Burned rocks add insult to injury

From funny to frightening, falling is a fact of life in curling.

Elite curlers are not immune. An informal survey of women at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts yields a few stories about feet leaving the ice and elbows, arms and buttocks taking the brunt of a spill.

“I probably have a really good fall at least once a season,” Alberta lead Alison Thiessen said.

A wipeout can happen in a practice, a league game or in front of rolling cameras at national championships, recording the pratfall for posterity.

The women move so comfortably on the ice, it’s easy to forget they have a slider on one shoe that can turn into a banana peel.

What tends to concern players more than injury is touching the rock in motion with their brooms or bodies. The stone is then considered burned and immediately removed from play, giving a free throw and momentum to the opposition.

A spill in practice might produce nothing worse than giggles, but in an important game, it’s mortifying.

“My first Scotties, we were playing against Shannon Kleibrink and it was my first ever game on TSN,” Ontario lead Lisa Weagle said. “First, I burned one of (skip) Rachel (Homan)’s rocks sweeping and the next end I fell while sweeping. I didn’t burn that rock, but super embarrassing.”

Getting out of the way of a sliding rock is the priority. “You kind of just move your broom, let the rock go by and tuck and roll,” Ontario second Joanne Courtney said. “Then you try to get back in (to sweeping), but everyone’s laughing too hard.”

Northern Ontario’s front end of Ashley Sippala and Sarah Potts have a pact. If one goes down, the other sweeper has permission to push her teammate out of the way with her broom as hard as it takes.