title: Croquet content: (depending on whether sticks were used), was regularly played in France and southern Britain between villages or parishes; it was attested in Cornwall as early as 1283. In the book "Queen of Games: The History of Croquet", Nicky Smith presents two theories of the origin of the modern game of croquet, which took England by storm in the 1860s and then spread overseas. The first explanation is that the ancestral game was introduced to Britain from France during the 1630–1685 reign of Charles II of England, and was played under the name of ' (among other spellings, today usually "pall-mall"),


title: Croquet content: derived ultimately from Latin words for 'ball and mallet' (the latter also found in the name of the earlier French game, '). This was the explanation given in the ninth edition of "Encyclopædia Britannica", dated 1877. In his 1810 book "The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England", Joseph Strutt described the way pall-mall was played in England at the time: "Pale-maille is a game wherein a round box[wood] ball is struck with a mallet through a high arch of iron, which he that can do at the fewest blows, or at the number agreed upon, wins. It is


title: Croquet content: to be observed, that there are two of these arches, that is one at either end of the alley. The game of mall was a fashionable amusement in the reign of Charles the Second, and the walk in Saint James's Park, now called the Mall, received its name from having been appropriated to the purpose of playing at mall, where Charles himself and his courtiers frequently exercised themselves in the practice of this pastime." While the name "pall-mall" and various games bearing this name also appeared elsewhere (France and Italy), the description above suggests that the croquet-like games in particular


title: Croquet content: were popular in England by the early 17th century. Some other early modern sources refer to pall-mall being played over a large distance (as in golf); however, an image in Strutt's 1801 book shows a croquet-like ground billiards game (balls on ground, hoop, bats and peg) being played over a , garden-sized distance. The image's caption describes the game as "a curious ancient pastime", confirming that croquet games were not new in early nineteenth century England. In Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary, his definition of "pall-mall" clearly describes a game with similarities to modern croquet: "A play in which the ball


title: Croquet content: is struck with a mallet through an iron ring". However, there is no evidence that pall-mall involved the croquet stroke which is the distinguishing characteristic of the modern game. The second theory is that the rules of the modern game of croquet arrived from Ireland during the 1850s, perhaps after being brought there from Brittany where a similar game was played on the beaches. Regular contact between Ireland and France had continued since the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169. By no later than the early 15th century, the game " (itself ancestral to pall-mall and perhaps to indoor billiards)


title: Croquet content: was popular in France, including in the courts of Henry II in the 16th century and Louis XIV of the 17th. At least one version of it, " ('wheel') was a multi-ball lawn game. Records show a game called "crookey", similar to croquet, being played at Castlebellingham in County Louth, Ireland, in 1834, which was introduced to Galway in 1835 and played on the bishop's palace garden, and in the same year to the genteel Dublin suburb of Kingstown (today Dún Laoghaire) where it was first spelt as "croquet". There is, however, no pre-1858 Irish document that describes the way


title: Croquet content: game was played, in particular there is no reference to the distinctive croquet stroke. The noted croquet historian Dr Prior, in his book of 1872, makes the categoric statement "One thing only is certain: it is from Ireland that croquet came to England and it was on the lawn of the late Lord Lonsdale that it was first played in this country." This was about 1851. John Jaques apparently claimed in a letter to Arthur Lillie in 1873 that he had himself seen the game played in Ireland, writing "I made the implements and published directions (such as they were)


title: Croquet content: before Mr. Spratt [mentioned above] introduced the subject to me." Whatever the truth of the matter, Jaques certainly played an important role in popularising the game, producing editions of the rules in 1857, 1860, and 1864. Croquet became highly popular as a social pastime in England during the 1860s. It was enthusiastically adopted and promoted by the Earl of Essex who held lavish croquet parties at Cassiobury House, his stately home in Watford, Hertfordshire, and the Earl even launched his own "Cassiobury" brand croquet set. By 1867, Jaques had printed 65,000 copies of his "Laws and Regulations" of the game.


title: Croquet content: It quickly spread to other Anglophone countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. No doubt one of the attractions was that the game could be played by both sexes; this also ensured a certain amount of adverse comment. By the late 1870s, however, croquet had been eclipsed by another fashionable game, lawn tennis, and many of the newly created croquet clubs, including the All England Club at Wimbledon, converted some or all of their lawns into tennis courts. There was a revival in the 1890s, but from then onwards, croquet was always a minority sport,


title: Croquet content: with national individual participation amounting to a few thousand players. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club still has a croquet lawn, but has not hosted any significant tournaments. The English headquarters for the game is now in Cheltenham. The earliest known reference to croquet in Scotland is the booklet "The Game of Croquet, its Laws and Regulations" which was published in the mid-1860s for the proprietor of Eglinton Castle, the Earl of Eglinton. On the page facing the title page is a picture of Eglinton Castle with a game of "croquet" in full swing. The croquet lawn existed


title: Croquet content: on the northern terrace, between Eglinton Castle and the Lugton Water. The 13th Earl developed a variation on croquet named Captain Moreton's Eglinton Castle croquet, which had small bells on the eight hoops "to ring the changes", two pegs, a double hoop with a bell and two tunnels for the ball to pass through. In 1865 the 'Rules of the Eglinton Castle and Cassiobury Croquet' was published by Edmund Routledge. Several incomplete sets of this form of croquet are known to exist, and one complete set is still used for demonstration games in the West of Scotland. There are several


title: Croquet content: variations of croquet currently played, differing in the scoring systems, order of shots, and layout (particularly in social games where play must be adapted to smaller-than-standard playing courts). Two forms of the game, association croquet and golf croquet, have rules that are agreed internationally and are played in many countries around the world. The United States has its own set of rules for domestic games. Gateball, a sport originated in Japan under the influence of croquet, is played mainly in East and Southeast Asia and the Americas and can also be regarded as a croquet variant. As well as club-level


title: Croquet content: games, there are regular world championships and international matches between croquet-playing countries. The sport has particularly strong followings in the UK, US, New Zealand and Australia; every four years, these countries play the MacRobertson Shield tournament. Many other countries also play. The current world rankings show England in top place for association croquet, followed by Australia and New Zealand sharing second place, with the United States in fourth position; the same four countries appear in the top six of the golf croquet league table, below Egypt in top position, and with South Africa at number five. Croquet is popularly believed


title: Croquet content: to be viciously competitive. This may derive from the fact that (unlike in golf) players will often attempt to move their opponents' balls to unfavourable positions. However, purely negative play is rarely a winning strategy: successful players (in all versions other than golf croquet) will use all four balls to set up a break for themselves, rather than simply making the game as difficult as possible for their opponents. At championship-standard association croquet, players can often make all 26 points (13 for each ball) in two turns. Croquet was an event at the 1900 Summer Olympics. Roque, an American variation


title: Croquet content: on croquet, was an event at the 1904 Summer Olympics. As with similar words with a French derivation, the final 't' is silent. British pronunciation puts the accent on the first syllable, American on the second: versus . Association croquet is the name of an advanced game of croquet, played at international level. It involves four balls teamed in pairs, with both balls going through every hoop for one pair to win. The game's distinguishing feature is the "croquet" shot: when certain balls hit other balls, extra shots are allowed. The six hoops are arranged three at each end of


title: Croquet content: the court, with a centre peg. In association croquet one side takes the black and blue balls, the other takes red and yellow. At each turn, players can choose to play with either of their balls for that turn. At the start of a turn, the player plays a stroke. If the player either hits the ball through the correct hoop ("runs" the hoop), or hits another ball (a "roquet"), the turn continues. Following a roquet, the player picks up his or her own ball and puts it down next to the ball that it hit. The next shot is


title: Croquet content: played with the two balls touching: this is the "croquet stroke" from which the game takes its name. By varying the speed and angle at which the mallet hits the striker's ball, a good player can control the final position of both balls: the horizontal angle determines how much the balls diverge in direction, while the vertical angle and the amount of follow-through determine the relative distance that the two balls travel. After the croquet stroke, the player plays a "continuation" stroke, during which the player may again attempt to make a roquet or run a hoop. Each of the


title: Croquet content: other three balls may be roqueted once in a turn before a hoop is run, after which they become available to be roqueted again. The winner of the game is the team who completes the set circuit of six hoops (and then back again the other way), with both balls, and then strikes the centre peg (making a total of 13 points per ball = 26). Good players may make "breaks" of several hoops in a single turn. The best players may take a ball round a full circuit in one turn. "Advanced play" (a variant of association play for


title: Croquet content: expert players) gives penalties to a player who runs certain hoops in a turn, to allow the opponent a chance of getting back into the game; feats of skill such as triple peels or better, in which the partner ball (or occasionally an opponent ball) is caused to run a number of hoops in a turn by the striker's ball help avoid these penalties. A handicap system ('bisques') provides less experienced players a chance of winning against more formidable opponents. Players of all ages and both sexes compete on level terms. The World Championships are organised by the World Croquet


title: Croquet content: Federation (WCF) and usually take place every 2 or 3 years. The 2018 championships took place in Wellington, New Zealand, the winner being Paddy Chapman of New Zealand. The current Women's Association Croquet World Champion (2015) is Miranda Chapman of England. Paddy and Miranda are married. The Australian team won the last MacRobertson International Croquet Shield tournament, which is the major international test tour trophy in association croquet. It is contested every three to four years between Australia, England, the United States and New Zealand. Historically the British have been the dominant force, winning 14 times out of the twenty


title: Croquet content: two times that the event has been held. In individual competition, the UK is often divided by subnational country (England, Scotland and Wales), while Northern Ireland joins with the republic in an All Ireland association (as it does in other sports). The world's top 10 association croquet players as of February 2018 were Robert Fletcher (Australia), Reg Bamford (South Africa), Robert Fulford (England), Paddy Chapman (New Zealand), Ben Rothman (USA), Malcolm Fletcher (Australia), Jamie Burch (England), Jose Riva (Spain), Stephen Mulliner (England), Greg Bryant (New Zealand), . Unlike most sports, men and women compete and are ranked together. Three women


title: Croquet content: have won the British Open Championship: Lily Gower in 1905, Dorothy Steel in 1925, 1933, 1935 and 1936, and Hope Rotherham in 1960. While male players are in the majority at club level in the UK, the opposite is the case in Australia and New Zealand. The governing body in England is The Croquet Association, which has been the driving force of the development of the game. The rules and tournament regulations are now maintained by the International Laws Committee, established by the croquet associations of England and Wales (CA), Australia (ACA), New Zealand (CNZ) and the United States (USCA).


