TV Ads about Curling

This post has nothing to do with Curling in Detroit.  We were surfing You Tube on a cold snowy day.  Searched for Curling Advertisements.  Here are a few of those we found...

The first is from the Manitoba Curling Association, I like this dated clip - especially the worn out shoes, since I had a similar pair in about 1986.

The next one is just plain funny.  A BIC ad:  'The Toughest Sport on Ice', posted by CulturePub (a French TV show).

"Hurry - Hard" is from the series of 'Start Curling' ads published by the Canadian Curling Association.

And last, but not least, an Advert for Navibot from Norway.

We thank the people who posted these videos on YouTube and allowed us to re-post them here.  If you go to YouTube you can find many more.

Happy Holidays and Good Curling

Preparations for the Men's International Bonspiel

Not this year, but in 1897…the First International Bonspiel at The Club.  From the Jan 3, 1897 Detroit Free Press:

“THE ICE IS PROMISED.  Curlers prepared for the Bonspiel this week.  Twenty clubs have entered the contests.  Splendid Trophies for the Winners.

 

“Just now there is great activity among the members of the Detroit Curling Club, and especially those who are on the ice committee.  The International Bonspiel is to begin here on Wednesday and it is the duty of the committee to provide ice.  Committeemen were racing up to the weather office yesterday and members of the club were burning up the phone wires in quest of anything but rain.  When word came that there is a wave pointed at us and which will avenge the premature advent of spring there was happiness.  Everything else has been provided and if the cold snap strikes here and throws out the anchor there will be plenty of fun for the curlers this week.  

“The prizes are the finest ever given at a club Bonspiel.”

“The invitations have been responded to from all quarters, and, although entries will be accepted up to noon tomorrow, there are twenty in now.  Each club will send an eight men and this will make 160 in play.  The first round will start at 10 o’clock on Wednesday morning and play will continue until midnight each day until the games are played off.  The entries up to date are as follows:  

“Chatham, Embro, Forest, London, London-Forest City, Petorlia, Ridgetown, Sarnia, Stratford, Thamesville, Glencoe, Woodstock, Wallaceburg, Toledo, St. Thomas, Berlin (Ed note:  This was the name of Kitchener before 1912),   Simcoe, Grand Rapids, Windsor and Detroit."

Good ‘Spiel’n, Angus 

Women Polish The Ice - Detroit Free Press: Feb 4, 1917

“They can hurl 50 pound curling stones, too.

Believe this girl reporter who scoffs at “He-Chickens”.

“Dear City Editor: - I adore writing letters – ‘specially fault finding ones.  You men are so selfish… You see, the women came down to eat – the men gave them a banquet – and they went right out and began to shinny those enormous stones about and in another minute the first women’s curling match ever held in Detroit was on.  My gracious, but it has been a long time coming to that.

“Maybe it is because of their knowledge that they look such “ducks” in Scotch bonnets that caused the women to wrestle with those 50-pound chunks of granite, but the fact remains that they did do it and threw them a very long way, swept just as madly as the men, got just as red-faced and excited and strained 17 parts of the anatomy to prove their ability.

“Why can’t the women have space and be made to feel they are worthwhile in athletics and then maybe we can have a regular women’s curling club and go about the country getting cups and prizes and frost-bitten ears and glory and sore throats and publicity and everything.

“Among the women who showed skill on the ice were Mrs. J.A. Bucknell, Mrs. E.R. Treble, Mrs. Herman Sanderson and Mrs. J.V. Gurney.

“Yours athletically, BUDA STEPHENS”

Ed. Note:  Ms. Buda Stephens was a tennis champion and a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press.  One of her more famous articles was an interview with Babe Ruth.  Her unflattering article, titled RUTH JUST A BIG JUNGLE INFANT, was published on page one.  She pronounced Ruth as lacking in sophistication.  “He doesn't know the answer to anything if it’s more than one syllable”…”He is not suave and intellectual”…And finally, “Babe Ruth possesses none of the Ty Cobb charms.”

Women on the Ice

The Grand Rapids (Michigan) Women’s Curling Club claims to be the first curling club for women in the USA in 1908. The women’s curling team was a notable exception to the turn-of-the-century attitude that women should not participate in competitive sports.  They curled at the Grand Rapids CC (founded in 1902) located at the corner of Lake Drive and Norwood Avenue in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Note the ‘T’ shaped rock handles.

Lang may ur lum reek, Angus MacTavish