In honor of our fabulous 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, I am posting some sports-related vocabulary and expressions, so that you may enjoy the games more and have a better chance of understanding the plays of the sports. Enjoy!
Curling Glossary (from http://www.ecf-web.org/glossary.html )
| BACK LINE | The line behind the house. Once crossed a stone is out of play | ||
| BITER | A stone barely touching the 12-foot ring | ||
| BLANK END | An end in which neither team has a stone in the house | ||
| BONSPIEL | A curling tournament | ||
| BURNT STONE | A stone touched while in motion | ||
| BUTTON | The smallest ring in the house. It is two feet in diameter, also called the “potlid” | ||
| DELIVERY | The process of throwing a stone | ||
| CENTRE LINE | The line that runs down the middle of the sheet from hack to hack | ||
| DRAW | A stone that comes to rest within the house | ||
| ECF | European Curling Federation | ||
| EIGHT ENDER | An end where all eight stones of one team are better than the opposition’s closest | ||
| END | When sixteen stones have come to rest. Similar to an inning in baseball | ||
| EXTRA END | The deciding end played when the score is level after all scheduled ends have been played | ||
| FREEZE | A stone coming to rest touching another stone | ||
| FREE GUARD ZONE | The area between the hog line and the tee line excluding the house | ||
| FREE GUARD ZONE RULE | The rule that states that an opponent’s stone in the Free Guard Zone cannot be removed from play until after the first four stones have been played | ||
| GUARD | A shot that comes to rest in front of another stone for protection | ||
| HACK | The pieces of rubber you push off from at either end of the sheet | ||
| HAMMER | The last shot of the end | ||
| HOGGED | A shot that comes to rest short or on the hog line and is removed from play | ||
| HOG LINE | The line 10,06 meter (33 feet) from the hack | ||
| HOUSE | The target area 12 feet in diameter | ||
| HURRY! | To sweep immediately and hard | ||
| IN-TURN | A stone that rotates clockwise for a right-handed player | ||
| LEAD | Player of a team who plays the first two stones for his team in an end | ||
| OUT-TURN | A stone that rotates counter clock-wise for a right-handed player | ||
| PEBBLE | The frozen bumps on the ice that the stones ride on | ||
| PEEL | A hard takeout designed to remove guards | ||
| PORT | A space between two lying stones, large enough for another one to pass through | ||
| RAISE | Promotion; to move a lying stone further | ||
| RCCC | The Royal Caledonian Curling Club (Scotland) – the mother club of curling | ||
| RINK | The building where curling takes place or A curling team or The sheet of ice on which a curling game is played |
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| ROCK | The alternative (North American) term for a stone | ||
| SECOND | Player who plays his two stones second for his team | ||
| SHEET | The total playing area for one game | ||
| SHOT | A played stone or The word used to indicate a point won at the end of an end (shot rock) |
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| SKIP | The captain of the team, usually (but not necessarily) plays last two stones of a team in an end | ||
| SPINNER | A stone thrown with excessive spin | ||
| STEAL | Scoring a point without last stone advantage | ||
| TAKE-OUT | A stone thrown hard enough to remove another stone from play. Also called a “HIT” | ||
| TEE | The cross in the centre of the house | ||
| TEE LINE | The line that intersects the house at the centreline | ||
| THE “TOSS” | The toss of the coin to determine last rock in the first end | ||
| THIRD | Player who plays his two stones third; often Vice-Skip of the team | ||
| WCF | World Curling Federation | ||
| WCT | World Curling Tour | ||
| WCT-E | World Curling Tour – Europe | ||
| WEIGHT | The momentum applied to a stone for distance |