Look At These Rotarians!
Posted by C. Richard Campbell
on Mar 24, 2015
Look Closely At These Smiling Rotarians!
Left: Garry McMillan, aka The Mathematician, Harold Shantz, aka The Hospitable Administrator, Davis Ferris, aka The Undertaker, and Mike Cobb aka The Peaceful Judge
These Four Men are Rotarians that Curl!
Every man and woman is entitled to their obsession. Curlers have their own vernacular just like the kids and their texting abbreviations.
While one of them is standing around at the away end of the sheet of ice leaning on his broom, the others do the work. By the way, he's the boss. Also referred to as skip. The other three are keeping the stone company as it travels along the sheet to the house. Merrily curling along the way. The calmness and serenity of the stone's journey may be interrupted with frantic shouts of the guy at the away end of the sheet leaning on his broom. You hear "hurry", or "hit and roll". no "freeze", then "hurry" hard. When the stone arrives at the away end and rests on the button in the house suitably guarded by other stones, the curlers are ecstatic. At the end of the game, all the players on both teams retire to the bar and toast their Scottish ancestors. The same ancestors that created another great game called golf.
To play the game, a curler must be somewhat physically fit. The stone or rock which is made of granite weighs between 38 and 44 pounds. The sheet of ice is 146 to 150 feet in length. Players must be able on occasion to vigoursly sweep the path of the stone with a broom (while keeping their balance) along the majority of the treacherous ice sheet. Good eyesight is a bonus. But there are blind or near blind curlers out there.
Rotary and curling share a long relationship. For many years, the members of The Rotary Club of Simcoe have traveled to North American Bonspiels and also participated in the Canada Scots Curling competitions. Like our four curlers above, they enjoy themselves and make friends as they sweep away.