Curling: Olympic rookies talk the talk

NZ curler Lorne DePape, 49, will be the oldest Olympian in Turin next year. Pictures / Amos Chapple

There are three points New Zealanders may already know about curling.

Firstly, the game is similar to lawn bowls except that disc-shaped "stones" are slid along ice rinks accompanied by lots of yelling to encourage the broom sweepers who assist a stone's progress.

Secondly, and quite obviously, large slabs of ice come in very handy.

And thirdly, that's about all we know.

Given the second point, a homestead on the outskirts of Te Awamutu is a strange place to be plunged into the world of curling, which originated in Scotland and thrives in Canada, where it is the number two team sport behind ice hockey.

Yet this is the base for 49-year-old Lorne DePape's curling career, making Waikato home to the man set to be the oldest competitor at February's Winter Olympics in Turin.

Unlike Tim Finn, DePape can't sing "I was born in Te Awamutu". He is a transplanted Canadian, like his fellow New Zealand curlers, Hans Frauenlob of Auckland and Dan Mustapic of Dunedin.

However, thereare two New Zealand-born squad members from the heartland of curling - the Otago outback. Skip Sean Becker is from Patearoa and Warren Dobson from Naseby.

Rugby-playing Becker, 29, the fourth generation of a curling dynasty, sums up curling's status here.

His home rink is a "wee dam about 100 yards from the back door" of his farm.

"We have a couple of lights strung up where we can play at night if we have to," he said, speaking from the world championships in Victoria, Canada last week.

The New Zealand team finished eighth at Victoria, losing narrowly to Canada and Scotland and beating third-placed Germany. Most importantly, they grabbed New Zealand's first-ever place in the 10-team Olympic lineup.

DePape has been flooded with more than 100 congratulatory emails from around the world since.

"I guess some folks in Canada don't know all I've been up to for the last 13 years," says DePape.

"When they find out that some relative is going to the Olympics, they think it's a bit of a buzz. I think it's a bit of a buzz. An Olympian is part of a unique club."

To be fair, most New Zealanders won't have known what DePape and his mates have been up to either.

DePape and wife Carroll - who curled briefly for New Zealand - arrived on a job transfer in 1992, intending to stay here for three years. The climate won them over.

DePape had been a late starter to curling, taking his place among the 1.2 million people who play the sport in Canada.

His fellow New Zealand-Canadian team-mates were also curling no-names, although Frauenlob touched baseball fame as the computer boss of the Toronto Blue Jays, winners of two World Series. But this is still a long way from becoming an Olympic sportsman.

And sportsmen they are.

Sliding along the ice before letting go of a 20kg granite stone may appear one step removed from lying on the couch. But DePape gives assurances that delivering the stone and the rapid sweeping moves - which keep the stone running straight and up to speed on the 40m-long rinks - require strength, stamina, balance and skill.

He trains four times a week in the gym, there is video analysis, the New Zealand team train under a top coach during visits to Canada, and they even had a session with a sports psychologist.

But they have trouble getting together as a squad. And ironically, one thing DePape can't do is curl on a decent surface - the nearest rink, in Auckland, is used by ice skaters and has an inferior surface.

Curling may be known as a friendly sport where you never sledge an opponent, but the Kiwi curlers do talk the talk. Ask DePape about playing against curling legend and Canadian skip Randy Ferbey, and he is defiant.

"We had our chances. They're not unbeatable. They won the title, but they only scraped in to the playoffs."

And anyway, Ferbey holds no fears. He happily obliged when the New Zealanders rang him up for a friendly game on one of their Canadian excursions. That's curling.

The light is fading in Te Awamutu as video of a New Zealand game plays out on TV. Despite a throaty virus, DePape gives a running commentary as he shows off curling programmes, newspaper stories and the tools of the trade, which include a stopwatch, Teflon-coated shoes and lightweight graphite brooms.

He hardly needs to say it, but announces: "Curling consumes me."

And he's hoping it will consume a few others. With financial help from the world body, a $1 million rink is nearly ready in Naseby. Another will open in Dunedin and there are moves afoot in Auckland, where there are 14 club teams. Most of the 1000-odd curlers live in Otago, mainly playing the traditional outdoor style using a standing delivery.

But there are hopes that Olympic TV coverage will find new fans for the sport's intricacies, where draw shots curl as the spinning stone slows.

Curling as a thriving sport? It's a longshot. But if Lorne DePape is an indication, it won't be for the want of trying.

THE GAME

* Each team has four players. All four players on each team deliver two stones, alternating with the other team. Each game lasts 10 ends (like innings). An end is complete when all 16 stones have been delivered. Only one team can score per end. A stone is in the scoring area if it is in, or even touching, the house (the concentric circles.)

Sweeping

* Sweepers play a key role on the team by judging the weight of the stone. Sweeping slightly melts the ice, which reduces the friction between the running stone and the ice. The result is that the stone will curl less, and slide further