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Curling on the Canal, Feb. 24 in Palmyra Weather permitting, the 5th annual 'Curling on the Canal' event will take place Sunday, February 24 in Palmyra, from 1-3 p.m. Many people think curling is something you do to your hair. This is true, but curling it is also a medieval Scottish sport first documented in the mid-16th century and probably dates further back. The word 'curling' first appeared in print in 1620 in a poem written my Henry Adamson and in the Scots language means 'the roaring game,' having derived the name because of the sound the stones make while traveling over the pebbled playing surface. Curling clubs date back to 1807 in Canada with the first one organized in the United States in 1831. Curling has been an official sport in the Winter Olympic Games, although the Olympic Committee retroactively decided that the competition in the 1924 winter Olympics would be considered official rather than a demonstration sport. In a nutshell, curling is played between two teams of four members, or curlers, each on a specially prepared sheet of ice, either indoors or outside and is played with a curling stone, which is a smooth, shaped and polished granite rock. Historically, the best quality curling stones are made from a specific type of granite called Ailsite - found on the Ailsa Craig, an island off the Ayrshire coast of Scotland. This granite is said to have very low water absorption, which prevents the action of freezing and melting water from eroding the stone. Since the island is now a wildlife reserve, the highest quality new stones are made from granite taken from the Llyn Peninsula in North-West Wales. Some common curling terms include bonspiel - a curling competition; sheet - the strip of ice upon which the game is played; pebble - a fine spray of water applied to the sheet before the start of each game-curling stones slide along the frozen pebbles, not on smooth ice; house -four colored rings at each end of the sheet (goal); rink - a team of four curlers; and end - the period of a curling game that is completed when each team has thrown eight stones. Locally, the Rochester Curling Club was established in 1961 and is the westernmost club in New York State. RCC holds open houses and hosts interested community groups such as Boy and Girl Scouts, as well as business clients who use curling as a team-building exercise. The club boasts over 200 men, women and junior members including Bill, Irene and Jeremy Unterborn of Palmyra. Bill began curling in 1981 while attending Union College in Schenectady. Irene has been curling for 17 years, and Jeremy was seven when he took up the sport. Bill has traveled and curled in Scotland and visited the oldest existing curling club in Switzerland. In 2006, Jeremy and his teammates Chris Heckman and Bobby Coffey, also of Palmyra, won international events in Canada including what is called an Eight-ender, the term used to indicate a perfect score. Bill refers to the game as 'chess on ice' because of the strategy, planning and finesse involved. Irene said, When I first new Bill and he told me he curled, I said, 'You do what?' Then I became fascinated with the game and decided to get involved myself. Irene, who curls once a week and on Sundays, feels the best part of the game is the friendships made. Jeremy agrees with her and said he enjoys the people he meets from all over the world during his international play. Irene noted that the opportunities are endless once you become actively involved. Carol Wood, a RCC member from Macedon Center was an on-ice official at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. According to Irene, curling is a sport easily played over a lifetime and active RCC members range in age from seven to 90. Anyone interested in trying or watching the sport is invited to put on warm clothes and rubber-soled boots and come down to the Port of Palmyra marina Sunday from 1-3 p.m.
For information about Curling on the Canal, call 585.235.8246 or the Unterborns at 597.0011. See http://en.wikipedia.org/Curling Copyright
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