by Rodger Schmidt

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – Before I jump into “more on that later” let me report on the on ice games.

Scotland – Smith and Smith, Warwick and David – moved out front on the standing table with their fourth win while giving China their second loss. Norway kept Japan winless, moving to 3-1 on the chart and similar to Germany (3-1) which handed France their third Ouch.

The most exciting game on the draw was a Swedish comeback against the young Italians: trailing by two on end 10, Sweden’s team – The Family Carlsen – managed to tie, and then steal in an extra-end. It was Sweden’s first win and Italy’s second defeat.

It would have been good for the event had Italy run their start to 3-1, for Italians are good at jumping on a bandwagon, and the event excitement would have jumped up a decibel or two – but alas they are 2-2 now and facing Canada this afternoon.

In off-ice competition at the WCF meetings, discussion opened on future rule changes which will be voted on – and either approved or defeated – on Wednesday. There were no winners or losers yet, just more questions... and few answers.

There are some big issues on the docket, such as extra-ends, choosing 8 or 10 ends, and the fate of tiebreakers. Measured purely by discussions, it would seem that extras will stay, 10 ends will stay, and tiebreakers will take the bullet – even though hardly anyone agrees that there is an adequate, fair or workable alternative once the burial is completed. However, there were a lot of delegates who will vote who did not speak – thus giving no indication of whether today’s discussion will in fact resemble the vote.

And then there is the biggest enemy of us all – time. All agree that game times should be shortened, so what is the problem, you may ask? Well, the problem may be that in the sweeping path of shortening the time the WCF advisors and communicators seem to be using this leverage to wipe out other elements of the game that don’t necessarily need to add time to the game... such as elements that relate to technology, communication and even coaching. But... “more on that later.”

Further to time and the timing of games: for a few years now it seemed that measuring “thinking time” and not “playing time” was a logical, and easy, change to implement. Well, not anymore. The WCF declared today that the timing of games is just perfect the way it is, and they see no reason to change.

In fact the change, they proclaim, is too difficult to administer, albeit without going into any significant reasons... and also without acknowledging that the Grand Slams have been doing this for some time now, and with no great difficulty as far as I am aware, and with full buy-in from the athletes

Definitely “more on this later.”

On a side note, the Italians are working tirelessly and are hosting this event in grand fashion. Not an easy task in such a small community, and in such a small curling nation. So, when is the World Curling Federation finally going to acknowledge the contribution, made over decades, by the big chief of Italian Curling, Franco Zumofen?

I don’t have enough blogspace to list all he has done for not just Italian curling, but for World and European curling as well. Suffice to point out that there would be no World University Games without his astuteness and diligence (he pioneered and hosted two events in Italy), the Torino Olympics, the World Juniors, European Championships of all sorts and on and on.

Every year the WCF seems to find someone to give an award to, and I mean no disrespect to the recipients, but most of them have not delivered to curling what Franco has. Not even close. This should have been done years ago. So do it now while he is still alive to receive it himself.

Hopefully, no more is required on this later.

[WCF photo by Urs Raeber]