I was looking up the rules on burned stones as it relates to etiquette, and actual rules. It seems at least once a game, a team would be better suited to burn a rock prematurely rather than letting it finish its course. Is this illegal, or just a dick move?
Looking up the official curling rules, it lists a lot about burned stones and moved stones being replaced, and being up to the discretion of the non-offending team’s skip.
http://www.worldcurling.org/_upload/downloads/6_Rules_of_Curling-final.pdf
But nowhere does it mention anything about burning a rock purposely.
Examples of why a team might burn a rock on purpose:
-It will end up short of its destination and guard an opposing team’s rock.
-It will raise an opposing rock into a scoring position.
-You will end up taking out your own rock.
I only remember one occasion where I thought I saw a team purposely burn a rock on another sheet. I didn’t say anything, but thought it was a dick move.
So anyway, bottom line is I can’t find any rule that says you can’t burn a rock on purpose. But if you are doing that, don’t expect the other team to sit down for beers with you after the game.
Hugz.
Correct, all “gentlemen’s” sports are similar in this regard… there is always some dick that takes advantage of loopholes like this.
I think one of the more overlooked things regarding a burned stone is when it gets burned.
If the delivered stone is burned BEFORE it crosses the hogline on the far end of the sheet it is immediately stopped and removed from play, it should not be allowed to hit any of the stones that are in play.
If the stone is burned AFTER it crosses the hogline the stone should not be stopped. After the burned rock and any other moving rocks come to a stop, the other team then decides what to do with the burned stone and other stones moved as a result.
So basically you can only be a dick in between the hoglines, after that you are breaking the rules.
Thanks for bringing it up Casey
Good call, I had sort of missed that in all the wording of the T-line to hogline stuff.
Also, if the third is calling the shot and runs up to help sweep and then falls on their ass and the delivered stone proceeds to hit them in choad the stone gets removed and sanitized and it is OK to laugh as long as it is with them and not at them. Remember this is a gentlemens’ game.
Ask Tyler Kavanaugh from the Anderson rink how we learned about this rule 🙂
Serious follow up. Should you ever stop the stone while it is in motion if it is burned? Say I’m sweeping and I hit it with my broom and immediately declare that I have done so and then move the stone to the back of the house. The other rink could argue that maybe they wanted to see what happened and allow the stone to remain in play if it’s final position was to their advantage.
On the other hand, if I don’t stop it and it hits 4 other rocks and then I say that I burned it everyone has to try to put all the other rocks back.
So what is the proper procedure?
http://www.curlingschool.com/manual2007/AppendixB.html
Yeah, Curl Tech boils it down a bit but defers to the World Curling Federation as posted by Casey.
I’ve always treated it as the honor system first. But after you say “I burned it” I guess the correct course of action is determined by where you are on the sheet when you burned the stone. I was always under the impression that once you burned it – you stopped it – and took it out of play straight away. But I guess that is only true between the delivering end tee-line and the far (playing end) hog line. If the stone is burned after it crosses the playing end hog line it should be allowed to make contact and come to rest – then the non-offending team’s skip decides to either a) remove the burnt rock from play and reset the house b) leave all the stones where they came to rest or c) place all the stones where they “would’ve” come to rest had the stone not been burnt.
Personally I think all of these sound like to much work – I’d rather the rule just be to remove the stone from play straight away. Noboby should be burning rocks on purpose. Also rule “c” is batsh*t crazy.