includes equipment. For more information on the club, call 339-7300 or visit www.nutmegcurling.com.