This is a promotional video for the 2002 Olympic games in Salt Lake City, Utah, showing the US team led by Tim Somerville making a nice double takeout against Kevin Martin’s Canadian team. The announcer goes nuts. . .

Canada went on to win 8-3, and wound up taking home silver medals. Thanks to Regis for the tip!

For some reason, there aren’t that many curling video games. But with the growing popularity of the sport, hopefully that will change in the future.

Hudson Soft, a Japanese game developer, is planning a March 3, 2008 North America launch for a sports compilation video game on the Nintendo Wii console. The game will contain volleyball, badminton, figure skating, and. . . curling! The game has already been released in Japan under the title “Deca Sporta”, but the title for the US version of the game has not been determined yet.

The Nintendo Wii is a real departure from all previous game consoles, in that the games are not controlled solely by buttons and joysticks. Instead, games are controlled by pointing, shaking, rotating, and otherwise moving the entire controller (called a Wii-mote). The idea is to make gaming more physically interactive, and it delivers on that goal.

The Wii console should be perfect for a curling game. Below is a screenshot showing a delivery, and a YouTube video showing how the Wii-mote is manipulated to control the delivery and sweeping. I can’t wait for this game to come out!

Click the “play” button to see the video:

Just in time for the weekend best characterized by gluttonous consumption of turkey and pie, here’s some heartening news:

According to About.com:Health, one hour of curling burns 272 calories, the approximate equivalent of a Snickers bar. The same site suggests that vigorous sexual activity burns 102 calories per hour, the amount of energy in three and a half carrots.

Can this be right? I think a well controlled experiment to test this hypothesis is in order.

The 2007 Turkey Spiel wound down sunday afternoon, and it was a great success– thanks to Bill Roach and all the other organizers.

Hudson and Seppo had a good game in the sunday draw. In the last end, Hudson’s rink was down one and had the hammer. In the picture below, you can see that Hudson was lying three:

And here’s Seppo’s final shot– and the handshakes. Click the “play” button below: (The video incorrectly states that Seppo had hammer.)

Enjoy those turkeys, Hudson, Mike, Scott and Tony!

Click the “more” link below for a lot more photos of the saturday and sunday draws.
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Chris Plys and company won their first two games at the 26th Highland Junior International in Inverness, Scotland. The updated draw sheet is at this link. They’ve got one game today against the Rolvsjord rink. Way to go!

The Duluth Curling Club hosts the Turkey Spiel this weekend. No passport required! There are three draws on Saturday and finals on sunday.

U.S. Junior National Champion Chris Plys and his teammates are playing in the 2007 Highland Junior Curling International tournament at the Inverness Ice Centre in Inverness, Scotland this weekend. You can see the draw sheet at this link. It looks like their first match is at 12:40pm Friday– that will be 6:40am Duluth time.

Good luck guys!

There is an article on the front page of today’s Duluth News Tribune about the afternoon senior’s league. (Here is the link to the article.) There is also a nice video accompanying the article, with an interview of Ellis Johns.

Let’s have more coverage of curling in the Duluth News Tribune!

Follow the link below to a good article by Al Cameron in yesterday’s Calgary Herald. He describes what we all can do (or not do) to avoid “picks”.

Those dreaded picks

I stopped by the Duluth Curling Club for the 11:30am Saturday draws, and the cashspiel was in full swing. I spoke briefly with organizers Tiffany Littman and Tony Laskey, and they reported good ice and good curling.

If you can’t come down to watch the matches, you can get live scoring for men’s and women’s at the Asham World Curling Tour website.

Click the “more” link below for a lot more pictures.
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The draws have been set for the Duluth Cashspiel this weekend. The first games are friday at noon (so if you’re in the one on one league and haven’t played yet this week, get your game in today!)

I’ll try to get down there and watch at least some of the games, so check back at curlduluth.com for updates. And if you’ve got pictures, videos, or news from the ’spiel that you’d like to share with the world, send them to me and I’ll post them ASAP. Good curling!

Curling to the musical mayhem of Rob Zombie last Tuesday was great– I think there should be a live band every night.
Which brings to mind, what would happen if you mixed a Swedish metal band with the Sweden’s women’s curling team? Awesomeness, that’s what.