Curling is a game played on ice with granite stones; in this picture, four curling sheets are shown.

Group of people curling on a lake in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, ca. 1897

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Curling Irons

Curling is a precision team sport similar to bowls or bocce, played on a rectangular sheet of prepared ice by two teams of four players each, using heavy polished granite stones which players slide down the ice towards a target area called the house. more...

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Points are scored for the number of stones that a team has closer to the center of the target than the closest of the other team's stones.

Origins and history

The game is thought to be invented in late medieval Scotland, with the first written reference to a contest using stones on ice coming from the records of Paisley Abbey, Renfrew, in February, 1541. Two paintings (both dated 1565 ) by Pieter Brueghel the Elder depict Dutch peasants curling (Scotland and the Low Countries had strong trading and cultural links during this period, which is also evident in the history of golf).

The word curling first appears in print in 1220 in Perth, Scotland, in the preface and the verses of a poem by Henry Adamson. The game was (and still is, in Scotland) 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 word derives from the Scots language verb curr which describes a low rumble (a cognate of the English language verb purr). The word does not take its name from the motion of the stones, which due to their deviation from a straight-line trajectory are said to curl.

In the early history of curling, the rocks were simply flat-bottomed river stones which were sometimes notched or shape; the thrower had little control over the rock, and relied more on luck than skill to win, unlike today's reliance on skill and strategy. Outdoor curling was very popular in Scotland between the sixteenth and the nineteenth 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 America, 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 nineteenth century, also by Scots. Today, curling is played all over Europe and has spread to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and even the People's Republic of China and Korea.

The first world curling championship in the sport was limited to men and was known as the "Scotch Cup" held in Falkirk and Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1959. The first ever world title was won by the Canadian team from Regina, Saskatchewan, skipped by Ernie Richardson. (The skip is the team captain, see below.)