title: Croquet content: In golf croquet, a hoop is won by the first ball to go through each hoop. Unlike association croquet, there are no additional turns for hitting other balls. Each player takes a stroke in turn, each trying to hit a ball through the same hoop. The sequence of play is blue, red, black, yellow. Blue and black balls play against red and yellow. When a hoop is won, the sequence of play continues as before. The winner of the game is the player/team who wins the most hoops. Golf croquet is the fastest-growing version of the game, owing largely to


title: Croquet content: its simplicity and competitiveness. There is an especially large interest with competitive success by players in Egypt. Golf croquet is easier to learn and play, but requires strategic skills and accurate play. In comparison with association croquet, play is faster and balls are more likely to be lifted off the ground. In April 2013, Reg Bamford of South Africa beat Ahmed Nasr of Egypt in the final of the Golf Croquet World Championship in Cairo, becoming the first person to simultaneously hold the title in both association croquet and golf croquet. As of 2017, the Golf Croquet World Champion was


title: Croquet content: Reg Bamford (South Africa) and the Women's Golf Croquet World Champion was Judith Hanekom (South Africa). In 2018, two international championships open to both sexes were won by women: in May, Rachel Gee of England beat Stephen Mulliner to win the European Golf Croquet championship, and in October, Hanan Rashad of Egypt beat Yasser Fathy (also from Egypt) to win the World over-50s Golf Croquet championship. Garden croquet is widely played in the UK. The rules are easy to learn and the game can be played on lawns of almost any size but usually around by . The rules are


title: Croquet content: similar to those described above for Association Croquet with three major differences: This version of the game is easy for beginners to learn. The main Garden Croquet Club in the UK is the Bygrave Croquet Club which is a private club with five lawns. Other clubs also use garden croquet as an introduction to the game, notably the Hampstead Heath Croquet Club and the Watford Croquet Club. The American rules version of croquet, another six-hoop game, is the dominant version of the game in the United States and is also widely played in Canada. It is governed by the United


title: Croquet content: States Croquet Association. Its genesis is mostly in association croquet, but it differs in a number of important ways that reflect the home-grown traditions of American "backyard" croquet. Two of the most notable differences are that the balls are always played in the same sequence (blue, red, black, yellow) throughout the game, and that a ball's "deadness" on other balls is carried over from turn to turn until the ball has been "cleared" by scoring its next hoop. A Deadness Board is used to keep track of deadness on all four balls. Tactics are simplified on the one hand by


title: Croquet content: the strict sequence of play, and complicated on the other hand by the continuation of deadness. A further difference is the more restrictive boundary-line rules of American croquet. In the American game, roqueting a ball out of bounds or running a hoop out of bounds causes the turn to end, and balls that go out of bounds are replaced only from the boundary rather than as in association croquet. "Attacking" balls on the boundary line to bring them into play is thus far more challenging. Nine-wicket croquet, sometimes called "backyard croquet", is played mainly in Canada and the United States,


title: Croquet content: and is the game most recreational players in those countries call simply "croquet". In this version of croquet there are nine wickets, two stakes, and up to six balls. The course is arranged in a double-diamond pattern, with one stake at each end of the course. Players start at one stake, navigate one side of the double diamond, hit the turning stake, then navigate the opposite side of the double diamond and hit the starting stake to end. If playing individually ("Cutthroat"), the first player to stake out is the winner. In partnership play, all members of a team must


title: Croquet content: stake out, and a player might choose to avoid staking out (becoming a "Rover") in order to help a lagging teammate. Each time a ball is roqueted, the striker gets two bonus shots. For the first bonus shot, the player has four options: The second bonus shot ("continuation shot") is an ordinary shot played from where the striker ball came to rest. An alternate endgame is "poison": in this variant, a player who has scored the last wicket but not hit the starting stake becomes a "poison ball", which may eliminate other balls from the game by roqueting them. A


title: Croquet content: non-poison ball that roquets a poison ball has the normal options. A poison ball that hits a stake or passes through any wicket (possibly by the action of a non-poison player) is eliminated. The last person remaining is the winner. This version of the game was invented by John Riches of Adelaide, Australia with help from Tom Armstrong in the 1980s. The game can be played by up to six people and is very easy to learn. For this reason it is often used as a stepping stone to association croquet. Ricochet has similar rules to association and garden croquet,


title: Croquet content: except that when a ball is roqueted, the striker's ball remains live and two free shots are earned. This enables strikers to play their ball near to another opponent ball and ricochet that too thus earning two more free shots. Running a hoop earns one free shot. The way croquet is depicted in paintings and books says much about popular perceptions of the game, though little about the reality of modern play. On 25 May 2006, the then British Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, was photographed by "The Mail on Sunday" playing croquet at his official residence, Dorneywood. Following shortly


title: Croquet content: after a sex scandal that had forced Prescott to resign his ministerial responsibilities while retaining his salary and privileges, the incident was portrayed as evidence that Prescott had little real responsibility for running the country during the absence of the Prime Minister. Shortly afterwards, Prescott announced that he would no longer make use of the Dorneywood residence. It was also reported that the incident led to a 300% increase in sales of croquet equipment at Asda, while the TV channel Five announced that they would be running a series featuring croquet matches played at country houses pitting "rich" against "poor"


title: Croquet content: players. About 200 croquet clubs across the United States are members of the United States Croquet Association. Many colleges have croquet clubs as well, such as The University of Virginia, The University of Chicago, Pennsylvania State University, Bates College, SUNY New Paltz, and Harvard University. Notably, St. John's College and the US Naval Academy engage in a yearly match in Annapolis, Maryland. Both schools also compete at the collegiate level and the rivalry continues to be an Annapolis tradition, attracting thousands of spectators each April. In England and Wales, there are around 170 clubs affiliated with the Croquet Association. The


title: Croquet content: All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club at Wimbledon is famous for its lawn tennis tournament, but retains an active croquet section. There are also clubs in many Universities and Colleges, with an annual Varsity match being played between Oxford and Cambridge. With over 1800 participants, the 2011 Oxford University "Cuppers" (inter-college) tournament claimed to be not only the largest croquet tournament ever, but the largest sporting event in the university's history. Croquet Croquet is a sport that involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass


title: Curling content: Curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice towards a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice "curling sheet" towards the "house", a circular target marked on the ice. Each team has eight stones, with each player throwing two. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a "game"; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the centre of the house


title: Curling content: at the conclusion of each "end", which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones. A game usually consists of eight or ten ends. The curler can induce a curved path by causing the stone to slowly turn as it slides, and the path of the rock may be further influenced by two sweepers with brooms who accompany it as it slides down the sheet, using the brooms to alter the state of the ice in front of the stone. Sweeping a rock makes it curl less, and decreases the friction that slows the rock down. A


title: Curling content: great deal of strategy and teamwork go into choosing the ideal path and placement of a stone for each situation, and the skills of the curlers determine the degree to which the stone will achieve the desired result. This gives curling its nickname of "chess on ice". Evidence that curling existed in Scotland in the early 16th century includes a curling stone inscribed with the date 1511 uncovered (along with another bearing the date 1551) when an old pond was drained at Dunblane, Scotland. The world's oldest curling stone and the world's oldest football are now kept in the same


title: Curling content: museum (the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum) in Stirling. The first written reference to a contest using stones on ice coming from the records of Paisley Abbey, Renfrewshire, in February 1541. Two paintings, "" and "The Hunters in the Snow" (both dated 1565) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder depict Flemish peasants curling, albeit without brooms; Scotland and the Low Countries had strong trading and cultural links during this period, which is also evident in the history of golf. The word "curling" first appears in print in 1620 in Perth, Scotland, in the preface and the verses of a poem


title: Curling content: by Henry Adamson. The sport was (and still is, in Scotland and Scottish-settled regions like southern New Zealand) also known as "the roaring game" because of the sound the stones make while traveling over the "pebble" (droplets of water applied to the playing surface). The verbal noun "curling" is formed from the Scots (and English) verb "curl", which describes the motion of the stone. Kilsyth Curling Club claims to be the first club in the world, having been formally constituted in 1716; it is still in existence today. Kilsyth also claims the oldest purpose-built curling pond in the world at


title: Curling content: Colzium, in the form of a low dam creating a shallow pool some in size. The International Olympic Committee recognises the Royal Caledonian Curling Club (founded as the Grand Caledonian Curling Club in 1838) as developing the first official rules for the sport. In the early history of curling, the playing stones were simply flat-bottomed stones from rivers or fields, which lacked a handle and were of inconsistent size, shape and smoothness. Some early stones had holes for a finger and the thumb, akin to ten-pin bowling balls. Unlike today, the thrower had little control over the 'curl' or velocity


