After the recent success of Team GB at the Winter Olympics, Live reporter Craig Munro decided to give curling a go – but not for the first time…
When I stepped on the ice at Curl Aberdeen, I was worried about more than just falling on my backside in front of the P&J’s cameras.
My family are curling obsessed, and have been for years – my dad and sister have travelled to rinks around the world to play, and many hours of my childhood were spent watching bonspiels from behind a window.
I was the black sheep of the family, only giving the sport a shot three or four times and never quite getting as firmly into it as they all did.
So I knew they would be watching out for my technique. Did I raise my hips high enough when pushing out from the hack? Did I manage to guide the stone far enough past the hog line to reach the opposing house? Did I use the correct curling jargon in the correct places?
Thankfully, I had the ideal coach in Tom Brewster, who won a silver medal with the men’s team at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and has since become the manager of Curl Aberdeen.
The reason I was at the rink was to see whether enthusiasm for the sport had shot up in the wake of Team GB’s blistering success at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Eve Muirhead’s team pulled off a stunning display to sweep aside Japan in the final and claim the first gold medal for Great Britain in the curling for two decades, while Bruce Mouat’s men scooped a silver – just as their coach David Murdoch had done eight years ago when Mr Brewster was his reserve.
The two medals would prove to be the only ones Team GB took home from China.
Turnout at rink ‘really strong’
But despite the fact that many British households couldn’t take their eyes off the curling throughout February – my family stayed up to 4.30am to see Team Muirhead receiving their medals – Mr Brewster said the Olympics were just part of the reason the sport’s popularity is on the up in Aberdeen.
He said: “We’ve had lots of interest since, obviously, the Olympics, but to be honest I think even throughout the season since we started in September, our Try Out Curling sessions have been really strong.
“I think after Covid and lockdown and everything, people are looking to take on a wee bit more activity and get out.
“Obviously it’s had that appeal in the winter months, so we’ve been pretty good this season.”
It’s easy to see the appeal, as despite the often complicated jargon curling is a very simple sport at heart.
Players at one end of the rink push their stones to the other end, trying to get as many as close to the centre of the concentric rings (the rings are the “house”, the centre is the “button”) as possible. The number of points a team gets depends on the number of stones that are closer to the centre than their opponents’.
At the level of the Olympics, curling is all about tactics: putting a “guard” stone in the right place to block a potential next move, or positioning your stone in such a way that your opponent can’t knock it out without hitting one of their own.
I wasn’t quite at that stage yet. Mr Brewster spent my training session teaching me the best way to push out from the “hack” (the foothold from which players start their shot) so I could keep control of the stone.
I was in the same position as the other new recruits who have decided to give curling a shot in the past few months – whether because of the Winter Olympics or otherwise – and I got the hang of it fairly quickly. Maybe I could join my family at the next bonspiel after all.
The attitude at Curl Aberdeen is certainly the more the merrier because, as Mr Brewster explained, the sport is as much about what happens off the rink as on it.
He said: “It’s about the social aspect of it.
“That’s its appeal, really, it’s a fantastic social sport and one that can be played from the age of eight to 88 together at the same time. I think that’s really appealing.”
Find out more about taking up the new hobby at TryCurling.com or visit Curl Aberdeen’s website.
