Registered: Mar 2011
Location: Montr�al
Posts: 81

Worth debating and trying in the Elite 10 event of the WCT.

Blank ends are a relatively modern occurence. Back in the day of natural ice and unmatched stones most shots were draws because guessing the line on hits was very tricky. The first artificial ice was heavy, shaved once a day at best and littered with straw. If you read Ken Watson's book on curling strategy in the 1940's blanking wasn't really discussed but he had a section on how to build an 8 ender !!! Watson won 3 Briers in the 1940's

Technology changed curling, it made hitting-peeling much easier. So the free guard zone, sweeping equipment limitations and blank end rule modification are attemps to bring the curl back into curling.

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Registered: Apr 2014
Location: In the House
Posts: 608

Blanking an end is a legitimate defensive strategy - with the goal of creating offence later. I see nothing wrong with it.
Blank ends are not automatically boring. Blank ends can be very well played and interesting. A blank end can be more interesting than an end where a team scores, even.
A period in hockey where no goals are scored can be entertaining and interesting, as can a scoreless inning in baseball - and even a scoreless quarter in football...

These calls to eliminate blank ends don't make much sense to me, as the blank end is a legitimate strategy. It's as if the thinking is that both teams should always make every effort to score. But why? Should we not allow a hockey team killing a penalty to ice the puck?
Even more similarly - a blank end could be equated with running the clock out in football or basketball when a team has a lead... or with converging into a defensive shell when a hockey team has the lead. Just because some people don't like it doesn't mean that it's not a legitimate and intelligent strategy.

It's not as if a blank end means that both teams are playing horribly, or that neither team cares. Let's not forget that in a blank end, the team with the Hammer is trying for the blank, while the other team is either trying to steal, or is trying to force the team with the Hammer into scoring 1. So the two teams are working in different directions. The team which performs most efficiently in the end will accomplish what they want - and if that is a blank end, it's fine.

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Registered: Jan 2005
Location: the Banana Belt
Posts: 990

I agree one hundred percent Nose, in a well played end ( at the elite level), at some point the team blanking the end will have to play a few doubles, runback or otherwise. More often than not these shots are more spectacular than your average draw and make for an exciting end. Blanking is a legitimate strategy and if you don't like it get better with your force game or your "defensive" offence.

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Registered: Mar 2011
Location: Montr�al
Posts: 81

quote:

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Originally posted by On The Nose

- a blank end could be equated with running the clock out in football or basketball when a team has a lead... or with converging into a defensive shell when a hockey team has the lead.

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Registered: Apr 2014
Location: In the House
Posts: 608

quote:

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Originally posted by Marco2010


I don't think these compairasons are correct. A basquetball team has to shoot the ball (shotclock), a football team has to cover 10 yards and you can't ice the puck away in hockey anymore (face-off in your end and players stay on the ice). Only in curling can you keep the ball/puck indefinately. Curling is the only sprot where teams refuse to score and are happy to "force" their opponent yo score.

Blanking could remain a strategy option if you are down in the score and need 2 or 3 to get back in the game. Allowing blanking when you are leading or even when the score is tied is unfair. Other sports have rules that prevent you from keeping the puck/ball/last rock.

We have been trying to balance offence and defence with the 3 then 4 and now 5 rock rule. Combining the free guard zone with a modified blank end rule that only allows blanking when a team is behind in the score would finally balance offence in defence in curling.

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"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own... but the great man is he who, in the midst of the crowd, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Registered: Jan 2005
Location: the Banana Belt
Posts: 990

"Allowing blanking when you are leading or even when the score is tied is unfair. Other sports have rules that prevent you from keeping the puck/ball/last rock. "

Seriously? Both teams start the game tied at zero-zero. The team that plays better and scores more points at the end of the game wins, someone always wins and someone always loses. You create offense by scoring when you have the hammer or stealing when you don't. You also generate forces by putting pressure on the team with the hammer. If you can't do that or they can beat your attempt to force them then you move on and the team that has played the end better is rewarded. If you want T-Ball then play T-ball.

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