title: Curling content: and relied more on luck than on precision, skill and strategy. The sport was often played on frozen rivers although purpose-built ponds were later created in many Scottish towns. For example, the Scottish poet David Gray describes whisky drinking curlers on the Luggie Water at Kirkintilloch. In Darvel, East Ayrshire, the weavers relaxed by playing curling matches using the heavy stone weights from the looms' "warp beams", fitted with a detachable handle for the purpose. Many a wife would keep her husband's brass curling stone handle on the mantelpiece, brightly polished until the next time it was needed. Central Canadian


title: Curling content: curlers often used 'irons' rather than stones until the early 1900s; Canada is the only country known to have done so, while others experimented with wood or ice-filled tins. Outdoor curling was very popular in Scotland between the 16th and 19th centuries because the climate provided good ice conditions every winter. Scotland is home to the international governing body for curling, the World Curling Federation in Perth, which originated as a committee of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, the mother club of curling. Today, the sport is most firmly established in Canada, having been taken there by Scottish emigrants. The


title: Curling content: Royal Montreal Curling Club, the oldest established sports club still active in North America, was established in 1807. The first curling club in the United States was established in 1830, and the sport was introduced to Switzerland and Sweden before the end of the 19th century, also by Scots. Today, curling is played all over Europe and has spread to Brazil, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, China, and Korea. The first world championship for curling was limited to men and was known as the "Scotch Cup", held in Falkirk and Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1959. The first world title was won by


title: Curling content: the Canadian team from Regina, Saskatchewan, skipped by Ernie Richardson. (The "skip" is the team member who calls the shots; see below.) Curling was one of the first sports that was popular with women and girls. Curling has been a medal sport in the Winter Olympic Games since the 1998 Winter Olympics. It currently includes men's, women's and mixed doubles tournaments (the mixed tournament was held for the first time in 2018). In February 2002, the International Olympic Committee retroactively decided that the curling competition from the 1924 Winter Olympics (originally called "Semaine des Sports d'Hiver", or International Winter Sports


title: Curling content: Week) would be considered official Olympic events and no longer be considered demonstration events. Thus, the first Olympic medals in curling, which at the time was played outdoors, were awarded for the 1924 Winter Games, with the gold medal won by Great Britain, two silver medals by Sweden, and the bronze by France. A demonstration tournament was also held during the 1932 Winter Olympic Games between four teams from Canada and four teams from the United States, with Canada winning 12 games to 4. Since the 1998 Olympics, Canada has dominated the sport with their men's teams winning gold in


title: Curling content: 2006, 2010, and 2014, and silver in 1998 and 2002. The women's team won gold in 1998 and 2014, a silver in 2010, and a bronze in 2002 and 2006. The mixed doubles team won gold in 2018. The playing surface or "curling sheet" is defined by the World Curling Federation Rules of Curling. It is a rectangular area of ice, carefully prepared to be as flat and level as possible, in length by in width. The shorter borders of the sheet are called the backboards. Because of the elongated shape, several sheets may be laid out side by side


title: Curling content: in the same arena, allowing multiple games to be played simultaneously. A target, the "house", is centred on the intersection of the "centre line", drawn lengthwise down the centre of the sheet and the "tee line", drawn from, and parallel to, the backboard. These lines divide the house into quarters. The house consists of a centre circle (the "button") and three concentric rings, of diameters 4, 8 and 12 feet, formed by painting or laying coloured vinyl sheet under the ice and are usually distinguished by colour. A stone must at least touch the outer ring in order to score


title: Curling content: (see Scoring below); otherwise the rings are merely a visual aid for aiming and judging which stone is closer to the button. Two "hog lines" are drawn from, and parallel to, the backboard. The "hacks", which give the thrower something to push against when making the throw, are fixed behind each button. On indoor rinks, there are usually two fixed hacks, rubber-lined holes, one on each side of the centre line, with the inside edge no more than from the centre line and the front edge on the hack line. A single moveable hack may also be used. The ice


title: Curling content: may be natural but is usually frozen by a refrigeration plant pumping a brine solution through numerous pipes fixed lengthwise at the bottom of a shallow pan of water. Most curling clubs have an ice maker whose main job is to care for the ice. At the major curling championships, ice maintenance is extremely important. Large events, such as the Brier or other national/international championships, are typically held in an arena that presents a challenge to the ice maker, who must constantly monitor and adjust the ice and air temperatures as well as air humidity levels to ensure a consistent


title: Curling content: playing surface. It is common for each sheet of ice to have multiple sensors embedded in order to monitor surface temperature, as well as probes set up in the seating area (to monitor humidity) and in the compressor room (to monitor brine supply and return temperatures). The surface of the ice is maintained at a temperature of around . A key part of the preparation of the playing surface is the spraying of water droplets onto the ice, which form "pebble" on freezing. The pebbled ice surface resembles an orange peel, and the stone moves on top of the pebbled


title: Curling content: ice. As the stone moves over the pebble, any rotation of the stone causes it to "curl" to the inside or outside. The amount of curl (commonly referred to as the "feet of curl") can change during a game as the pebble wears; the ice maker must monitor this and be prepared to scrape and re-pebble the surface prior to each game. The curling stone (also sometimes called a "rock" in North America) is made of granite and is specified by the World Curling Federation, which requires a weight between , a maximum circumference of and a minimum height of


title: Curling content: . The only part of the stone in contact with the ice is the "running surface", a narrow, flat annulus or ring, wide and about in diameter; the sides of the stone bulge convex down to the ring and the inside of the ring is hollowed concave to clear the ice. This concave bottom was first proposed by J. S. Russell of Toronto, Ontario, Canada sometime after 1870, and was subsequently adopted by Scottish stone manufacturer Andrew Kay. The granite for the stones comes from two sources: Ailsa Craig, an island off the Ayrshire coast of Scotland, and the Trefor


title: Curling content: Granite Quarry in Wales. Ailsa Craig is the traditional source and produces two types of granite, "Blue Hone" and "Ailsa Craig Common Green". "Blue Hone" has very low water absorption, which prevents the action of repeatedly freezing water from eroding the stone. "Ailsa Craig Common Green" is a lesser quality granite than "Blue Hone". In the past, most curling stones were made from "Blue Hone" but the island is now a wildlife reserve and the quarry is restricted by environmental conditions that exclude blasting. Kays of Scotland has been making curling stones in Mauchline, Ayrshire, since 1851 and has the


title: Curling content: exclusive rights to the Ailsa Craig granite, granted by the Marquess of Ailsa, whose family has owned the island since 1560. According to the 1881 Census, Andrew Kay employed 30 people in his curling stone factory in Mauchline. The last harvest of Ailsa Craig granite by Kays took place in 2013, after a hiatus of 11 years; 2,000 tons were harvested, sufficient to fill anticipated orders through at least 2020. Kays have been involved in providing curling stones for the Winter Olympics since Chamonix in 1924 and has been the exclusive manufacturer of curling stones for the Olympics since the


title: Curling content: 2006 Winter Olympics. "Trefor" granite comes from the Yr Eifl or Trefor Granite Quarry in the village of Trefor on the north coast of the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, Wales and has produced granite since 1850. "Trefor" granite comes in shades of pink, blue and grey. The quarry supplies curling stone granite exclusively to the Canadian, Canada Curling Stone Co., which has been producing stones since 1992 and supplied the stones for the 2002 Winter Olympics. A handle is attached by a bolt running vertically through a hole in the centre of the stone. The handle allows the stone to


title: Curling content: be gripped and rotated upon release; on properly prepared ice the rotation will bend ("curl") the path of the stone in the direction in which the front edge of the stone is turning, especially as the stone slows. Handles are coloured to identify each team, two popular colours in major tournaments being red and yellow. In competition, an electronic handle known as the "eye on the hog" may be fitted to detect hog line violations. This electronically detects whether the thrower's hand is in contact with the handle as it passes the hog line and indicates a violation by lights


title: Curling content: at the base of the handle. The "eye on the hog" eliminates human error and the need for hog line officials. It is mandatory in high-level national and international competition, but its cost, around US$650 each, currently puts it beyond the reach of most club curling. The "curling broom", or "brush", is used to sweep the ice surface in the path of the stone (see "sweeping") and is also often used as a balancing aid during delivery of the stone. Prior to the 1950s, most curling brooms were made of corn strands and were similar to household brooms of the


title: Curling content: day. In 1958, Fern Marchessault of Montreal inverted the corn straw in the centre of the broom. This style of corn broom was referred to as "the Blackjack". Artificial brooms made from man-made fabrics rather than corn, such as the "Rink Rat", also became common later during this time period. Prior to the late sixties, "Scottish" curling brushes were used primarily by some of the Scots, as well as by recreational and elderly curlers, as a substitute for corn brooms, since the technique was easier to learn. In the late sixties, competitive curlers from Calgary, Alberta, such as John Mayer,


title: Curling content: Bruce Stewart, and, later, the world junior championship teams skipped by Paul Gowsell, proved that the curling brush could be just as (or more) effective without all the blisters common to corn broom use. During that time period, there was much debate in competitive curling circles as to which sweeping device was more effective: brush or broom. Eventually, the brush won out with the majority of curlers making the switch to the less costly and more efficient brush. Today, brushes have replaced traditional corn brooms at every level of curling; it is rare now to see a curler using a


title: Curling content: corn broom on a regular basis. Curling brushes may have fabric, hog hair, or horsehair heads. Modern curling brush handles are usually hollow tubes made of fibreglass or carbon fibre instead of a solid length of wooden dowel. These hollow tube handles are lighter and stronger than wooden handles, allowing faster sweeping and also enabling more downward force to be applied to the broom head with reduced shaft flex. New, "directional fabric" brooms, which players are worried will alter the fundamentals of the sport by reducing the level of skill required, have been accused of giving players an unfair advantage.


