Rusty Drew and the cue

I heard this morning of the death of Rusty Drew, the inventor of the Extender cue used by many Scottish curlers. I met Rusty in November 2005. He had been invited by Kate Caithness to attend the British Open Wheelchair event at the Kinross rink and meet the curlers using his cue here. Indeed, Maryel interviewed him for the Scottish Curler magazine. What an enthusiast! Many of us 'standy uppies' who use the cue also have a lot to thank him for.

I'll be thinking of him when I take to the ice on Monday with my own Entender cue in hand!

This seems to be a good a time as any to highlight the rule change that was adopted by the World Curling Federation last year concerning the delivery stick. Even though this cannot be used in any WCF competition (apart from the wheelchair events) Rule 10e (iv) says:

'The stone must be clearly released from the delivery stick before
either foot of the player delivering the stone has reached the tee line
at the delivering end.'

The Royal Club has not adopted this rule, neither has the CCA, yet. Indeed SWEEP magazine is currently carrying out a poll to garner opinion. I have seen just how much enjoyment that cues can make in extending (indeed that's why the Extender cue is so called) a curler's playing career. It now seems to me that those of us with a disability that does not allow us to slide, as we once did, would be penalised by the implementation of the WCF rule. Time for some debate on this, I feel.

Actually, when I began to play in the early 60s, the RCCC rules stated that all stones had to be released before the tee! I wonder if the WCF plans to go back to this for everyone?

Rusty at Kinross, 2005. Pic by Bob.