Category: Hogline News

 

HOGLINE brooms has officially registered its first 8 ender!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013, the McGovern rink was playing a regular league match at the St. Paul Curling Club. The game was not going well for them; after a four shaky ends, they found themselves down 3 to 8 but had the hammer going into the 5^th end.

Personal interviews with the rink members have not been able to fully reconstruct how the end played out, but a few details are consistent.

The opposition placed a high guard down the middle first. Lead Paul Jones  tucked one behind, they responded with another guard and Paul guarded close to the house as well.

Following that, second, Matt Streff contributed by removing one of the opponent’s rocks and putting another rock in the house. Third, Ole Olmanson had some more clean-up to do, as two of the opposition’s rocks ended up in the house presenting him with a double takeout situation. He hit both rocks and stuck but only succeeded in removing one. His second rock managed to raise an earlier guard into the house while also rolling and ending up inside and protected as well.

The opposition needed to do some damage control and elected to break up a cluster of yellow guards down the middle, this had the unintended consequence of promoting another McGovern rock into the house, while still leaving three of their own rocks as high guards as can be seen in the accompanying photo.

Skip Casey McGovern had two options, guard the draw on one side, or guard the takeout on the other. Guarding the draw was the shot, as a successful takeout on the other side would still leave McGovern sitting 3. The guard was deep and curled toward the center however which left the draw partially open.

The opposition’s last rock was a draw attempt which was heavy, glancing off McGovern’s number 7 and sliding out the back of the house. It wasn’t until this shot that the McGovern rink started thinking that an 8 ender was possible. All that was left was one yellow rock in the back of the house. Their red number 6 was almost resting on it, and the shot was fairly open. With little planning, Olmanson called for an in-turn backline weight throw. Both line and weight were good and very little sweeping was needed. The 8 hit the 6 head on which in turn drove the last yellow out of the house.

With brooms raised, and rocks counted and recounted, it became official. An 8 ender had been scored. Word quickly spread across the other seven sheets as games stopped and people started asking questions and offering comments. “Is that real?” “It looks like it”, “I’ve never seen one of those before”, “Hold on, I want to get a picture”.

The tide had turned, a five point deficit turned into a three point lead, but there were still three ends to be played.  The opposition stayed in it till the end, but McGovern retained the lead and went on to victory.

All members of the McGovern rink use HOGLINE brooms, they also own the company.