title: Curling content: The new brooms were temporarily banned by the World Curling Federation and Curling Canada for the 2015–2016 season. The new brooms give sweepers unprecedented control over the direction the stone goes. Curling shoes are similar to ordinary athletic shoes except that they have dissimilar soles; the "slider shoe" (usually known as a "slider") is designed for the sliding foot and the "gripper shoe" (usually known as a "gripper") for the hack foot. The "slider" is designed to slide and typically has a Teflon sole. It is worn by the thrower during delivery from the hack and by sweepers or the


title: Curling content: skip to glide down the ice when sweeping or otherwise traveling down the sheet quickly. Stainless steel was once common for slider soles, and "red brick" sliders with lateral blocks of PVC on the sole are also available. Most shoes have a full-sole sliding surface, but some shoes have a sliding surface covering only the outline of the shoe and other enhancements with the full-sole slider. Some shoes have small disc sliders covering the front and heel portions or only the front portion of the foot, which allow more flexibility in the sliding foot for curlers playing with tuck deliveries.


title: Curling content: When a player is not throwing, the player's slider shoe can be temporarily rendered non-slippery by using a slip-on gripper. Ordinary athletic shoes may be converted to sliders by using a step-on or slip-on Teflon slider or by applying electrical or gaffer tape directly to the sole or over a piece of cardboard. This arrangement often suits casual or beginning players. The "gripper" is worn by the thrower on the hack foot during delivery and is designed to grip the ice. It may have a normal athletic shoe sole or a special layer of rubbery material applied to the sole


title: Curling content: of a thickness to match the sliding shoe. The toe of the hack foot shoe may also have a rubberised coating on the top surface or a flap that hangs over the toe to reduce wear on the top of the shoe as it drags on the ice behind the thrower. Other types of equipment include: The purpose of a game is to score points by getting stones closer to the house centre, or the "button", than the other team's stones. Players from either team alternate in taking shots from the far side of the sheet. An end is complete


title: Curling content: when all eight rocks from each team have been delivered, a total of sixteen stones. If the teams are tied at the end of the game, play continues for as many ends as may be required to break the tie. The winner is the team with the highest score after all ends have been completed (see Scoring below). A game may be conceded if considered unwinnable. International competitive games are generally ten ends, so most of the national championships that send a representative to the World Championships or Olympics also play ten ends. However, there is a movement on the


title: Curling content: World Curling Tour to make the games only eight ends. Most tournaments on that tour are eight ends, as are the vast majority of recreational games. In international competition, each side is given 73 minutes to complete all of its throws. Each team is also allowed two minute-long timeouts per 10-end game. If extra ends are required, each team is allowed 10 minutes of playing time to complete its throws and one added 60-second timeout for each extra end. However, the "thinking time" system, in which the delivering team's game timer stops as soon as the shooter's rock crosses the


title: Curling content: t-line during the delivery, is becoming more popular, especially in Canada. This system allows each team 38 minutes per 10 ends, or 30 minutes per 8 ends, to make strategic and tactical decisions, with 4 minutes and 30 seconds an end for extra ends. The "thinking time" system was implemented after it was recognized that teams playing aggressively (using draws and other low-weight shots which take more time for the stones to come to rest) were essentially being penalized in terms of the time they had available compared to teams which primarily use hits which require far less time per


title: Curling content: shot. The process of sliding a stone down the sheet is known as the "delivery". The "skip", or the captain of the team, will usually determine the required "weight", "turn", and "line" of the stone. These will be influenced by the tactics at this point in the game, which may involve taking out, blocking or tapping another stone. The skip may communicate the "weight", "turn", "line," and other tactics by calling or tapping a broom on the ice. In the case of a takeout, guard, or a tap, the skip will indicate the stones involved. Before delivery, the running surface


title: Curling content: of the stone is wiped clean and the path across the ice swept with the broom if necessary, because any dirt on the bottom of a stone or in its path can alter the trajectory and ruin the shot. Intrusion by a foreign object is called a "pick-up" or "pick". The thrower throws from the "hack". Another player, usually the skip, is stationed behind the "button" to determine the tactics, "weight", "turn", and "line", and the other two may sweep in front of the stone to influence the trajectory (see Sweeping, below). The players, with the exception of the skip,


title: Curling content: take turns throwing and sweeping; when one player (e.g., the lead) throws, the players not throwing (the second and third) sweep. When the skip throws, the third, or vice-skip, takes his or her role. The thrower's "gripper" shoe (with the non-slippery sole) is positioned against one of the hacks; for a right-handed curler the right foot is placed against the left hack and vice versa for a left-hander. The thrower, now "in the hack", lines the body up with shoulders square to the skip's broom at the far end for "line". The stone is placed in front of the foot


title: Curling content: now in the hack. Rising slightly from the hack, the thrower pulls the stone back (some older curlers may actually raise the stone in this backward movement) then lunges smoothly out from the hack pushing the stone ahead while the slider foot is moved in front of the gripper foot, which trails behind. The thrust from this lunge determines the "weight" and hence the distance the stone will travel. While not compulsory, most curlers deliver the stone while sliding out from the hack. Balance may be assisted by a broom held in the free hand with the back of the


title: Curling content: broom down so that it slides. One older writer suggests the player keep "a basilisk glance" at the mark. There are two current types of delivery, the common flat-foot deliver as well as the Manitoba tuck delivery where the curler slides on the front ball of his foot. The stone is released as the thrower approaches the hog line, at which point the "turn" is imparted by a slight clockwise or counter-clockwise twist of the handle from around the two or ten o'clock position to the twelve o'clock on release. A typical rate of turn is about rotations before coming


title: Curling content: to a rest. The stone must be released before its front edge crosses the near hog line, and it must clear the far hog line or else be removed from play ("hogged"); an exception is made if a stone fails to come to rest beyond the far hog line after rebounding from a stone in play just past the hog line. The release rule is rarely enforced in club play unless abuse is suspected. However, in major tournaments it is strictly enforced; the "eye on the hog" sensor in the stone will indicate whether the stone has been legally thrown


title: Curling content: or not. The lights on the stone handle will either light up green, indicating that the stone has been legally thrown, or red, in which case the illegally thrown stone will be immediately pulled from play instead of waiting for the stone to come to rest. After the stone is delivered, its trajectory is still influenced by the two sweepers under instruction from the skip. Sweeping is done for several reasons: to reduce friction underneath the stone, to decrease the amount of curl, and to clean debris from the stone's path. The stones curl more as they slow down, so


title: Curling content: sweeping early in travel tends to increase distance as well as straighten the path, and sweeping after sideways motion is established can increase the sideways distance. When sweeping, pressure and speed of the brush head are key in slightly increasing the layer of moisture that builds up under the stone. One of the basic technical aspects of curling is knowing when to sweep. When the ice in front of the stone is swept, a stone will usually travel both farther and straighter. In some situations, one of the two alterations in path is not desirable. For example, a stone may


title: Curling content: have too much weight, but require sweeping to prevent curling into a guard. The team must decide which is better: getting by the guard but traveling too far, or hitting the guard. Much of the yelling that goes on during a curling game is the skip calling the "line" of the shot and the sweepers calling the "weight". The skip evaluates the path of the stone and calls to the sweepers to sweep as necessary to maintain the intended track. The sweepers themselves are responsible for judging the weight of the stone, ensuring the length of travel is correct and


title: Curling content: communicating the weight of the stone back to the skip. Some teams use stopwatch timing, from back line to the nearest hog line as a sweeping aid. Many teams use the "Number System" to communicate in which of 10 playable zones it is estimated the stone will stop. Usually, the two sweepers will be on opposite sides of the stone's path, although depending on which side the sweepers' strengths lie this may not always be the case. Speed and pressure are vital to sweeping. In gripping the broom, one hand should be one third of the way from the top


title: Curling content: (non-brush end) of the handle while the other hand should be one third of the way from the head of the broom. The angle of the broom to the ice should be so that the most force possible can be exerted on the ice. The precise amount of pressure may vary from relatively light brushing ("just cleaning" - to ensure debris will not alter the stone's path) to maximum-pressure scrubbing. Sweeping is allowed anywhere on the ice up to the "tee line", as long as it is only for one's own team stones. Once the leading edge of a team


title: Curling content: stone crosses the tee line only one player may sweep it. Additionally, when a stone crosses the tee line, one player from the other team is allowed to sweep it. This is the only case that a stone may be swept by an opposing team member. In international rules, this player must be the skip; or if the skip is throwing, then the sweeping player must be the third. Occasionally, players may accidentally touch a stone with their broom or a body part. This is often referred to as "burning" a stone. Players touching a stone in such a manner


title: Curling content: are expected to call their own infraction as a matter of good sportsmanship. Touching a stationary stone when no stones are in motion (there is no delivery in progress) is not an infraction (unless the stationary stone is struck in such a manner that its position is altered), and is a common way for the skip to indicate a stone that is to be taken out. When a stone is touched when stones are in play, the remedies vary between placing the stones as they end up after the touch, replacing the stones as they would have been if no


title: Curling content: stone were touched, or removal of the touched stone from play. In non-officiated league play, the skip of the non-offending team has the final say on where the stones are placed after the infraction. Many different types of shots are used to carefully place stones for strategic or tactical reasons; they fall into three fundamental categories as follows: Guards are thrown in front of the house in the "free guard zone", usually to protect the "shot-rock" (the stone closest to the button at the time) or to make the opposing team's shot difficult. Guard shots include the "centre-guard", on the


title: Curling content: centreline and the "corner-guards" to the left or right sides of the centre line. See "Free Guard Zone" below. Draws are thrown only to reach the house. Draw shots include "raise" and "angle-raise", "come-around", and "freeze" shots. Takeouts are intended to remove stones from play and include the "peel", "hit-and-roll" and "double" shots. For a more complete listing, see Glossary of curling terms. Until five stones have been played (three from the side without hammer, and two from the side with hammer), stones in the "free guard zone" (stones left in the area between the hog and tee lines, excluding


