Sunday, January 10, 2010

Crazy Curling on a pond in Durham, NC

The curling match between old friends really happened today in Durham, NC. Let me tell you these were not crazy young adults, I was among friends that were around my age (early 50s) to a few years older. The pond was larger than mine and we had nine people on the pond at one time.

Did the ice crack? Yes it did and often, it took me 30 minutes to get the nerve to join them as at 240 lbs I was the heaviest person on the ice.



That is me tossing my first curl. The water jugs were just thought up before the event since we did not have granite curling rocks. The blue bucket is the goal when tossing from the other side. You play this game kind of like shuffleboard.


X was our team, note the x mark on my 'rock'.

Barney a Canadian who has actually curled in a league!

You can't curl your rock without having someone brush away the ice along with the rock.

Ken on his knees after tossing his rock, he was on my team.

That is Roger another Canadian and the only player in skates! The white pipe there is the other goal, we did lots of improvising.



This is Jon he was on my team also. He is not from Belgium!

David from Australia. I was very glad to see him well again, the pond is in his neighborhood.

Ken from the USA is action!

Roger in action once again. Our team lost because when we reached 10 points to win, the rules required us to win by two points and since they had 9 points we played on and they scored enough to win the game. We were on the ice for 2 1/2 hours playing, what a hoot. I was surprised no one stopped in to see what we were doing as a good number of cars went by.

A view of the playing field once we were finished playing! It'll be probably a decade before we can have another match like this one as it is warming up all this coming week and ice like this does not happen very often in Durham.

20 comments:

Carol said...

You all looked so serious except for the man and woman on skates... lol what fun! I was hoping you would post this! So there are some good things about the deep freeze. It is also fun to see the man behind the lens!

Tom - 7th Street Cottage said...

You have more nerves than I do. Great fun.

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

Absolutely crazy!! Just makes me smile.

Helen said...

Time flies by fast when you are having fun. Glad the ice didn't crush with you all on it. Helen

sanddune said...

Funny post. My wife and I were just trying to remember the name of the olympic thing where everyone runs in front with a broom. I have no idea why now.Your post made us laugh.

D said...

Randy, that looks like a kick! You guys were having too much fun.

Garden Lily said...

So cool. Looks like it was lots of fun, and will be a nice memory for years to come.

Les said...

I did not expect to see that in Durham. Will your team be headed to Vancover?

Justin and Anne said...

Looks like you all are having a blast! What a fun way to get out and enjoy this weather. Thanks for sharing!!

Blossom said...

My oh my! You guys had fun, right! and everyone's happy ...

sweetbay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sweetbay said...

That looked like fun! Roger really looks at home on those skates.

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

How fun! I can't believe no one stopped to watch, I would've :)

tina said...

I hope it is not another decade before you and your pals can get together and curl again. It looks fabulously fun!!

Skeeter said...

Looks like so much fun to me! But I cannot help but wonder if you were sore the following day? I know I would have been…

Your Camellias look beautiful but a late bloomer for you. Do they normally bloom so late?

Your bird pics are awesome and even the pesky known squirrels are gorgeous today! Good job...

Victoria Williams said...

Wow! Would have liked to have seen that. Looks like fun.
Nice action shots. :-)

Shady Gardener said...

What a treat!! Thanks for sharing. I know you had a great time and I can imagine being out there was irresistable! Glad the ice "held" all that time. :-)

Country Mouse said...

Way way cool! of course I have to mention that of course the sport of curling was invented, like golf, by my fellow countrypeople, the Scots. at least that's what I hear. Plastic gallon jugs, however, I'm pretty sure, were invented in the US!

Kyna said...

As a Canadian, I'm very excited to see some improvised jug-curling on a frozen pond in the middle of North Carolina!! LOL Excellent post, awesome pictures. :D I'm kind of sad that we didn't see more than sleet here on the coast. All it did was made my car door freeze shut :(

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