Team Clendenan

3584 is all about perspective. On paper it’s just a number unless perhaps it is prettied up with an artist’s hand and placed on a sign in front of a house that has been painted on a canvas. Transformed by perspective, the previously unknown number becomes the address of the house and the number has significantly more meaning. So if the same number 3584 was inserted in this curling blog it still wouldn’t be exciting, even it was accompanied by the words “contributed to the win” in big red letters in the title. The reader might be more appreciative however, if the uncharacteristic number was given perspective in its own right by revealing that 3584 is the number of actual rocks that Team Clendenan had thrown in games in the 2014/2015 curling tour prior to the Zone 10 play-downs which is equivalent to 150,528 lbs of granite or approximately the weight of 12 elephants combined. Added to the rocks that had been thrown in practices and the mental rocks that had been moved around on strategy boards, the overall “rock fitness" level of the girls favoured a good outcome at zones, but all of the participants were just as hungry for success so the true perspective of the impact of the number 3584 would have to wait until the dust settled.

Hosted in Midland this year, the Zone 10 Bantam girls play downs had reduced numbers of teams and consequently reduced numbers of births (two) available for advancement to Regions. For other sports enthusiasts to relate, there was a somewhat “sudden death” feel to the games with a double knock out formula on the road to victory. “A” side is the favourable path for the winner, but it requires an undefeated day of competition and can be influenced by the random card that is pulled at the beginning of the event. Initially facing a team from Barrie (Greaves) the brackets then unfolded with a match up against the home club team (Duivestyn) followed by a current rival from the circuit (McMenemy) but as it turned out, the heavy lifting of the purple girls paid off by enabling them to defeat all three in succession.

If asked, the girls would probably credit their Zone win with the ability to stay focused on one rock at a time, but it would be unlikely that they would mention the sheer number of rocks that were also required one rock at a time over months of training prior. The scoreboard may have showed a victory for Team Clendenan at Zone 10, but each of the thousands of rocks that were thrown before the championship were the steps on the stairway to being as prepared as they could be. Practice doesn’t guarantee success of course, but with 3584 attempts under your belt before you throw that last stone when it matters, your odds of creating a piece of colourful art instead of a number on a page are definitely better – and Team Clendenan proved it.

Once you finish grinning girls, take a deep breath, exhale and repeat.

Onward to Regions!