title: Curling content: the house) may not be removed by an opponent's stone, although they can be moved as long as they are not taken out of play. These are known as "guard rocks". If a guard rock is removed under this rule, it is placed back in the positions it was in before the shot was thrown, and the opponent's stone is removed from play and cannot be replayed. This rule is known as the "five-rock rule" or the "free guard zone rule" (previous versions of the free guard zone rule only limited removing guards from play in the first three or


title: Curling content: four rocks, known as the "three-rock rule" and "four-rock rule" respectively). This rule, a relatively recent addition to curling, was added in response to a strategy of "peeling" opponents' guard stones (knocking them out of play at an angle that caused the shooter's stone to also roll out of play, leaving no stones on the ice). A team in the lead would often employ this strategy during the game. By knocking all stones out, the opponents could at best score one point (if they had the hammer). Alternatively, the team with the hammer could peel rock after rock, which would


title: Curling content: blank the end, keeping the last rock advantage for another end. This strategy had developed (mostly in Canada) as ice-makers had become skilled at creating a predictable ice surface and the adoption of brushes allowed greater control over the rock. While a sound strategy, this made for an unexciting game. Observers at the time noted that if two teams equally skilled in the peel game faced each other on good ice, the outcome of the game would be predictable from who won the coin flip to have last rock (or had earned it in the schedule) at the beginning of


title: Curling content: the game. The 1990 Brier was considered by many curling fans as boring to watch because of the amount of peeling and the quick adoption of the Free Guard Zone the following year reflected how disliked this aspect of the game had become. The free guard zone was originally called the Modified Moncton Rule and was developed from a suggestion made by Russ Howard for the Moncton 100 cashspiel (with the richest prize ever awarded at the time in a tournament) in Moncton, New Brunswick, in January 1990. "Howard's Rule" (later known as the Moncton Rule), used for the tournament


title: Curling content: and based on a practice drill his team used, had the first four rocks in play unable to be removed no matter where they were at any time during the end. This method of play was altered by restricting the area in which a stone was protected to the free guard zone only for the first four rocks thrown and adopted as a Four-rock Free Guard Zone for international competition shortly after. Canada kept to the traditional rules until a three-rock Free Guard Zone rule was adopted for the 1993–94 season. After several years of having the three-rock rule used


title: Curling content: for the Canadian championships and the winners then having to adjust to the four-rock rule in the World Championships, the Canadian Curling Association adopted the four-rock Free Guard Zone in the 2002–2003 season. One strategy that has been developed by curlers in response to the Free Guard Zone (Kevin Martin from Alberta is one of the best examples) is the "tick" game, where a shot is made attempting to knock (tick) the guard to the side, far enough that it is difficult or impossible to use but still remaining in play while the shot itself goes out of play. The


title: Curling content: effect is functionally identical to peeling the guard but significantly harder, as a shot that hits the guard too hard (knocking it out of play) results in its being replaced, while not hitting it hard enough can result in its still being tactically useful for the opposition. There is also a greater chance that the shot will miss the guard entirely because of the greater accuracy required to make the shot. Because of the difficulty of making this type of shot, only the best teams will normally attempt it, and it does not dominate the game the way the peel


title: Curling content: formerly did. Steve Gould from Manitoba popularized ticks played across the face. These are easier to make because they impart less speed on the object stone, therefore increasing the chance that it remains in play even if a bigger chunk of it is hit. With the tick shot reducing the effectiveness of the four-rock rule, the Grand Slam of Curling series of bonspiels adopted a five-rock rule in 2014. In 2017, the five-rock rule was adopted by the World Curling Federation and member organizations for official play, beginning in the 2018-19 season. Last-rock or last-stone advantage in an end is


title: Curling content: called the "hammer". Before the game, teams typically decide who gets the hammer in the first end either by chance (such as a coin toss), by a "draw-to-the-button" contest, where a representative of each team shoots to see who gets closer to the centre of the rings, or, particularly in tournament settings like the Winter Olympics, by a comparison of each team's win-loss record. In all subsequent ends, the hammer belongs to the team that did not score in the preceding end. In the event that neither team scores, the hammer remains with the same team. Naturally, it is easier


title: Curling content: to score points with the hammer than without; in tournament play, the team with the hammer generally tries to score two or more points. If only one point is possible, the skip will often try to avoid scoring at all in order to retain the hammer until the next end, when two or more points may lie. This is called a "blank end". Scoring without the hammer is commonly referred to as "stealing", or "a steal", and is much more difficult. Curling is a game of strategy, tactics and skill. The strategy depends on the team's skill, the opponent's skill,


title: Curling content: the conditions of the ice, the score of the game, how many ends remain and whether the team has last-stone advantage (the "hammer"). A team may play an end aggressively or defensively. Aggressive playing will put a lot of stones in play by throwing mostly draws; this makes for an exciting game and is very risky but the reward can be very great. Defensive playing will throw a lot of hits preventing a lot of stones in play; this tends to be less exciting and less risky. A good drawing team will usually opt to play aggressively, while a good


title: Curling content: hitting team will opt to play defensively. If a team does not have the hammer in an end, it will opt to try to clog up the four-foot zone in the house to deny the opposing team access to the button. This can be done by throwing "centre line" guards in front of the house on the centre line, which can be tapped into the house later or drawn around. If a team has the hammer, they will try to keep this four-foot zone free so that they have access to the button area at all times. A team with


title: Curling content: the hammer may throw a "corner guard" as their first stone of an end placed in front of the house but outside the four-foot zone to utilize the free guard zone. Corner guards are key for a team to score two points in an end, because they can either draw around it later or hit and roll behind it, making the opposing team's shot to remove it more difficult. Ideally, the strategy in an end for a team with the hammer is to score two points or more. Scoring one point is often a wasted opportunity, as they will then


title: Curling content: lose last-rock advantage for the next end. If a team cannot score two points, they will often attempt to "blank an end" by removing any leftover opposition rocks and rolling out; or, if there are no opposition rocks, just throwing the rock through the house so that no team scores any points, and the team with the hammer can try again the next end to score two or more with it. Generally, a team without the hammer would want to either force the team with the hammer to only one point (so that they can get the hammer back) or


title: Curling content: "steal" the end by scoring one or more points of their own. Generally, the larger the lead a team will have in a game, the more defensively they should play. By hitting all of the opponent's stones, it removes opportunities for their getting multiple points, therefore defending the lead. If the leading team is quite comfortable, leaving their own stones in play can also be dangerous. Guards can be drawn around by the other team, and stones in the house can be tapped back (if they are in front of the tee line) or frozen onto (if they are behind


title: Curling content: the tee line). A frozen stone is difficult to remove, because it is "frozen" (in front of and touching) to the opponents stone. At this point, a team will opt for "peels", meaning that the stones they throw will be to not only hit their opposition stones, but to roll out of play as well. Peels are hits that are thrown with the most amount of power. It is not uncommon at any level for a losing team to terminate the match before all ends are completed if it believes it no longer has a realistic chance of winning. Competitive


title: Curling content: games end once the losing team has "run out of rocks"—that is, once it has fewer stones in play and available for play than the number of points needed to tie the game. Most decisions about rules are left to the skips, although in official tournaments, decisions may be left to the officials. However, all scoring disputes are handled by the vice skip. No players other than the vice skip from each team should be in the house while score is being determined. In tournament play, the most frequent circumstance in which a decision has to be made by someone


title: Curling content: other than the vice skip is the failure of the vice skips to agree on which stone is closest to the button. An independent official (supervisor at Canadian and World championships) then measures the distances using a specially designed device that pivots at the centre of the button. When no independent officials are available, the vice skips measure the distances. The winner is the team having the highest number of accumulated points at the completion of ten ends. Points are scored at the conclusion of each of these ends as follows: when each team has thrown its eight stones, the


title: Curling content: team with the stone closest to the button wins that end; the winning team is then awarded one point for each of its own stones lying closer to the button than the opponent's closest stone. Only stones that are "in the house" are considered in the scoring. A stone is in the house if it lies within the zone or any portion of its edge lies over the edge of the ring. Since the bottom of the stone is rounded, a stone just barely in the house will not have any actual contact with the ring, which will pass under


title: Curling content: the rounded edge of the stone, but it still counts. This type of stone is known as a "biter". It may not be obvious to the eye which of two rocks is closer to the button (centre) or if a rock is actually biting or not. There are specialized devices to make these determinations, but these cannot be brought out until after an end is completed. Therefore, a team may make strategic decisions during an end based on assumptions of rock position that turn out to be incorrect. The score is marked on a scoreboard, of which there are two


title: Curling content: types; the baseball type and the club scoreboard. The baseball-style scoreboard was created for televised games for audiences not familiar with the club scoreboard. The "ends" are marked by columns 1 through 10 (or 11 for the possibility of an extra end to break ties) plus an additional column for the total. Below this are two rows, one for each team, containing the team's score for that end and their total score in the right hand column. The club scoreboard is traditional and used in most curling clubs. Scoring on this board only requires the use of (up to) 11


title: Curling content: digit cards, whereas with baseball-type scoring an unknown number of multiples of the digits (especially low digits like "1") may be needed. The numbered centre row represents all possible accumulated scores, and the numbers placed in the team rows represent the end in which that team achieved that cumulative score. If the red team scores three points in the first end (called a "three-ender"), then a 1 (indicating the first end) is placed beside the number 3 in the red row. If they score two more in the second end, then a 2 will be placed beside the 5 in


