Hey curlers, brush up on your knowledge of ‘Broomgate’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/06/2016 (3398 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s not often that summers are blessed with so much news about curling, but this off-season the headlines keep on roaring.

Just last week, Curling Canada unveiled a new 16-team format for the Scotties and the Brier, set to launch in the 2017-18 season. Now, the sport seems poised to close Broomgate, the brush-fabric drama that rocked the curling world last winter.

On Monday, the World Curling Federation unveiled new recommendations to help level the elite playing field, the result of groundbreaking research into sweeping. On its way out: abrasive brush fabric that critics said allowed rocks to be steered with “joystick” precision. On its way in: uniformity, and tighter equipment regulations.

“There’s almost a light at the end of the tunnel,” 2015 Manitoba champion skip Reid Carruthers said. “Curlers and curling fans are going to be able to go back to focusing on curling, and not necessarily finger-pointing or distractions of the brooms as it was this past year.”

In a way, this is more than an equipment shift. It is also a pivotal moment in a sport that is rapidly changing. In its statement, the WCF crystallized its vision for how curling ought to remain: as a sport that is above all about the precision of throwing. 

That said, for many fans the kerfuffle can get rather confusing. So let’s review from the natural starting point: the beginning. 

Why are we talking about curling brushes, again?

Come, take a slide down memory lane. Early in the 2015-16 season, the curling world erupted with controversy over brush heads that featured types of fabric designed to be more abrasive against the pebble. Rocks were moving in ways nobody had seen before, slowing down and backing up against the curl. 

The brush pad that first ignited the controversy was a new Balance Plus model, which was never sold publicly and soon recalled. However, that brush was designed in response to a competitor: the Hardline icePad, which came to prominence wielded by stars such as Reid Carruthers and Mike McEwen. And so Broomgate was born.

It wasn’t the first debate to bear this name. “Broomgate” has been used before, most recently at the 2015 Brier when Team Brad Jacobs second E.J. Harnden tapped an opponent on the foot. But this Broomgate was the big one, arriving at a moment when the sport’s elite ranks were embroiled in a veritable arms race of professionalization.

In that light, the temporary solution that came down mid-season — curlers were asked to turn the relevant fabric inside out — was only a temporary armistice. “What we’re doing with our brooms is just to keep the peace until we can figure out what to do,” Carruthers told the Free Press in October. 

Supporters strongly believed the icePad didn’t cause nearly the same effects or damage to the pebble as the Balance Plus fabric did. At the height of the debate, things got pretty messy: Hardline released a statement calling Broomgate a “trumped-up controversy” engineered in response to the market success of its brushes.

As far as sports dramas go, this one was relentlessly Canadian, so American media took a bemused interest. Even Stephen Colbert weighed in, devoting a six-minute Late Show segment to the topic. “No-one saw this coming, because no-one watches curling,” he quipped. (He also name-dropped the Manitoba tuck, so cheers to the curling fan on his staff.)

Pressure mounted on officials to take action. Looking back now, Carruthers agrees it was a major distraction. “Some teams handled it better than others,” he said. “At some point it got the best of me, but in a weird way it was almost good training for a team that gets to go to the Olympics because you’re facing adversity and overcoming it.”

Finally, the World Curling Federation convened a Sweeping Summit in May to test brushes and techniques, and invited a who’s-who of top curlers. In what could be the most Canadian act of science ever, the federal National Research Council agreed to help study the problem. Which brings us to now.

So, what did the Sweeping Summit discover?

The NRC’s full report has yet to be released, but the World Curling Federation announced its initial findings on Monday. They found that “regardless of technique,” certain non-specified brushes were “far too effective” at steering rocks.

In an effort to get a jump-start on preparing curlers for the 2016-17 season, the WCF released a set of recommendations it expects to vote on in September. Assuming those are approved, WCF events will now require that all brushes use one approved fabric from one source, without waterproof coating or artificial texture.

There will also be uniform standards around brush head construction, eliminating innovations such as ridges, hardening inserts and foil. In addition, swapping brushes between players will not be permitted. “Any difference in sweeping performance becomes the difference in the athletic ability and skill of the sweepers,” the WCF explained.

In a long statement on its website, Hardline Curling called the fabric regulations a “reasonable second solution.” (The manufacturer would rather that WCF have proposed new sweeping rules.) “We hope now that these issues are now behind us and we can all move forward,” it said.

What does this mean, for curlers and the game?

For the average recreational curler, that remains to be seen. Manufacturers and the WCF are still “consulting” to determine what should be done about brushes intended for recreational play. But for the top end of the sport, it’s big news.

Fabric details aside, the Broomgate saga was perhaps a necessary growing pain. The Olympics and TV deals have changed curling, and there is now more money and more glory resting on every inch. As elite curlers pushed for every advantage they could get, “the technology got ahead of the game,” Carruthers said.

Fixing that may have been messy at times, but what is emerging is a more stable future for curling. It’s not just about the brushes: it’s about a sport navigating the waves between where it started, and where it is going. There will be other waves, but consistent equipment will go a long way to keeping the ship steady. 

“Curling’s always been very much in the thrower’s hands,” Carruthers said. “It kind of got away from that a little bit. Now when the game’s on the line, and you’re a little off on the throw, you don’t have that margin of error anymore… I’m excited for it.”

 

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca