League Guidelines

This article outlines BCC-specific rules for playing in club leagues.

For a full outline of rules of competition and play, please reference USA Curling's Rules of Curling. Any items not explicitly outlined in this document default to the current USA Curling rulebook and the BCC Code of Conduct. 

Season format

Each season will be comprised of a "Regular Season" which can either result in a champion being named or can be followed by a "Playoff."  Playoffs can be any number of weeks, depending on ice availability, but should be announced at the beginning of the season. The winner of the playoffs is the league champion, regardless of place/record going into playoffs.

Gameplay

• Start of game
  • Each game starts with a coin-flip between the vice skips. The winner can choose to have the hammer or not, or can choose the color of their stones. The loser of the coin-flip gets the second choice. Players may make one practice slide, without a stone, if they desire.
• Free Guard Zone
  
  • We use the Free Guard Zone (FGZ) rule at the beginning of each end. If any of the first five stones come to rest in the free guard zone in front of the house, they may not be removed by the opponent until the sixth stone (the team with hammer's third shot). Guards may be moved or raised, so long as they remain in play. A team may remove its own guard. If a free guard is removed from play, it will be placed back in its original spot and the shooter will be removed from play.
  • The club does not use the "No Tick Rule" as the center line is hard to see on hockey ice.
• Player positioning
  • Non‐delivering team
    • During the process of delivery the players take stationary positions along the sidelines between the courtesy lines (on the far side of the hog line). 
      • The skip and/or vice‐skip may take stationary positions behind the back line at the playing end, but must not interfere with the choice of place of the skip or vice‐skip of the delivering team.
      • When a team is preparing to deliver, the opposing skip and vice skip stand still to avoid disturbing the concentration of the player in the hack.
    • The non‐delivering team players must not take any position, nor cause any motion, which could obstruct, interfere with, distract or intimidate the delivering team. If such an action occurs, or an external force distracts a player during delivery, that player has the option of allowing the play to stand, or of redelivering the stone after all displaced stones have been replaced to their original positions.
  • Delivering team
    • The skip, or the vice‐skip when it is the skip’s turn to deliver, is in charge of the house.
    • The player in charge of the house is positioned inside the hog line, and on the ice surface of the playing end of the team's sheet, while the team is in the process of delivery.
    • The players who are not in charge of the house or delivering a stone take a position to sweep.
      • As soon as the delivered rock comes to rest, leads and seconds leave the house and position themselves between the hog lines and to the extreme sides of the sheet. Only the skips and vice-skips should be in the house. (There should always ONLY be 2 people behind the house - no congregating!
• Burned rocks
  • If you “burn” (touch) a moving rock with your broom while sweeping and the infraction occurs between the hog lines, stop the rock immediately.
  • If you “burn” (touch) a moving rock with your broom while sweeping and the infraction occurs after the hog line closest to the house you are playing to, do not stop the rock. Allow it to come to rest and alert both skips. The opposing skip has 3 choices:
    • allow the play to stand, or
    • remove the burned rock from play and replace all the affected rocks to their original positions, or
    • place the burned rock and all rocks it would have affected where they would have come to rest if the violation had not occurred.
  • If you move a stationary rock, and if that move did not affect a running rock, then the non-offending team replaces the rock to its original position (if there is any question about whether the touched rock or another rock is closer to the button, the touched rock is replaced in favor of the non-offending team). If the move would have affected the course of another rock in motion, then the non-offending team has three choices:
    • allow the play to stand, or
    • remove the rock in motion and replace all the affected rocks to their original positions, or
    • place the rock in motion and all rocks it would have affected where they would have come to rest if the violation had not occurred.
• Stones out of play
  • When the outer edge of a stone appears to be two feet outside of a line tangent to the edge of the 12 foot circle at the tee line, it is removed from play.
  • A stone must fully cross the back line of a sheet to be removed from play. The stone may be out of the house but stays in play as long as it has not fully crossed the back line.
  • If a stone does not cross the hog line upon delivery, it is removed from play.
• Ice treatment
  • Upon release of the stone, immediately stand up so that your body heat does not form handprints and/or kneeprints in the ice. If you stay down to watch the stone, make sure no part of your warm body is touching the ice. (Yes, this is good practice, even on arena ice)
  • Use clean shoes to curl; ensure that you are not bringing debris from outside the ice rink onto the ice. 
  • If you notice severe scratching or gauging of the ice, check the bottoms of your shoes, stabilizers, and brooms. 
• Scoring
  • At the conclusion of the end, only the vice-skips are in the house to determine the score of the end. No rocks are moved until the vice-skips agree. The vice-skips are responsible for measuring if necessary, for posting the score on the scoreboard and, at the conclusion of the game, for posting the points on the draw sheet.
    • If the vice-skips cannot agree on the score, an impartial player from another sheet can be asked to call the score. 