title: Curling content: the red row, indicating that the red team has five points in total (3+2). This scoreboard works because only one team can get points in an end. However, some confusion may arise if neither team scores points in an end, this is called a "blank end". The blank end numbers are usually listed in the farthest column on the right in the row of the team that has the "hammer" (last rock advantage), or on a special spot for blank ends. The following example illustrates the difference between the two types. The example illustrates the men's final at the 2006


title: Curling content: Winter Olympics. Eight points – all the rocks thrown by one team counting – is the highest score possible in an end, and is known as an "eight-ender" or "snowman". Scoring an eight-ender against a relatively competent team is very difficult; in curling, it is considered the equivalent of pitching a perfect game in baseball. Probably the best-known snowman came at the 2006 Players' Championships. Future (2007) World Champion Kelly Scott scored eight points in one of her games against 1998 World bronze medalist Cathy King. Competition teams are normally named after the skip, for example, Team Martin after skip


title: Curling content: Kevin Martin. Amateur league players can (and do) creatively name their teams, but when in competition (a bonspiel) the official team will have a standard name. Top curling championships are typically played by all-male or all-female teams. It is known as mixed curling when a team consists of two men and two women. For many years, in the absence of world championship or Olympic mixed curling events, national championships (of which the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship was the most prominent) were the highest-level mixed curling competitions. However, a European Mixed Curling Championship was inaugurated in 2005, a World Mixed Doubles


title: Curling content: Curling Championship was established in 2008, and the European Mixed Championship was replaced with the World Mixed Curling Championship in 2015. A mixed tournament was held at the Olympic level for the first time in 2018, although it was a doubles tournament, not a four-person. Curling tournaments may use the Schenkel system for determining the participants in matches. Curling is played in many countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom (especially Scotland), the United States, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland and Japan, all of which compete in the world championships. Curling has been depicted by many artists including: George Harvey, John


title: Curling content: Levack, The Dutch School, Charles Martin Hardie, John Elliot Maguire, John McGhie, and John George Brown. Curling is particularly popular in Canada. Improvements in ice making and changes in the rules to increase scoring and promote complex strategy have increased the already high popularity of the sport in Canada, and large television audiences watch annual curling telecasts, especially the Scotties Tournament of Hearts (the national championship for women), the Tim Hortons Brier (the national championship for men), and the women's and men's world championships. Despite the Canadian province of Manitoba's small population (ranked 5th of 10 Canadian provinces), Manitoban teams


title: Curling content: have won the Brier more times than teams from any other province. The Tournament of Hearts and the Brier are contested by provincial and territorial champions, and the world championships by national champions. Curling is the provincial sport of Saskatchewan. From there Ernie Richardson and his family team dominated Canadian and international curling during the late 1950s and early 1960s and have been considered to be the best male curlers of all time. Sandra Schmirler led her team to the first ever gold medal in women's curling in the 1998 Winter Olympics. When she died two years later from cancer,


title: Curling content: over 15,000 people attended her funeral, and it was broadcast on national television. More so than in many other team sports, good sportsmanship, often referred to as the "Spirit of Curling", is an integral part of curling. The Spirit of Curling also leads teams to congratulate their opponents for making a good shot, strong sweeping or spectacular form. Perhaps most importantly, the Spirit of Curling dictates that one never cheers mistakes, misses or gaffes by one's opponent (unlike most team sports) and one should not celebrate one's own good shots during the game beyond modest acknowledgement of the shot such


title: Curling content: as a head nod, fist bump or thumbs-up gesture. Modest congratulation, however, may be exchanged between winning team members after the match. On-the-ice celebration is usually reserved for the winners of a major tournament after winning the final game of the championship. It is completely unacceptable to attempt to throw opposing players off their game by way of negative comment, distraction or heckling. A match traditionally begins with players shaking hands with and saying "good curling" or "have a pleasant game" to each member of the opposing team. It is also traditional in some areas for the winning team to


title: Curling content: buy the losing team a drink after the game. Even at the highest levels of play, players are expected to call their own fouls. It is not uncommon for a team to concede a curling match after it believes it no longer has any hope of winning. Concession is an honourable act and does not carry the stigma associated with quitting, and also allows for more socializing. To concede a match, members of the losing team offer congratulatory handshakes to the winning team. Thanks, wishes of future good luck and hugs are usually exchanged between the teams. To continue playing


title: Curling content: when a team has no realistic chance of winning can be seen as a breach of etiquette. Curling has been adapted for wheelchair users and people otherwise unable to throw the stone from the hack. These curlers may use a device known as a "delivery stick". The cue holds on to the handle of the stone and is then pushed along by the curler. At the end of delivery, the curler pulls back on the cue, which releases it from the stone. The Canadian Curling Association "Rules of Curling" allows the use of a delivery stick in club play but


title: Curling content: does not permit it in championships. The delivery stick was specifically invented for elderly curlers in Canada in 1999. In early 2016 an international initiative started to allow use of the delivery sticks by players over 60 years of age in World Curling Federation Senior Championships, as well as in any projected Masters (60+) Championship that develops in the future. Terms used to describe the game include: The ice in the game may be "fast (keen)" or "slow". If the ice is keen, a rock will travel farther with a given amount of weight (throwing force) on it. The speed


title: Curling content: of the ice is measured in seconds. One such measure, known as "hog-to-hog" time, is the speed of the stone and is the time in seconds the rock takes from the moment it crosses the near hog line until it crosses the far hog line. If this number is lower, the rock is moving faster, so again low numbers mean more speed. The ice in a match will be somewhat consistent and thus this measure of speed can also be used to measure how far down the ice the rock will travel. Once it is determined that a rock taking


title: Curling content: (for example) 13 seconds to go from hog line to hog line will stop on the tee line, the curler can know that if the hog-to-hog time is matched by a future stone, that stone will likely stop at approximately the same location. As an example, on keen ice, common times might be 16 seconds for guards, 14 seconds for draws, and 8 seconds for peel weight. "The back line to hog line speed" is used principally by sweepers to get an initial sense of the weight of a stone. As an example, on keen ice, common times might be


title: Curling content: 4.0 seconds for guards, 3.8 seconds for draws, 3.2 for normal hit weight, and 2.9 seconds for peel weight. Especially at the club level, this metric can be misleading, due to amateurs sometimes pushing stones on release, causing the stone to travel faster than the back-to-hog speed. Curling is featured prominently in "Boy Meets Curl", the twelfth episode of the comedy series "The Simpsons"<nowiki>'</nowiki> twenty-first season. The episode aired on the Fox network in the United States on 14 February 2010. "Men with Brooms" is a 2002 Canadian film that takes a satirical look at curling. A TV adaptation, also


title: Curling content: titled "Men with Brooms", debuted in 2010 on CBC Television. The "Corner Gas" episode "Hurry Hard" involves the townspeople of Dog River competing in a local curling bonspiel for the fictitious "Clavet Cup". The episode also features cameos by Canadian curlers Randy Ferbey and Dave Nedohin. Curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice towards a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice "curling


title: "Corona Borealis" content: is a second substellar companion. Omicron Coronae Borealis is a K-type clump giant with one confirmed planet with a mass of that orbits every 187 days—one of the two least massive planets known around clump giants. HD 145457 is an orange giant of spectral type K0III found to have one planet of . Discovered by the Doppler method in 2010, it takes 176 days to complete an orbit. XO-1 is a magnitude 11 yellow main-sequence star located approximately light-years away, of spectral type G1V with a mass and radius similar to the Sun. In 2006 the hot Jupiter exoplanet XO-1b


title: Corcovado content: Corcovado Corcovado (), means "hunchback" in Portuguese, is a mountain in central Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It Is Corcovado hill lies just west of the city center but is wholly within the city limits and visible from great distances. It is known worldwide for the 38-metre (125 ft) statue of Jesus atop its peak, entitled "Cristo Redentor" or "Christ the Redeemer". The peak and statue can be accessed via a narrow road, by the 3.8 kilometre (2.4 mi) Corcovado Rack Railway, which was opened in 1884 and refurbished in 1980, or by the walking trail on the south side of


title: Corcovado content: the mountain that starts from Parque Lage. The railway uses three electrically powered trains, with a passenger capacity of 540 passengers per hour. The rail trip takes approximately 20 minutes and departs every 20 minutes. Due to its limited passenger capacity, the wait to board at the entry station can take several hours. The year-round schedule is 8:30 to 18:30. From the train terminus and road, the observation deck at the foot of the statue is reached by 223 steps, or by elevators and escalators. Among the most popular year-round tourist attractions in Rio, the Corcovado railway, access roads, and


title: Corcovado content: statue platform are commonly crowded. The most popular attraction of Corcovado mountain is the statue and viewing platform at its peak, drawing over 300,000 visitors per year. From the peak's platform the panoramic view includes downtown Rio, Sugarloaf Mountain, the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas (lake), Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, Estádio do Maracanã (Maracanã Stadium), and several of Rio's favelas. Cloud cover is common in Rio and the view from the platform is often obscured. Sunny days are recommended for optimal viewing. Notable past visitors to the mountain peak include Pope Pius XII, Pope John Paul II, Alberto Santos-Dumont, Albert Einstein,


title: Corcovado content: Diana, Princess of Wales, and General Sherman, among others. An additional attraction of the mountain is rock climbing. The south face had 54 climbing routes in 1992. The easiest way starts from Park Lage. The Corcovado is also a symbol of the Brazilian culture. The peak of Corcovado is a big granite dome, which describes a generally vertical rocky formation. It is claimed to be the highest such formation in Brazil, the second highest being Pedra Agulha, situated near to the town of Pancas in Espírito Santo. Corcovado Corcovado (), means "hunchback" in Portuguese, is a mountain in central Rio


