What a waste of time
By Alan Stanfield
The previous session has finished, and the ice-master has the
ice cleaned and pebbled ready for the next session. The ice is clear, players
wait in the bar, at the side of the ice pad or get changed after arriving with
minutes to spare. The bell goes and everyone makes there way onto the ice, shake
hands with their opposition before wandering down the ice to where the stones
are, have a few practice slides and toss the coin. Preparations complete, the
game gets under way.
Now let's move the clock on. The game is in the seventh end
with just the skips' stones to come when the bell goes to signal the last end.
The end is completed and the teams retire to the bar to enjoy the important
social side of the game. The conversation gets round to the game just played and
enjoyed by all but one of the leads bemoans the fact they just missed getting an
eight end. Spot the real problem? From the starting bell ringing to the first
stone being thrown took over almost five minutes : plenty of time to have
completed the seventh end and had the eighth under way. A familiar situation to
you?
Strangely enough, it was whilst acting as a time clock umpire
at one Scottish Championship where the players are very much aware that every
second could count, that I wondered what time might be saved if club curlers had
to play under the same conditions. a nice thought but totally unrealistic!
As an experiment I decided to time a Province KO final one year
(the astute reader will have worked out that our rink had been shown the door in
an earlier round!). I noted the time from the bell to first stone being thrown,
any time in excess of 30 seconds betweeen ends ( the time allowed when
time-clocks are used) and times when players were not ready in the hack when the
skip had decided the next shot. A staggering seven minutes and fify four seconds
had been wasted and that was without making any judgements on 'Committee
Meetings'! You will not be surprised to learn only seven ends were played and
the bell went whilst the thirds were throwing.
Section D: Rule 5(b) (iii) states "Each player
shall be ready when his turn comes and shall not take more than a reasonable
time to play."
So what about all curlers, experienced as well as new, making
the following New Year resolution for 2005?
-
If the ice is ready, make your way to your allocated sheet,
perform the formalities and have your practice slides so you are ready to throw
the first stone when the bell goes.
-
When an end is completed the lead throwing first leaves sorting
the teams' stones to the second and third and concentrates on getting his stone
ready in the hack. If you are a team who likes to play the same stones
throughout the game, skips can make this easier if, when one of their own stones
goes out of play during an end, they arrange them in roughly the right order at
the back of the house. How many skips do this?
-
If you use a slider, don't wait until the opposition stone has
come to rest before deciding to put it on, or, even worse, find then that you
have left it at the other end!
The above may only save a few seconds each time but it all
soon adds up. However, before you think our top players are perfect here, I
have observed over a number of years that the leads are usually ready within
the prescribed 30 seconds before their team's clock is restarted, but the
skips manage to take an additional 11-12 seconds deciding whether to ask for
a stone short or one in the house.
All curlers can do better - so are you just a time waster?