Registered: Oct 2013
Location:
Posts: 559

First, if your argument is to leave the rules alone, then please don’t post in this thread, we get it you don’t want the rule change. This is intended to brainstorm ideas to see if a good solution for blank end minimization can be found on this forum. I hope that this thread will be people post an idea they have about dealing with blank ends, and then people can suggest flaws in their proposals.

I’ll get the ball rolling.

My idea is that the team that blanks the fewest ends during a game would get the hammer in an extra end regardless of score. So teams can blank the first end if they want to set up their strategy, but at that point, the other team knows that if they don’t blank an end, they would have the extra end hammer This would sort of encourage them to not blank an end if they can prevent it.

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Registered: Apr 2016
Location:
Posts: 13

You lose the hammer if you blank.

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Registered: Feb 2011
Location: Winnipeg
Posts: 1418

Strategic blanking is part of the game. Go to the 5 rock rule would be a better idea. Maybe in an extra end, team with hammer has to win by 2. LOL.

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Registered: Oct 2013
Location: St.Claude
Posts: 128

How about instead of rules we look at stones. The stones being used in the slams are so lively they can throw hack at a buried stone and make the blank. What if the inserts were changed so instead of that hack weight blank they had to draw for the 1.

Also same idea when making peels. The double runs with control weight wont be made. A millimeter off nose wont roll out. Might lead to more rocks out front when a team is peeling.

Combo this in with the 5 rock rule and we have a winner. Simple but effective and not an overhaul on rules

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Registered: Sep 2002
Location: London, Ontario
Posts: 4002

quote:

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Originally posted by Justintwiss
How about instead of rules we look at stones. The stones being used in the slams are so lively they can throw hack at a buried stone and make the blank. What if the inserts were changed so instead of that hack weight blank they had to draw for the 1.

Also same idea when making peels. The double runs with control weight wont be made. A millimeter off nose wont roll out. Might lead to more rocks out front when a team is peeling.

Combo this in with the 5 rock rule and we have a winner. Simple but effective and not an overhaul on rules

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Registered: Mar 2011
Location: Montréal
Posts: 81

Blanking is reserved to teams behind in the score

So when the score is tied or if you are leading you can't blank & retain last rock advantage.

It would at minimum eliminate the frequent 1st end blank whose goal is to get last rock on even ends and theoretically give you 5 ends with last rock (1-2-4-6-8) versus only 3 (3-5-7) for your opponent.

It would also eliminate the automatic blank of the 7th end when the score is tied.

Finally if you inadvertenly blank the 8th end in a tied game, you wouldn't automatically get last rock on the 9th end.

Under the present rules blanking makes sense so I'm not questionning the strategy I just think blanking encourages and rewards defensive play. Blanking is much easier than scoring 2 or more. Limit the use of blanking and there should be a better balance of offence and defence WITH the better teams winning more often than not. Kevin Martin won the 1991 Brier when peeling was the rage (before the free guard zone) and he won the 2010 Olympics playing under free guard zone.

Last edited by Marco2010 on 11-09-16 at 07:17PM

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Registered: Aug 2016
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 23

Oh, thank goodness. I thought this thread was about preventing me. I'll go back to listening to Carly Simon now.

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@TheBlankEnd

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Registered: Nov 2016
Location:
Posts: 1

My idea is to alternate the hammer every end. I would see it play out like this...
Non competitive- coin toss
Competitive- all 4 members throw one rock each. Combined total of closest to the pin gets to choose.
Here's where it gets interesting, if you win the draw to the button, do you take hammer in the odd ends, thus insuring you have hammer for the extra end, or do you take hammer in the even to get hammer in the last end.

I think this would create a lot of action every end, as the emphasis is now on scoring every end. Sure the game would change, but it would make it more interesting.

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