title: "Compact disc" content: Compact disc Compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony and released in 1982. The format was originally developed to store and play only sound recordings (CD-DA) but was later adapted for storage of data (CD-ROM). Several other formats were further derived from these, including write-once audio and data storage (CD-R), rewritable media (CD-RW), Video Compact Disc (VCD), Super Video Compact Disc (SVCD), Photo CD, PictureCD, CD-i, and Enhanced Music CD. The first commercially available audio CD player, the Sony CDP-101, was released October 1982 in Japan. Standard CDs have


title: "Compact disc" content: a diameter of and can hold up to about 80 minutes of uncompressed audio or about 700 MiB of data. The Mini CD has various diameters ranging from ; they are sometimes used for CD singles, storing up to 24 minutes of audio, or delivering device drivers. At the time of the technology's introduction in 1982, a CD could store much more data than a personal computer hard drive, which would typically hold 10 MB. By 2010, hard drives commonly offered as much storage space as a thousand CDs, while their prices had plummeted to commodity level. In 2004, worldwide


title: "Compact disc" content: sales of audio CDs, CD-ROMs and CD-Rs reached about 30 billion discs. By 2007, 200 billion CDs had been sold worldwide. From the early 2000s CDs were increasingly being replaced by other forms of digital storage and distribution, with the result that by 2010 the number of audio CDs being sold in the U.S. had dropped about 50% from their peak; however, they remained one of the primary distribution methods for the music industry. In 2014, revenues from digital music services matched those from physical format sales for the first time. American inventor James T. Russell has been credited with


title: "Compact disc" content: inventing the first system to record digital information on an optical transparent foil that is lit from behind by a high-power halogen lamp. Russell's patent application was first filed in 1966, and he was granted a patent in 1970. Following litigation, Sony and Philips licensed Russell's patents (then held by a Canadian company, Optical Recording Corp.) in the 1980s. The compact disc is an evolution of LaserDisc technology, where a focused laser beam is used that enables the high information density required for high-quality digital audio signals. Prototypes were developed by Philips and Sony independently in the late 1970s. Although


title: "Compact disc" content: originally dismissed by Philips Research management as a trivial pursuit, the CD became the primary focus for Philips as the LaserDisc format struggled. In 1979, Sony and Philips set up a joint task force of engineers to design a new digital audio disc. After a year of experimentation and discussion, the "Red Book" CD-DA standard was published in 1980. After their commercial release in 1982, compact discs and their players were extremely popular. Despite costing up to $1,000, over 400,000 CD players were sold in the United States between 1983 and 1984. By 1988, CD sales in the United States


title: "Compact disc" content: surpassed those of vinyl LPs, and by 1992 CD sales surpassed those of prerecorded music cassette tapes. The success of the compact disc has been credited to the cooperation between Philips and Sony, which together agreed upon and developed compatible hardware. The unified design of the compact disc allowed consumers to purchase any disc or player from any company, and allowed the CD to dominate the at-home music market unchallenged. In 1974, Lou Ottens, director of the audio division of Philips, started a small group with the aim to develop an analog optical audio disc with a diameter of and


title: "Compact disc" content: a sound quality superior to that of the vinyl record. However, due to the unsatisfactory performance of the analog format, two Philips research engineers recommended a digital format in March 1974. In 1977, Philips then established a laboratory with the mission of creating a digital audio disc. The diameter of Philips's prototype compact disc was set at 11.5 cm, the diagonal of an audio cassette. Heitaro Nakajima, who developed an early digital audio recorder within Japan's national public broadcasting organization NHK in 1970, became general manager of Sony's audio department in 1971. His team developed a digital PCM adaptor audio


title: "Compact disc" content: tape recorder using a Betamax video recorder in 1973. After this, in 1974 the leap to storing digital audio on an optical disc was easily made. Sony first publicly demonstrated an optical digital audio disc in September 1976. A year later, in September 1977, Sony showed the press a 30 cm disc that could play 60 minutes of digital audio (44,100 Hz sampling rate and 16-bit resolution) using MFM modulation. In September 1978, the company demonstrated an optical digital audio disc with a 150-minute playing time, 44,056 Hz sampling rate, 16-bit linear resolution, and cross-interleaved error correction code—specifications similar to


title: "Compact disc" content: those later settled upon for the standard compact disc format in 1980. Technical details of Sony's digital audio disc were presented during the 62nd AES Convention, held on 13–16 March 1979, in Brussels. Sony's AES technical paper was published on 1 March 1979. A week later, on 8 March, Philips publicly demonstrated a prototype of an optical digital audio disc at a press conference called "Philips Introduce Compact Disc" in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Sony executive Norio Ohga, later CEO and chairman of Sony, and Heitaro Nakajima were convinced of the format's commercial potential and pushed further development despite widespread skepticism. As


title: "Compact disc" content: a result, in 1979, Sony and Philips set up a joint task force of engineers to design a new digital audio disc. Led by engineers Kees Schouhamer Immink and Toshitada Doi, the research pushed forward laser and optical disc technology. After a year of experimentation and discussion, the task force produced the "Red Book" CD-DA standard. First published in 1980, the standard was formally adopted by the IEC as an international standard in 1987, with various amendments becoming part of the standard in 1996. Philips coined the term "compact disc" in line with another audio product, the Compact Cassette, and


title: "Compact disc" content: contributed the general manufacturing process, based on video LaserDisc technology. Philips also contributed eight-to-fourteen modulation (EFM), which offers a certain resilience to defects such as scratches and fingerprints, while Sony contributed the error-correction method, CIRC. The "Compact Disc Story", told by a former member of the task force, gives background information on the many technical decisions made, including the choice of the sampling frequency, playing time, and disc diameter. The task force consisted of around four to eight persons, though according to Philips, the compact disc was "invented collectively by a large group of people working as a team." Philips


title: "Compact disc" content: established the Polydor Pressing Operations plant in Langenhagen near Hannover, Germany, and quickly passed a series of milestones. The Japanese launch was followed in March 1983 by the introduction of CD players and discs to Europe and North America (where CBS Records released sixteen titles). This 1983 event is often seen as the "Big Bang" of the digital audio revolution. The new audio disc was enthusiastically received, especially in the early-adopting classical music and audiophile communities, and its handling quality received particular praise. As the price of players gradually came down, and with the introduction of the portable Discman the


title: "Compact disc" content: CD began to gain popularity in the larger popular and rock music markets. One of the first CD markets was devoted to reissuing popular music whose commercial potential was already proven. An advantage of the format was the ability to produce and market boxed sets and multi-volume collections. The first artist to sell a million copies on CD was Dire Straits, with their 1985 album "Brothers in Arms". The first major artist to have their entire catalogue converted to CD was David Bowie, whose first fourteen studio albums of (then) sixteen were made available by RCA Records in February 1985,


title: "Compact disc" content: along with four greatest hits albums; his fifteenth and sixteenth albums had already been issued on CD by EMI Records in 1983 and 1984, respectively. On February 26, 1987, the first four UK albums by The Beatles were released in mono on compact disc. In 1988, 400 million CDs were manufactured by 50 pressing plants around the world. The CD was planned to be the successor of the vinyl record for playing music, rather than primarily as a data storage medium. From its origins as a musical format, CDs have grown to encompass other applications. In 1983, following the CD's


title: "Compact disc" content: introduction, Immink and Braat presented the first experiments with erasable compact discs during the 73rd AES Convention. In June 1985, the computer-readable CD-ROM (read-only memory) and, in 1990, CD-Recordable were introduced, also developed by both Sony and Philips. Recordable CDs were a new alternative to tape for recording music and copying music albums without defects introduced in compression used in other digital recording methods. Other newer video formats such as DVD and Blu-ray use the same physical geometry as CD, and most DVD and Blu-ray players are backward compatible with audio CD. By the early 2000s, the CD player had


title: "Compact disc" content: largely replaced the audio cassette player as standard equipment in new automobiles, with 2010 being the final model year for any car in the United States to have a factory-equipped cassette player. With the increasing popularity of portable digital audio players, such as mobile phones, and solid state music storage, CD players are being phased out of automobiles in favor of minijack auxiliary inputs, wired connection to USB devices and wireless Bluetooth connection. Meanwhile, with the advent and popularity of Internet-based distribution of files in lossily-compressed audio formats such as MP3, sales of CDs began to decline in the 2000s.


title: "Compact disc" content: For example, between 2000 and 2008, despite overall growth in music sales and one anomalous year of increase, major-label CD sales declined overall by 20%, although independent and DIY music sales may be tracking better according to figures released 30 March 2009, and CDs still continue to sell greatly. As of 2012, CDs and DVDs made up only 34 percent of music sales in the United States. , only 24% of music in the United States was purchased on physical media, ⅔ of this consisting of CDs; however, in the same year in Japan, over 80% of music was bought


title: "Compact disc" content: on CDs and other physical formats. Despite the rapidly declining sales year-over-year, the pervasiveness of the technology remained for a time, with companies placing CDs in pharmacies, supermarkets, and filling station convenience stores targeting buyers least able to use Internet-based distribution. However, in 2018, Best Buy and Target Corporation both announced plans to decrease their focus on CD sales. Sony and Philips received praise for the development of the compact disc from professional organizations. These awards include A CD is made from thick, polycarbonate plastic and weighs 15–20 grams. From the center outward, components are: the center spindle hole (15


title: "Compact disc" content: mm), the first-transition area (clamping ring), the clamping area (stacking ring), the second-transition area (mirror band), the program (data) area, and the rim. The inner program area occupies a radius from 25 to 58 mm. A thin layer of aluminium or, more rarely, gold is applied to the surface, making it reflective. The metal is protected by a film of lacquer normally spin coated directly on the reflective layer. The label is printed on the lacquer layer, usually by screen printing or offset printing. CD data is represented as tiny indentations known as "pits", encoded in a spiral track moulded


