Epic fail

Brian Wilson

Do you take a knee or try for the Hail Mary play?

My daughter’s curling team was down by two rocks coming into their final end of play in last weekend’s annual Alumni Bonspiel. They were facing off against the talented crew skipped by Chad Demulling for a berth in the second event quarterfinals.

While my daughter was calling the game as skip, she was throwing rocks in the second’s spot and deferred to having her teammate, Connor, throwing the final rocks.

Even with being down by two rocks, Beth’s team had a solid chance with the hammer in the final end. With just the final two rocks remaining to throw, one of Beth’s rocks was solidly in the center circle of the house. Their opponent had rocks at roughly 12 o’clock and 3 o’clock within the four-foot circle, guarding Beth’s rock from being taking out, but also preventing Connor from drawing into the house to lay an easy two to tie it up.

A mess of rocks cluttered the front of the house left few options. The “safer” option was to try and make an advance from about the 10 o’clock spot on the 12 foot circle. In theory, if they hit it just right they would be able to nudge the rock into the house behind their opponent’s guard and, at best, tie up the game and send it to a tie-breaking extra end. At worst it would ricochet off the rocks and contribute to more mess up front and be a wasted shot. It deserves to be pointed out that Beth’s team had tried that advance earlier in the end and had been unsuccessful.

The other option, was for Connor to throw through an open port and attempt a take out of the rock in the three o’clock position and stick around for the potential to lay his second rock in for three points and the win.

It was one of those shots that, if successful would have reached epic status and been talked about in the warming room for years to come as players swapped stories about great plays they have seen over the years.

Yes, this is seriously something curlers do. It is no different than any other sports fan talking about a game winning Hail Mary pass or the full court buzzer-beater three-pointer to win the game.

In curling, the difference between champ and chump can be measured in a small fraction of an inch.

Connor lined up on Beth’s broom for his shot. The sweepers, my son Alex, and his teammate Caiti, jumped on the rock right away to keep it going straight.

Unfortunately, the odds weren’t in their favor and rather than taking out one of their opponents rocks, Connor managed to hit his own team’s well-guarded rock sending it careening out of the bottom of the house while his own rock rolled off in the other direction.

Needless to say this was the exact worst thing that could have happened, effectively ending any chance they had to win, or even tie up the game.

It is a well known fact that the best quarterbacks in the world are the ones sitting in their armchairs watching the game on TV. This holds true for curling with warming room skips second guessing the calls made on the ice — not to mention getting guff from teammates questioning the sanity of a skip who called such a shot.

Beth could have called the “safe” shot for the advance and the remote chance that this time they would have been able to make the shot and survive to play another end, but she didn’t. She instead chose to go all in and try for a chance at the win rather than simply delaying losing. I can’t blame her, in the same situation I would have made the same call — which my teammates point out probably has a lot to do with our less than stellar record.

Life is about facing choices. If we are too afraid to take the risky shot in an otherwise meaningless game, when else would we be willing to take a calculated risk or put ourselves in a situation where we may fail?

You miss every shot you are too afraid to take.

Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News.