What do you do when you've been there and done it all, twice? Throwing stones around a field may not be everyone's cup of tea this winter, but you can now play this ancient game in Moscow, if you'd like to join in on the fun!

Played on a rectangular ice field, curling is played by two teams of four players each trying to slide 16.2 kilo stones toward a mark in the center of a circle.

Curling is very popular throughout the world, particularly in Canada, the world's champions, where the game is almost as popular as hockey.

The game is nearly 500 years old. First mentioned in Scotland, where an engraving, dating back to 1511, was found depicting stones placed on ice in a similar way to the modern-day game.

The first curling clubs and associations appeared in various countries around the world in the early 18th century. In Russia, the first curling match was played in Moscow in 1894 between two teams of British and German diplomats, and two years later the first curling match was played in St. Petersburg.

After WWII, curling practically ceased to exist in Russia. An attempt to revive the game was made in the late 1920s, however without much success. Nevertheless, enthusiasts, though few, continued to play curling in this country and popularized the game among their relatives and friends.

A rebirth of sorts occurred in 1991 when a group of students from the St. Petersburg Sports Academy founded a curling club. Curling is unlikely to become a popular national sport in Russia in the near future, but, as the sport's aficionados know only too well, it's definitely a very addictive game!

WHERE TO CURL IN MOSCOW

ICE-PALACE MOSKVICH
15 Lyublinskaya Ul.
Metro: Tekstilshchiki
Tel: 179-3964, ext. 250
Open: Monday through Friday from 8 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.;
Sunday — from 9 a.m. until 12 noon.

ICE-PALACE ZELENOGRADSKY
Zelenograd
6th block, building 2
Metro: Rechnoi Vokzal (30 minute bus ride from the metro)
Tel: 924-6035
Training courses for both children and adults

A HISTORY OF CURLING:

The precise beginnings of curling will always remain a mystery! However, it is not hard to imagine a man, hundreds or even thousands of years ago, who weighed a smooth, heavy rock in his hand, then watched and listened with fascination as he launched it along a glistening bed of ice on a frozen river. This "first curler" must have been intrigued by the way the rock moved and by the grumbling sound it made as it twisted and turned. Other people in the not so distant past have heard this same sound and have applied it as a nickname for the game of curling ... it is often referred to as "the roaring game".

Scots and continental Europeans have engaged in many a lively dispute as to the true origin of curling. Both claim to be founders. The evidence, based on works of art, contemporary writings, and archaeological finds, has sparked a number of theories, but nothing is conclusive.

Some of the earliest graphic records of a game similar to curling date from 1565. Two oil paintings by the Dutch master Pieter Bruegel (1528-1569), entitled "Winter Landscape with Skaters and a Birdtrap" and "Hunters in the Snow", both dated 1565, show little figures playing a game on ice that could be a form of 'curling'. Dutch game called kuting, played with frozen lumps of earth.

The first hand-written record of what could be called an early curling game dates from February, 1540, when John McQuhin of Scotland noted down, in Latin, a challenge to a game on ice between a monk named John Sclater and an associate, Gavin Hamilton.

By the 18th century, curling had become a common past-time in Scotland. The first organized curling club in the United States was the Orchard Lake Curling Club of Detroit, founded in 1832 by Scottish farmers who, immigrating by boat to Chicago, were shipwrecked on the shore of Lake St. Clair. They decided to stay, formed a club and shaped blocks of hickory with which to curl. Soon after, clubs sprang up in New England (Boston 1839), Milwaukee (1843), Chicago (1854) and Wisconsin. There are about 20,000 registered curlers in the U.S., with probably as many once-a-year curlers. The country has 133 clubs playing at 107 rinks and 20 hockey-curling rinks.

The first description of a game of curling is in a poem by James Graeme in 1773. Sweeping played a part in the game even then!

The goals are marked out;
the center each
Of a large random circle;
distance scores
Are drawn between,
the dread of weakly arms
Firm on his cramp-bits stands the steady youth
Who leads the game:
low o'er the weighty stone
He bends incumbent,
and with nicest eye
Surveys the further goal,
and in his mind
Measures the distance;
careful to bestow
Just force enough;
then, balanc'd in his hand
He flings it on direct;
it glides along
Hoarse murmuring, while,
plying hard before,
Full many a besom sweeps
away the snow
Or icicle, that might
obstruct its course ...

Scottish settlers took the game to Canada in the eighteenth century. The first Canadian curling club was founded in Montreal in 1807. The Canadians all played from the hack, whereas the majority of the Scots played off the crampit. Curlers in Canada mostly played the delicate drawing game compared with the 'strong play' of the Scots (!). The vigorous, effective sweeping of the Canadians was often commented upon. It was not long before Scottish curling had adopted these Canadian characteristics.

Even in Canada, two different styles of play had developed. The curlers of Eastern Canada used heavy metal curling stones called 'irons' and were not easily persuaded to the 'granite'. They held on to their game until well into the twentieth century.

HUMOR, TOP TEN SIGNS YOU'RE HAVING A BAD GAME :

10. They start pebbling the ice in the fourth end.

9. Your skip keeps saying, "Nice try!"

8. Your opposition starts hanging its score on the next sheet.

7. While you're in the washroom, your team-mates sneak away to the bar.

6. The Ice-maker starts heckling you.

5. It's only the third end and already you owe your team-mates six drinks.

4. Your opposition is lying four and your skip wants you to throw your rock through the house.

3. You throw out your knee in the first end and your team-mates don't even notice.

2. Your sweepers burst into laughter when you release your rock.

1. You score an eight-ender in the second end and you have to throw your last rock to win 9-8.

CODE OF ETHICS :

Curling the world over is guided by a code of conduct unlike that found in any other type of athletic competition. A sense of personal integrity dominates all aspects of the game, and culminates in the "comradeship" shared by winners and losers alike, in the Club lounge, after each match.

Rules of the Game :

• will play the game with a spirit of good sportsmanship.

• will conduct myself in an honourable manner both on and off the ice.

• will never knowingly break a rule but if I do, I will divulge the breach.

• will take no action which could be interpreted as an attempt to intimidate or demean my opponents, team-mates or officials.

• will interpret the rules in an impartial manner always keeping in mind that the purpose of the rules is to ensure that the game is played in an orderly and fair manner.

I will humbly accept any penalty which the governing body, at all levels of curling, deems appropriate, if I am found in violation of the Code of Ethics or Rules of the Game.

For more information see http://www.icing.org