In what sport can a player be deaf, blind, or semi-mobile? That's right, it's curling. Played on carefully prepared ice and involving sliding heavy, polished granite stones toward a target, curling has captivated audiences from its beginnings in medieval Scotland. This engaging book traces the sport's history and its enduring appeal, the highlights and lowlights, the superstars and eccentrics. Author Doug Clark covers every inch of curling, from Olympic near-scandals and lampooning by late-night talk hosts to tragedies like the death of nine players in the Windsor tornado.

A lighthearted, fact-filled guide to the roaring game: curling Immensely popular in Canada, curling has captured the hearts of millions of diehard enthusiasts around the world. Full of quirky characters, fascinating facts, intriguing history, and amazing trivia, this unique guide gives curlers (and lovers of the game) a colorful and often amusing look at this singular sport. With odd, funny factoids on every page, the book sheds light on the long-forgotten Downer Disc, a round curling broom, and how Charlie Kerr, a Brier curler of the '40s, was thwarted by the ash from his own cigar. This one-of-a-kind volume is the ultimate bonspiel prize for curling fans everywhere.Bob Weeks (Toronto, ON) is the editor of the Ontario Curling Report and the author of three books.

Scottish immigrants brought the game “across the pond†in the 18th century. Since then the roaring game has amassed its fair share of amusing and interesting stories, facts and anecdotes:• The flamboyant curling character Paul Gowsell once ordered a pizza to ice level during a match, briefly earning him the nickname “Pizza Paul†• Legendary Brier journalist Cactus Jack Wells turned down a Hockey Night in Canada play-by-play job in order to continue covering the Brier and Winnipeg Blue Bomber games• In 1912, the Mayflower Curling Club in Halifax served as a temporary morgue for recovered bodies in the aftermath of the Titanic disaster• In cashspiels, curlers win money, but in bonspiels, they win things like cars, T-bone steaks or new curling stones• Canada is said to be the only documented place where the iron curling “stone†was used• Before the 1988 Olympic Trials, the Canadian Curling Association informed the “The Wrench,†Ed Werenich, that he would have to lose weight if he qualified for the Olympics• Canada invited Scotland to tour Canada in a curling tournament in 1858, but didn't end up making the overseas journey until 44 years later in 1902• Curling did not become an official Olympic sport until 1998 in Nagano• In 2009, NBC will host a curling reality show called Rockstar Curling to determine who will represent the United States at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.And much more…

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