European Curling Championship

Posted by Kalie on December 17, 2009

Quite a ways back, I saw that the 2009 European Curling Championships would be held in Aberdeen.  I’d never really seen curling before except for a little in the Olympics but thought it would be neat to watch.  The tickets were a bit pricey though, so I decided to instead volunteer.  I ended up volunteering for 4 days as a steward.  (Basically all I did was help people find their seats and guard the fire exits, but hey, I got to watch the matches!)

Going into it I hadn’t a clue what curling entailed.  All I knew was that it was on ice and there were brooms involved somehow.  After watching the matches and asking other volunteers, I caught on pretty quickly.  There are 4 people on a team: 1 throws, 2 sweep, and 1 stays by the house (or the bulls eye at the far end) to yell directions and play a defense of sorts.  The stone can either knock the other team’s stones out of the house or play offense and stay inside the house.  The team whose stone is closest to the center of the circle wins the round, and gets points for all of their own other stones within the larger circle.

Aside from learning about the game of curling, I also got an insight into the curling community.  I had the opportunity to talk with several other volunteers who were big into curling.  Every single one of them was truly a kind person.  Many of them invited me to join the Aberdeen Curling Club (unfortunately I had to decline since I leave soon!).

I had a front row view of the opening ceremony (complete with a pipe band and the Lord Provost of Aberdeen), as well as for the women’s championship between Germany and Switzerland (Germany won the close game).  All in all, it was a great experience and I hope to someday try out curling for myself!

Cheers!

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