Curling is a team sport with similarities to bowls and shuffleboard, played by two teams of four players each on a rectangular sheet of carefully prepared ice. Teams take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones down the ice towards the target (called the house). Two sweepers with brooms accompany each rock and use timing equipment and their best judgment, along with direction from their teammates, to help direct the stones to their resting place. The complex nature of stone placement and shot selection has led some to refer to curling as "chess on ice."

Origins and history

The word curling first appears in print in 1620 in Perth, in the preface and the verses of a poem by Henry Adamson. The game was (and still is, in Scotland and Scottish-settled regions like southern New Zealand) also known as "the roaring game" because of the sound the stones make while traveling over the pebble (droplets of water applied to the playing surface). The verbal noun curling is formed from the Scots (and English) verb curl which describes the motion of the stone.

It is recorded that in Darvel, East Ayrshire, the weavers relaxed by playing curling matches. The stones they used were the heavy stone weights from the weavers' "warp beams," fitted with a detachable handle for the purpose. Many a wife would keep her husband's brass curling stone handle on the mantelpiece, brightly polished until the next time it was needed.Nate Baker (Editor), The Book of Old Darvel and Some of its Famous Sons. Pub. Walker & Connell, Darvel. P. 12–13.

Outdoor curling was very popular in Scotland between the 16th and 19th centuries, as the climate provided good ice conditions every winter. Scotland is home to the international governing body for curling, the World Curling Federation, Perth, which originated as a committee of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, the mother club of curling. Today, the game is most firmly established in Canada, having been taken there by Scottish emigrants. The Royal Montreal Curling Club, the oldest active athletic club of any kind in North AmericaFact: date=February 2008, was established in 1807. The first curling club in the United States began in 1830, and the game was introduced to Switzerland and Sweden before the end of the 19th century, also by Scots. Today, curling is played all over Europe and has spread to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, China, and Korea.