Curling for a cause in Clarion, Local brewery hosts first annual curling classic

“Did you say curling?” This is the question that Cody LaRue uttered Saturday morning when one of his friends woke him up earlier than he would have liked. After a little discussion, LaRue confirmed that his friend had in fact said “curling” and he was being roused to join a team that was short-handed. The team was bound for the first annual curling classic hosted by Timbukbrü brewery here in Clarion last Saturday.

            Most people in Iowa probably are not too familiar with the sport of curling, besides maybe seeing in on the Winter Olympics every few years. While curling is very popular in Canada and even Minnesota, curling in a small town like Clarion, Iowa is pretty uncommon. The sport involves two teams sliding stones across the ice to a circular target that is painted on the ice on the other side of a long narrow court. Most recognizably, team members use brooms to sweep the ice and change its structure to help or hurt a team. Teams accumulate points and go back and forth in sets several times. Curling is often called “chess on ice.”

For the full story, see the Feb. 14th edition of the Monitor