curlingclips
Super Rockchucker
Registered: Oct 2019
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Posts: 1523 |
Replacing damaged rocks while game is in progress
At the 2020 US Nationals final, Rich Ruohonen asked if he could replace one of Colin Hufman's rock that kept taking off on them.
https://youtu.be/TBcrsH3Mxog
I asked in the Curling Glossary thread for the nicknames for the different personalities that a rock may have. I'm not sure what you'd call this one. I don't think it's technically a "cutter", which to my understanding is only when it curls big at the finish. This rock seems to just nose dive way earlier, losing speed and handle closer to half way point, almost like it picked up debris.
I looked up the Rules of Curling from WCF and R2.b says "If a stone is damaged and becomes unsuitable for play, a replacement stone is used."
I think you can argue that if a rock is a "picker" (for lack of better nickname), that it may be considered damaged and unsuitable for play. Like, if 90% of the time the rock will lose its handle rotation half way down the sheet on draw weight, surely we're getting closer to damaged rock territory, right?
In any case, John Shuster didn't think that this is a scenario where the rock could be replaced.
I think he may have a point, because however damaged the rock may or may not be, it was not obvious that it was caused by something that happened DURING the game. If it's believed that the rock may be a "picker" from the beginning, then it's a preexisting condition that you just have to deal with, and you shouldn't be able to ask for a replacement, because it did not just suddenly acquire this new personality during the game after a traumatic probable cause.
Does this sound even remotely right? Can anyone remember a documented case of rock replacement, hopefully on video?
Previously I've only seen cases of broken handle being replaced, e.g. Marc Kennedy https://youtu.be/9iaTJeErLm8 .
Electronic handles get replaced quite often, of course, when it's proven or suspected to be faulty with regard to hog line detection (playlist of these and other equipment issues https://www.youtube.com/playlist?li...X60-8KgKGQm2HVC ), but that's not what we're talking about here (although feel free to bring those up as well so I can complete my video collection).
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