League rules

• Timing
  • League games must be completed within the allotted time (normally 2 hours). With reasonable speed (allowing for setup and teardown), this should allow seven (7) ends to be completed. Those teams playing excessively slowly should realize that they will not be able to complete all 7 ends. An end should take roughly 15 minutes. 
  • The bell will ring when 30 minutes of the session remain. When the bell rings, you may finish that end and begin one more.
    • Under no circumstances should an end begin within 15 minutes of the end of the session (after 6:30 or 8:30, based on current game times). If you begin an end within 20 minutes of the game end, both teams must hurry. If the game goes beyond the time limit, the drawmaster reserves the right to end the game before the final shots are taken.
• Spares and substitutes
  • Members are encouraged to find their own substitutes in advance of their absence. Any current and paid member of the Boise Curling Club may substitute in a league. Any non-paying member who wishes to substitute must get board approval before doing so.
  • For general league play: at least two (2) members of the original team must be present to avoid a forfeit. Teams missing one member may choose to bring in another player, or play as a three-person team. 
  • For playoffs: at least two (2) members of the original team must be present to avoid a forfeit. Teams missing one member must play with three team members. When two team members are unable to compete, one (1) substitute may be obtained. All substitutes must throw lead rocks.
  • In either case, if at least two (2) members of the original team (and at least three total players) are not present, the team will forfeit (though they should attempt to find subs and play a practice game with their opponent.)
• Delay of game
  • If a team does not commence play at the designated time, the following takes place:
    • If the delay of the start of play is 1‐15 minutes, then the non‐offending team receives one point, and will have last stone in the first end of actual play.
    • If the delay of the start of play is 15‐30 minutes, then the non‐offending team receives one additional point, and last stone advantage in the first end of actual play.
    • If play has not started after 30 minutes, then the non‐offending team is declared the winner by forfeit. 
• Interrupted games
  • If for any reason, a game is interrupted, the game recommences where play was stopped.
  • If ice time is cancelled for any reason, games scheduled that week will be made up as follows:
    • During Round Robin play: The week’s games will be moved to the week following the final week of the round robin schedule.
    • During Playdowns: The week’s games will be played the next week of play, and the remaining playdown games will be moved back one week.
• Ties
  • No game can end in a tie. All ties will go to a draw-to-the-button tiebreaker and can be taken by any person on the team. During a DTB tiebreaker, you may sweep your own team's stone to get it closer to the button, but you may not defensively sweep the other team's rock when it is past the tee line.

League standings

• In round robin league play, a standings table will be kept. When determining placement on the table between teams with identical records, the following tiebreakers will be used (in list order until the tie is broken):
  • Head to head results
  • Record vs. common opponents
  • Combined win % of opponents in games won
  • Combined win % of opponents in games lost
  • Results vs. common opponents beginning at the top of the standings table
    • This method involves finding all common opponents, beginning at the top of the standings and comparing in descending order. Each tied team’s result against the opponent is considered. If the teams had the same result (both won or both lost), the next opponent is considered in the same way. If they had a different result, the team that won vs. that opponent is placed higher on the standings table. In the event of a multi-team tie, teams with the “odd” result are placed in the standings, and teams still tied go back to the beginning of the tiebreak procedures to determine their position.
• If none of the methods above break the tie, a random number generator will be used to break the tie.