Americans at the Bonspiel

Curling, a peculiar sport that had its beginnings in Scotland around 1500, is a winter version of the English game of bowling on the green. It also has shuffleboard overtones. Last week, for the first time, curling's native Scotland was invaded by a group of curlers from the U.S., where there are an estimated 4,000 confirmed addicts concentrated mainly in enthusiastic clubs around New England and the upper Middle West.

In its purebred Scottish form, the game is played on a 46-yd. strip of ice, usually on an indoor rink where the ice is more even and not subject to sudden thaws. At each end of the rink there are fixed bull's-eye targets (see diagram). Each player on a four-man team, captained by an authoritarian "skip," gets two shots at the target on each round. With a bowler's arm-swinging motion, the curler hoists a 40-lb. circular (maximum circumference: 36 in.) stone,* and sends it slithering down the ice toward the "tee line" bull's-eye. If the stone falls short of the "hog line," it is automatically removed from the rink; if it slides beyond the scoring line, it is also out. Object of the game: to nudge an opponent's stone out of the scoring circle while leaving your own near the center. Highest possible score in an "end" (inning), comparable in its rarity to a no hitter in baseball: 8-0, where all your stones are in the circle, all the opponent's stones are farther out.

Canny Strategy. At the Crossmyloof rink at Glasgow last week, none of the five Scottish teams scored such a shutout, but they did manage to whip the Americans in the first test match, 109-54. In the second match, the U.S. did better, only lost 94-83. The Scotsmen played a camay, conservative game, in sharp contrast to the generally slam-bang U.S. style. The Scots used blockade tactics in front of the scoring circle until the skip, comparable to cleanup batter in baseball, could send his final stone down to nudge his teammates' into the bull's-eye.

At the Glasgow bonspiel, one U.S. "rink" (team), skipped by Frank Van Epps of Portage, Wis., salvaged U.S. prestige by winning, 24-12. Van Epps produced the shot of the day. Two Scots stones, placed about a foot apart, guarded the scoring circle. While Van Epps lined up his shot, Detroit Lawyer John Ritter McKinlay acted as temporary skip to give Van Epps the proper strategy.

The other two teammates stood at mid-ice, brooms in hand, ready to "soop" (sweep) away any real or imagined particles of dirt or ice that might impede the progress of Van Epp's stone.

Brush Now! Standing at the "hack," Van Epps swung his stone "elbow in," imparting a clockwise twist to the handle. Up the ice it came in a smooth, shallow curve. "Don't brush!" shouted McKinlay. Just before the stone came to the hog line, McKinlay yelled: "Brush now!" The soopers whisked frantically with their household-type brooms (the Scotsmen use T-shaped brooms, rub rather than sweep the ice). The stone slipped on between the two trotting sweepers, snicked the two guard stones away and came to rest plunk in the center.

"That's the way to play the game," shouted McKinlay to his grinning skip. The Scot skip was less demonstrative. Soberly he raised his broom, the curler's signal for a well-played shot.

* The best stones, of hard, fine-grained granite, are quarried on the Scottish island of Ailsa Craig, cost about $75 a pair in the U.S.

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