PINEROLO, Italy, Feb. 15 — Rhona Martin returned to Scotland four years ago a national hero, extolled as a homemaker superstar for leading Britain's curlers to the gold medal at the Salt Lake Olympics on the match's final shot: the "stone of destiny."
A smitten London Telegraph columnist wrote about her Everywoman appeal, "You could offer her sapphires, diamonds, rubies and she would tell you only one stone is precious to her." That bauble is the 42-pound granite stone that curlers push down sheets of ice toward a bull's-eye called the house.
She and her teammates were hailed as golden girls. One headline gushed, "Home Are the Heroes, Home From the Lake." Nearly six million people in Britain had watched them win.
I liked the headline from the New York times about our ladies curling team - especially on the day when the Rolling Stones are giving a free concert to over 1 million people on the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.
However the ladies are not doing as well as ourmen'ss team in Italy but lets hope for the best. For those of you who don't know much about curling here a few facts.
Curling is a precision sport similar to bowls or but played on ice with heavy polished granite stones. The game is generally believed to have been invented in 16th century Scotland.
Curling outdoors on the frozen lochs was very popular between the 16th and the 19th centuries when the climate was cold enough to ensure good ice conditions every winter, and as a result the international governing body for curling, the World Curling Federation is based in Perth which is only a few minutes away from me here in rural Perthshire.
Curling has been an official sport in the Winter Olympics since 1998.
The origins of the word curling are not known. It was first used in print in 1630 in Perth, Scotland. Also known as "the roaring game" (because of the sound the stones make whiletravelingg over the pebble), curling probably does not take its name from the motion of the stones.
In the early history of curling, the rocks were simply flat-bottomed river stones which were sometimes notched or shaped; the thrower had little control over the rock, and relied more on luck than skill to win. Look out soon for our Scottish Calendars featuring the lochs where they curled all those years ago.
One possible derivation is that it came from the old verb curr which describes a low rumble. Nevertheless, today a rock which deviates from a straight line is said to curl.
Yours aye
Gordon Flavell
www.flavell.com
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