Curling at Frant

CURLING AT FENTON’S RINK

Fenton’s, near Tunbridge Wells, in England’s only dedicated Ice Curling Rink, and ten of us enjoyed a hugely entertaining evening there last Friday.

The first thing you notice as you enter the vast rink is the temperature at 3 degrees! Following a brief instruction on technique, safety and scoring, the second thing you notice as you start to play is that the stones, a 44lb lump of granite, travel either too slowly, stopping embarrassingly half way down the rink, or go careering to the opposite end at breakneck speed, ending up way past the target.

Having split into two teams (red and green to match the colours on the stones), the red team (James, Sandra, Graham Forster, Vernon and Lyn) managed to score nine, with no discernible cheating, by the end of the evening, but the green team (Adrian, Jan, John Meadows, Rodney and Corinne) came a creditable second with a score of one!

The cold became seriously noticeable after an hour or so, and the best way to warm up was by sweeping (to reduce friction between ice and stone), which unfortunately was unnecessary much of the time as the stones were mostly going either too fast (sweeping not required), or too slow (sweeping pointless).

It was an enjoyable and sometimes hilarious evening, and my favourite moment was when the red team succeeded in getting a bullseye which Sandra was very proud of, but James, again for the red team, managed to knock it right out of the game!

It’s clearly an incredibly skilful and surprisingly physical sport requiring much body flexibility, but for my part I think I’ll leave it to the experts, for example the English Olympic Team!

Rodney Gadsden