Rumours have been flying around since last night’s incident
with the fans, about the possibility that the CCA may have invoked Section 8,
Item 6 of the Rules of Curling.
What’s that you say? Well, here’s the way it appears in the
rule book:
If an extreme circumstance occurs during the delivery that distracts the thrower to a significant degree, the stone may be redelivered prior to the opposition delivering their next stone.
So in essence, what was reportedly being discussed last
night was the possibility that if Jeff Stoughton had missed his final shot, the
CCA would have awarded him a second chance due to the crowd’s nasty chanting.
Thankfully, Stoughton made the shot and that was the end of
the matter.
Now I don’t know how serious the talk was but it’s come from
several very good sources who stand behind what they heard. There was a further
rumour that if Stoughton had been given a second chance, he would have turned
it down.
But if curling needed another black eye, that would have
been it. Imagine: Stoughton misses his shot and Alberta gets in to the
playoffs, only to have an umpire come out and say, “Wait a minute boys, we’re
going to give Jeff a second chance to make that shot.”
It would have been bedlam.
I think it’s also fair to say that making that call probably
would have been an improper interpretation of the rule. In my humble opinion,
the rule is there in case of something a little more drastic such as say, a
light falling onto the ice or someone throwing something onto the playing
surface. Or your lead breaking his leg or something.
On the other hand, I think Stoughton’s comments to Bryan
Mudryk that if they were making $3 million a year, you could boo all you want.
But this is the Brier, with regular guys with day jobs.
However, you make curling a big league sport, play in the
biggest arenas and add lots of beer to the equation, you have to expect something
like this.
But I still don’t think you want to be giving people second
chances at such an important shot.
""Incident" is overstating it. TPTB in curling want more fans and younger fans. Some fans hurt Jeff Stoughton's feelings? I think if you are going to play for money you need to have a little thicker skin than that. And stop insisting you are just regular guys with regular jobs.
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