In summer, it’s not hard to find a sport that both keeps you active and improves your social life. But as temperatures drop, so too does the list of options for recreation. Enter curling, the sporty social mixer.
“It makes the Milwaukee winters go by very quickly,” says Jay Packard, the Milwaukee Curling Club’s ice technician. “We start curling in October and you start in your league, and pretty soon it’s the end of March. You’ve spent time exercising. You’ve made some great friends.”
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Curling involves two teams of four players taking turns sliding stones down a sheet of ice with the aim of placing their stones closest to the center of a target. The sport takes its name from the way stones curl as they glide down the ice, while its frequent nickname, “chess on ice,” comes from the complex strategy involved.
Scottish immigrants brought the game to Wisconsin and by the mid-1840s were playing it on the frozen Milwaukee River. In 1845, they founded the Milwaukee Curling Club, making it older than the city itself and the oldest continuously operating club in the U.S.
Today, Milwaukee’s still one of the best places in the country for curlers, with four area clubs: the MCC, now located in Cedarburg; the Wauwatosa Curling Club; the Kettle Moraine Curling Club, in Hartland, and the Racine Curling Club.
All run a wide variety of leagues, with junior, women’s and mixed options, while the Wauwatosa club also offers adaptive curling for disabled athletes (the MCC has plans to do the same). Additionally, the Pettit National Ice Center has a curling sheet that can be rented.
In addition to leagues and tournaments, all four clubs also run intro classes for the curling-curious, providing equipment, instruction and usually the opportunity to play a game. Packard estimates that it takes about six hours of practice for beginners to get the basics down. But for him, the most important, and best, part of the sport is its social side, with players sticking around for post-match socializing.
“Everybody’s out there to have a good time, see some good shots, and then enjoy the conversation afterwards,” he says, adding that it’s common for opposing teams to coordinate post-match meals, potluck-style. “The clubs in the Milwaukee area do a very good social business!”
SHEET [SHEET]:
The playing surface.
HOUSE [HOUS]:
The “target,” consisting of the button, 4-, 8-, and 12-foot rings.
HACK [HAK]:
The foothold curlers push off to throw their stone.
HOG LINE [HAWG LAYHN]:
The line before which a curler must release their stone.
END [END]:
The division of a match; the curling equivalent of a baseball inning.
HAMMER [HAM-ER]:
The last stone thrown in an end.
SKIP [SKIP]:
A curling team’s captain.
BONSPIEL [BON-SPEEL]:
A curling tournament.