title: "Compact disc" content: into the top of the polycarbonate layer. The areas between pits are known as "lands". Each pit is approximately 100 nm deep by 500 nm wide, and varies from 850 nm to 3.5 µm in length. The distance between the tracks, the pitch, is 1.6 µm. A motor within the CD player spins the disc to a scanning velocity of 1.2–1.4 m/s (constant linear velocity) – equivalent to approximately 500 RPM at the inside of the disc, and approximately 200 RPM at the outside edge. (A disc played from beginning to end slows its rotation rate during playback.) The program


title: "Compact disc" content: area is 86.05 cm and the length of the recordable spiral is (86.05 cm / 1.6 µm) = 5.38 km. With a scanning speed of 1.2 m/s, the playing time is 74 minutes, or 650 MiB of data on a CD-ROM. A disc with data packed slightly more densely is tolerated by most players (though some old ones fail). Using a linear velocity of 1.2 m/s and a narrower track pitch of 1.5 µm increases the playing time to 80 minutes, and data capacity to 700 MiB. A CD is read by focusing a 780 nm wavelength (near infrared) semiconductor


title: "Compact disc" content: laser housed within the CD player, through the bottom of the polycarbonate layer. The change in height between pits and lands results in a difference in the way the light is reflected. By measuring the intensity change with a photodiode, the data can be read from the disc. In order to accommodate the spiral pattern of data, the semiconductor laser is placed on a mobile laser pickup assembly mechanism within the disc tray of any CD player; this mechanism typically takes the form of a hub that slides across a rail or worm gear, though some CD drives (particularly those


title: "Compact disc" content: manufactured by Philips during the 1980s and early 1990s) use a swing arm similar to that seen on a gramophone. This mechanism allows the laser to read information from the centre to the edge of a disc without having to interrupt the spinning of the disc itself. The pits and lands do not directly represent the zeros and ones of binary data. Instead, non-return-to-zero, inverted encoding is used: a change from pit to land or land to pit indicates a one, while no change indicates a series of zeros. There must be at least two and no more than ten


title: "Compact disc" content: zeros between each one, which is defined by the length of the pit. This in turn is decoded by reversing the eight-to-fourteen modulation used in mastering the disc, and then reversing the cross-interleaved Reed–Solomon coding, finally revealing the raw data stored on the disc. These encoding techniques (defined in the "Red Book") were originally designed for CD Digital Audio, but they later became a standard for almost all CD formats (such as CD-ROM). CDs are susceptible to damage during handling and from environmental exposure. Pits are much closer to the label side of a disc, enabling defects and contaminants on


title: "Compact disc" content: the clear side to be out of focus during playback. Consequently, CDs are more likely to suffer damage on the label side of the disc. Scratches on the clear side can be repaired by refilling them with similar refractive plastic or by careful polishing. The edges of CDs are sometimes incompletely sealed, allowing gases and liquids to enter the CD and corrode the metal reflective layer and/or interfere with the focus of the laser on the pits, a condition known as disc rot. The fungus "Geotrichum candidum" has been found—under conditions of high heat and humidity—to consume the polycarbonate plastic


title: "Compact disc" content: and aluminium found in CDs. The digital data on a CD begins at the center of the disc and proceeds toward the edge, which allows adaptation to the different size formats available. Standard CDs are available in two sizes. By far, the most common is in diameter, with a 74- or 80-minute audio capacity and a 650 or 700 MiB (737,280,000-byte) data capacity. The official Philips history says this capacity was specified by Sony executive Norio Ohga so as to be able to contain the entirety of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on one disc. This is a myth according to Kees


title: "Compact disc" content: Immink, as the code format had not yet been decided in December 1979. The adoption of EFM in June 1980 would have allowed a playing time of 97 minutes for 120 mm diameter or 74 minutes for a disc as small as 100 mm, but instead the information density was lowered by 30% to keep the playing time at 74 minutes. The 120 mm diameter has been adopted by subsequent formats, including Super Audio CD, DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc. The 80 mm diameter discs ("Mini CDs") can hold up to 24 minutes of music or 210 MiB. The


title: "Compact disc" content: logical format of an audio CD (officially Compact Disc Digital Audio or CD-DA) is described in a document produced in 1980 by the format's joint creators, Sony and Philips. The document is known colloquially as the "Red Book" CD-DA after the colour of its cover. The format is a two-channel 16-bit PCM encoding at a 44.1 kHz sampling rate per channel. Four-channel sound was to be an allowable option within the "Red Book" format, but has never been implemented. Monaural audio has no existing standard on a "Red Book" CD; thus, mono source material is usually presented as two identical


title: "Compact disc" content: channels in a standard "Red Book" stereo track (i.e., mirrored mono); an MP3 CD, however, can have audio file formats with mono sound. CD-Text is an extension of the "Red Book" specification for audio CD that allows for storage of additional text information (e.g., album name, song name, artist) on a standards-compliant audio CD. The information is stored either in the lead-in area of the CD, where there is roughly five kilobytes of space available, or in the subcode channels R to W on the disc, which can store about 31 megabytes. Compact Disc + Graphics is a special audio


title: "Compact disc" content: compact disc that contains graphics data in addition to the audio data on the disc. The disc can be played on a regular audio CD player, but when played on a special CD+G player, it can output a graphics signal (typically, the CD+G player is hooked up to a television set or a computer monitor); these graphics are almost exclusively used to display lyrics on a television set for karaoke performers to sing along with. The CD+G format takes advantage of the channels R through W. These six bits store the graphics information. CD + Extended Graphics (CD+EG, also known


title: "Compact disc" content: as CD+XG) is an improved variant of the Compact Disc + Graphics (CD+G) format. Like CD+G, CD+EG uses basic CD-ROM features to display text and video information in addition to the music being played. This extra data is stored in subcode channels R-W. Very few, if any, CD+EG discs have been published. Super Audio CD (SACD) is a high-resolution read-only optical audio disc format that was designed to provide higher fidelity digital audio reproduction than the "Red Book". Introduced in 1999, it was developed by Sony and Philips, the same companies that created the "Red Book". SACD was in a


title: "Compact disc" content: format war with DVD-Audio, but neither has replaced audio CDs. The SACD standard is referred to the "Scarlet Book" standard. Titles in the SACD format can be issued as hybrid discs; these discs contain the SACD audio stream as well as a standard audio CD layer which is playable in standard CD players, thus making them backward compatible. CD-MIDI is a format used to store music-performance data, which upon playback is performed by electronic instruments that synthesize the audio. Hence, unlike the original "Red Book" CD-DA, these recordings are not digitally sampled audio recordings. The CD-MIDI format is defined as


title: "Compact disc" content: an extension of the original "Red Book". For the first few years of its existence, the CD was a medium used purely for audio. However, in 1988, the "Yellow Book" CD-ROM standard was established by Sony and Philips, which defined a non-volatile optical data computer data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. Video CD (VCD, View CD, and Compact Disc digital video) is a standard digital format for storing video media on a CD. VCDs are playable in dedicated VCD players, most modern DVD-Video players, personal computers,


title: "Compact disc" content: and some video game consoles. The VCD standard was created in 1993 by Sony, Philips, Matsushita, and JVC and is referred to as the "White Book" standard. Overall picture quality is intended to be comparable to VHS video. Poorly compressed VCD video can sometimes be lower quality than VHS video, but VCD exhibits block artifacts rather than analog noise and does not deteriorate further with each use. 352x240 (or SIF) resolution was chosen because it is half the vertical and half the horizontal resolution of NTSC video. 352x288 is similarly one quarter PAL/SECAM resolution. This approximates the (overall) resolution of


title: "Compact disc" content: an analog VHS tape, which, although it has double the number of (vertical) scan lines, has a much lower horizontal resolution. Super Video CD (Super Video Compact Disc or SVCD) is a format used for storing video media on standard compact discs. SVCD was intended as a successor to VCD and an alternative to DVD-Video and falls somewhere between both in terms of technical capability and picture quality. SVCD has two thirds the resolution of DVD, and over 2.7 times the resolution of VCD. One CD-R disc can hold up to 60 minutes of standard quality SVCD-format video. While no


title: "Compact disc" content: specific limit on SVCD video length is mandated by the specification, one must lower the video bit rate, and therefore quality, to accommodate very long videos. It is usually difficult to fit much more than 100 minutes of video onto one SVCD without incurring significant quality loss, and many hardware players are unable to play video with an instantaneous bit rate lower than 300 to 600 kilobits per second. Photo CD is a system designed by Kodak for digitizing and storing photos on a CD. Launched in 1992, the discs were designed to hold nearly 100 high-quality images, scanned prints


title: "Compact disc" content: and slides using special proprietary encoding. Photo CDs are defined in the "Beige Book" and conform to the CD-ROM XA and CD-i Bridge specifications as well. They are intended to play on CD-i players, Photo CD players and any computer with suitable software (irrespective of operating system). The images can also be printed out on photographic paper with a special Kodak machine. This format is not to be confused with Kodak Picture CD, which is a consumer product in CD-ROM format. The Philips "Green Book" specifies a standard for interactive multimedia compact discs designed for CD-i players (1993). CD-i discs


title: "Compact disc" content: can contain audio tracks which can be played on regular CD players, but CD-i discs are not compatible with most CD-ROM drives and software. The CD-i Ready specification was later created to improve compatibility with audio CD players, and the CD-i Bridge specification was added to create CD-i compatible discs that can be accessed by regular CD-ROM drives. Philips defined a format similar to CD-i called CD-i Ready, which puts CD-i software and data into the pregap of track 1. This format was supposed to be more compatible with older audio CD players. Enhanced Music CD, also known as CD