New rule for next Grand Slam of Curling.

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Brad Gushue at the Grand Slam of Curling in St John's, Newfoundland. Photo by Anil Mungal/GSOC.Brad Gushue at the Grand Slam of Curling in St John’s, Newfoundland. Photo by Anil Mungal/GSOC.

By Jason Pike

ST JOHN’S, NL – A new rule to start testing at next Grand Slam of Curling competition where a team will lose hammer after 2nd consecutive blank ends.

Curling has a new experiment ready to go. A new rule that will be used at the next Grand Slam competition and it’s the subject of some scrutiny and questioned by many.

Organizers plan to test a setup that will see a team lose hammer after a second consecutive blank end. The change is an attempt to increase scoring and entertainment value and should have a significant impact on team strategy.

Nolan Thiessen,  Curling Canada chief executive officer, said that he’s excited and that it’s going to change the game. tweaks in the past, confirmed the change will come at the Jan. 14-19 WFG Masters.

It will be evaluated after that event and ascertained if it will be implemented.

The decision was finalized during the recent Kioti National at Mary Brown’s Centre in St. John’s, N.L.

A full house on hand to cheer on hometown hero Brad Gushue watched as Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen started with hammer and kept it for three straight blank ends.

Team Brad Jacobs coach Paul Webster, former national development coach with Curling Canada understands that when you get an Arena with 6,000 people in attendance and things get really really quiet that it’s concerning and that making a change would potentially make it more exciting for the fans but from a purist standpoint it is controversial.

Mike McEwen originally scored with a single in the fourth end. He went on to post a 4-3 victory in the round-robin game.

5-rock rule

The Grand Slam series used the five-rock rule for several years before the World Curling Federation voted to adopt it for widespread use in the 2018-19 season.

The goal was to have more rocks in play and fewer blanks while giving teams more of a chance to make comebacks. This latest change is the first step in a process that curling observers will watch with interest.

However, the so-called double-blank rule does raise some concern that it may lead to an approach that actually limits excitement with fewer rocks in play.

Other sports have underwent discussions and rule changes over time for example the NFL have been exploring rule changes for a number of years in an attempt to move the game along a little faster as some games have went to over 3 hours.

It’s all in an attempt to make the game more exciting for the players and for the fans. Especially in professional sports where there’s often pressure applied by corporate sponsors and television networks to create a faster more exciting product.

Will this new rule benefit curling or will it create a situation where it makes things slower and boring in a whole other way having teams play mostly defense? I guess the only thing that can answer that question is time. The more this rule is played we will be able to examine the results to see firsthand if it is to the benefit or the detriment of the game.

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