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Potomac's Place for Scotch, Rocks, and Good-Natured Jocks -- Maryland Life, Januay/February 2009
What a curious sight! One person slides a shiny granite stone across a sheet of ice. Two others furiously sweep brooms in front of it. Others watch intensely, wondering where the rock will stop. It's freezing in the rink, perhaps 35 degrees, but there is human warmth, the kind measured in smiles and good fellowship. The players are serious but friendly, never losing sight of the fact that this is only a game, not a matter of life and death.
And after it's over and everyone repairs to the bar, the winners buy.
Jousting is, or course, Maryland's official state sport, and lacrosse is the state's official team sport. But there's another team game that is quietly gaining ground here--frozen griound, in a sense--although ti is most popular Up North. That would be in Canada, where the sport is so popular that almost every tiny hamlet has, if little else, a curling club.
Curling in Maryland, ay? You better believe it.
It's not just a sport, either. It's a a of life, providing a place where curlers come to hang out, roll their stones, and hoist an few. Oh yes, along with all that camaraderie, they like to eat, too...
(This article is not available on-line. To subscribe or obtain a copy of the magazine, Maryland Life, visit: www.marylandlife.com.)
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