Elite curlers adapt to new 'no tick' rule designed to inject more suspense into games

Canada Skip Brad Gushue delivers a stone against Sweden during a gold medal game at the World Men's Curling Championships, Sunday, April 10, 2022, in Las Vegas. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-John Locher

No tick is here to stay in curling.

Canada has adopted the new rule the World Curling Federation tested at the women's and men's world championships earlier this year.

The "no tick" rule will be played at the 2023 Canadian men's and women's championships and in the playdowns to get there.

The tick shot as a strategy emerged from the implementation of free-guard zone. Stones in front of the rings, or guards, can't be removed from play in an end until five rocks are thrown.

A well-executed tick shot pushes those guards to the wings, but keeps them in play while opening up access to the house.

Now, a guard on or partially on the centre line can't be touched until five rocks are delivered.

The chances of a team winning with hammer in a tied game coming home, or in an extra end, approach 90 per cent, according to the WCF.

So the rationale for the change is to make outcome less predictable, and thus keep eyeballs on a game until the last rock is thrown, and reduce the number of blank ends in a game.

No tick gives the team without last-rock advantage in an end the chance to draw around that centre guard into the rings, and potentially force the opposition to execute more difficult shots to score with hammer.

"It does provide some interesting curling," reigning Canadian men's champion Brad Gushue told The Canadian Press.

"Certainly on the men's side, where teams have become so proficient at making the tick and if they don't, make a double or triple peel to take away any chance of a steal, it's probably not a bad idea to have.

"We look at the statistics, some of the top teams are 95 per cent when they have the hammer coming home. It doesn't give a team much hope, or a spectator that's watching, it's not going to provide much entertainment when 95 per cent of the time, it's going to be a certain result."

The WCF approved no tick at its congress last month after vetting it at the women's world championship in Prince George, B.C., in March, as well as in April's men's championship in Las Vegas.

The top teams were already familiar with it because the Grand Slams began testing no tick back in 2019.

They're playing a hybrid version of the rule at this week's HearingLife Tour Challenge that concludes Sunday in Grande Prairie, Alta.

No tick is in effect in the eighth and extra ends only.

"Either or, like either pick it for the whole game or don't," Canadian women's champion skip Kerri Einarson said, while adding she's not opposed to the no tick.

"It does make the end of a game a lot more interesting, especially if you're tied or one down, there's still a good chance that you can potentially steal. We've definitely figured out different types of strategies for it."

Curling Canada wants next year's Tim Hortons Brier and Scotties Tournament of Hearts winners to have played no tick when they head to the world championships.

Gushue's feelings about the alteration are mixed because he's not yet convinced no tick will do what it is intended to do. He would have liked to see more data before its introduction.

"Are we going to see instead of it being 95 per cent teams winning with the hammer, is it going down to 90 or will it push it down to 75?" he wondered. "I don't think we have a big enough data set to say how much impact there's going to be.

"If it's a five per cent change, is that enough to change the game and potentially confuse spectators a little bit more? If it's 20 per cent, it makes sense from an entertainment standpoint."

 The three-time Brier champion acknowledged he'll like no tick if his team is chasing in the last end, but will love it less if he has hammer coming home tied up.

"As a team, we've always worked the first nine ends to make sure we had the hammer coming home tied up," Gushue said. "You do that, and your chances are potentially going to be reduced."

RUSSIA, BELARUS OUT

The WCF also decided at its annual congress that Russia and Belarus are removed from competition for the remainder of 2022, which means Russia won't play in next month's European championship in Oestersund, Sweden.

Russia's women will be replaced by Hungary and the men by Spain.

The WCF approved a rule stating "the board of the WCF may remove a team or member association from any WCF event if in the sole opinion of the board their presence at the event would damage the event or put the safety of the participants or the good order of the event at risk."

Russia, with the support of neighbour Belarus, invaded Ukraine in February.

The WCF quickly booted Russia, the 2021 runner-up, from the women's world championship in Prince George the following month, as well as from the men's championship in Vegas.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20.2022.