What is the Spirit of Curling?

Marc Kennedy recently contemplated the Spirit of Curling might be dead.

So what exactly is this "spirit"? I'll illustrate by sharing a story from Jim Waite, my guest on episode 87 of Curling Legends Podcast 

This tale is for curling fans, but it’s also for the many people introduced to the sport every four years who struggle to understand the traditions of self-officiating and good sportsmanship that curling was founded on, hundreds of years ago.

We can debate Marc’s concerns these traditions no longer apply in the modern era some other time, but for now here’s an example from over 60 years ago.

This has been modified for length and clarity.

Jim Waite: “We had people who worked with us. St. Thomas (Ontario) was kind of unique in our area in that they encourage the young players like myself to come and play in their men’s league and that sort of thing and so we learned from them. We learned strategy from them and I learned a lot about the game and the history of the game and the honour that is in the game.

“I played with this man named Don Anderson ,who is a well-to-do man and excellent curler, and we played in this three-day bonspiel. I was playing lead with him, and it came down to the last shot against Alfie Phillips Sr.

“We were one up and Alfie was drawing for two and (the rock) picked, and just stopped dead.

“Don Anderson threw the rock back and said ‘throw that again, we don’t want to win that way” and I’m sitting there and I’m thinking... What? *I* want to win that way.

“Alfie went down to the other end to (re)throw the rock... and thew it through the rings on purpose, because that’s the way it was. 

“What a lesson, and so I learned a lot from those people as to how it’s supposed to be.”