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Showing a lot of innovation, Jim King made some curling “stones” out of wood. In the wake of league play being cancelled because of COVID-19, King and his friends decided to make some fun of their own. While curling is often called “The Roaring Game” because of the sound the 44 pound granite rocks make when they rumble down the ice, these ten pound “stones” with golf ball bottoms will roar just a little less, but be as much fun, none the less. Photo is courtesy of Jim King
Curling is back in the West End of Cook County and “the roaring game,” as some call it, will be played the way the Scottish folks who invented it meant it to be played: outdoors on a frozen chunk of ice.
When the Cook County indoor curling season was canceled this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the county’s curlers were sad but understood the decision. Many local curlers are over 60 years old, the age that the coronavirus hits the hardest.
“Even though there is no curling (boo-hoo) this season, the sport still has a presence in the West End,” Jim King said. “Generally every Wednesday afternoon, a group of curling enthusiasts has been meeting for socialization, with full COVID-19 safeguards, and perhaps a beverage of choice, to discuss the grand sport. This has led to the creation of Alternative Curling by some of our imaginative members.”
“Primarily,” said King, “We had to come up with some legitimate reason to get together to drink some beer.”
However, it costs about $450 to purchase a granite curling stone, which is a lot to pay for a game that the West Enders wanted to play for fun and not cost an arm-and-a-leg.
With a little innovation and plenty of beer drinking motivation, Jim and his friends made six curling stones.
“The “Stones” are made from slices of logs with golf balls placed on the bottom,” King said. “Each stone weighs about ten pounds,” added King.
Next, they recruited some friends to play the game with them after learning they could use the Mogul restaurant’s outdoor ice rink for their contests. This wasn’t the first time the group asked Moguls to pitch in to help them play an outdoor game.
“We like to play bocce ball, so some time ago, we approached management about putting in some bocce ball courts. They said yes, and we paid half and provided the labor and upkeep for the courts, and we have been playing bocce ball there ever since,” said King.
A typical sheet of ice used for curling is 45 meters long and five meters wide. Each end of the ice has two circles (they look like targets) that are called houses. Houses have four circles or rings, and the stone(s) sitting closest to the circle (called the button) gets the point. If one team has two or three or more stones closest to the button than their opponent, they get that many points.
Once in a very blue moon, a team will get an “eight ender,” meaning all of their rocks scored a point.
King was asked if the curling sheet of ice was regulation size.
“Uh, no,” Jim laughed. “It’s nothing like that. We don’t even have targets on the ice. Just some stones and the chance to get together and have some fun outside and enjoy a beverage afterward.”
Will this new form of curling take off? Who knows? As Jim said, “All great inventions start with a dream. This is our contribution to the sport.” Cheers!
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