Curling ... The Sequel

Last year at about this time we went to the first annual Sioux City Curling Classic.  Last weekend was the second annual Sioux City Curling Classic and, along with 15 other teams both new and returning, we curled our hearts out.

The Matron of Honor and Best Man who curled with us last year couldn't make it so we recruited the Brother-in-Law (Who had organized the event last year) and a spectator from the audience to fill out our team of six.  Our results this year were about the same as last year - we won one match, lost two, and ended pretty much dead last in the tournament but we had a great time.

A couple things were different this year.  The first has to do with injuries.  Last year the Wife had to go to the emergency room after falling and hitting her head on the ice.  This year she didn't fall.  Just in case, our theme was RAGBRAI so we all wore bike helmets (There is a costume contest with the curling tournament).  While the Wife didn't fall ... I did.  I was walking backwards on the ice (stupid) and ran into a stone.  I fell backwards but I was able to twist around so that I didn't land on the stone which would have been rather painful.  Instead I ended up with a pain in my right butt cheek (which is already getting better) and a very mild thumb sprain.  The twisting around to avoid the stone tweaked my back a bit as well but, again, not too bad.  I'll survive and no emergency room visit was needed.

The second thing was not as good.  As I said, last year the Brother-in-Law organized the event.  This time he started the ball rolling and tried his best to hand the event over to other people.  In the end the other people did it reluctantly and the way they ran it felt like they were doing it reluctantly.  Now, most of the players didn't care how organized they were but they were also in charge of scoring the matches and, frankly, they didn't do a great job at it.  They scored the matches differently than last year (last years matches were scored by amateur curlers who knew the scoring rules) and this really confused and, frankly, pissed off the groups that returned.  As an example, our first loss this year would have been a win if scored the same way as last year.

Before our semi final play we went to a restaurant next door to the ice arena and had some awesome food.  In fact, I think I had to roll myself back to the ice.  This may explain my rather dismal performance during or semi-final match - I was pretty pathetic.

So this years Curling adventure had it's ups and downs but despite this we really had a good time.  I hope the scoring issues doesn't discourage teams from returning.  I'm a little more worried about the people who organized the event.  I suspect if they aren't pushed, there won't be a third annual Sioux City Curling Classic.