The Eye on the Hog is a sport officiating technology used in curling to electronically detect hog line violations. Commonly referred to as "sensor handles", it is based on a patent [1] filed by University of Saskatchewan that was further developed by Startco Engineering, a company that was later acquired by Littelfuse. [2]
The current rule governing hog line violations can be traced back to 1955. [3] Ken Watson had developed the "long slide" delivery in the era when most curlers didn't slide much or barely even left the hack at all when delivering a curling stone. [4] [5] The then-controversial slide proved popular with youth curlers, notably Matt Baldwin and Stan Austman, who in the 1950s would slide far down the sheet of ice as a gimmick. [6]
Thus the rule was revised in 1955 to put some limit on the slide delivery, and it has evolved from curtailing it at the tee line, to limiting the slide up to the hog line (1961), to now requiring clear release by the time the stone reaches the hog line (1974). [3] [5] [6] The penalty for a hog line violation is the removal of the delivered stone. [7]
The first event where this rule was used was the 1974 Air Canada Silver Broom; the 1974 Macdonald Brier that preceded it was still played under the 1961 rule. [8] [6]
As in golf, the honour system played a key role in the enforcement of the rules of curling. [9] [10] However, the hog line rule was eventually enforced by the use of officials, [11] similar to line judges in other sports. This was an immediate concern for the curlers, since visual enforcement is inherently error-prone, [12] and the rule as written favors false positives as it put the onus on the curlers to remove all doubts that there was a violation. [13] [14]
In 1982, hog line officials in Canada were placed at an elevated position above ice level. Colleen Jones, who was penalized numerous times, disagreed that this provided them with the best view point to make their calls, and was almost suspended from the 1984 Scott Tournament of Hearts when she used mild vulgarity in a media interview. Canada started placing their officials at ice level in 1985. [15] [16] [17]
Things did not improve at the 1986 Labatt Brier. Assisted by a physically imposing out-of-town "enforcer", hog line officials pulled 9 rocks in the first draw due to purported hog line violations, including 3 by Mel Bernard. There was further controversy involving Lyle Muyres, where films by an amateur filmmaker and a TV technician, though inadmissible as evidence, were examined. [13] [18]
There were also other incidents involving Paul Savage & Russ Howard at the semifinal of the Ontario Tankard provincial competition to qualify for 1987 Labatt Brier, [19] [20] Randy Ferbey at the 2001 World Men's Curling Championship, [21] [22] [23] [24] and Colleen Jones at 2002 World Women's Curling Championship. [14]
Neil Houston played a key role during the initial development of the sensor technology at University of Saskatchewan, [25] and Canadian Curling Association (CCA) became the first adopter of the technology. [26] [27]
After testing at Sutherland Curling Club, [28] the sensor handle finally made its high-profile debut at 2003 Continental Cup of Curling [3] [29] and CCA quickly committed to using them for future events.
Early on, curlers who insist on wearing gloves during delivery would still be judged by hog line officials, [27] but eventually the rules prohibited the use of gloves to circumvent the sensor handles. [30]
There were rumours that some Manitoba tuckers had to adjust their deliveries. [31]
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2021) |
Sebastian Kraupp [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] and Pete Fenson [37]
Eve Muirhead [43] [44] [45] and Ma Jingyi [46] [ citation needed ]
Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward 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 toward 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 at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones once. A game usually consists of eight or ten ends.
Randy S. Ferbey is a Canadian retired curler from Sherwood Park, Alberta. Ferbey is a six-time Canadian champion and a four-time World Champion. He currently coaches the Rachel Homan women's team.
The Brier, known since 2023 as the Montana's Brier for sponsorship reasons, is the annual Canadian men's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada. The current event name refers to its main sponsor, Montana's, a Canadian restaurant chain. "Brier" originally referred to a brand of tobacco sold by the event's first sponsor, the Macdonald Tobacco Company.
This is a glossary of terms in curling.
David Nedohin is a Canadian curler. Nedohin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and now plays out of Sherwood Park, Alberta. He is best known as the longtime fourth for Randy Ferbey.
Glenn William Howard is a Canadian curler who is one of the most decorated curlers of all time. He has won four world championships, four Briers and 17 Ontario provincial championships, including a record eight straight, from 2006 to 2013. Through 2017, he has played in 218 games at the Brier, more than any other curler in history. He has also won the 2001 TSN Skins Game.
Scott Pfeifer is a Canadian curler from Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada who plays out of the St. Albert Curling Club in St. Albert. He was the long-time second for the Randy Ferbey rink from 1998 to 2010, winning four Briers and three World championships with the team. He later served as the alternate for the Kevin Koe rink with whom he won a Brier and world championship, and represented Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Marcel Rocque is a Canadian curler from Edmonton, Alberta. He is a four-time winner of The Brier, the annual Canadian men's curling championship and a three-time World Champion as the lead for the Randy Ferbey team. Rocque would play in two Alberta provincial championships as a lead for Don Walchuk before joining the Ferbey team by 1999.
Wheelchair curling is an adaptation of curling for athletes with a disability affecting their lower limbs or gait. Wheelchair curling is governed by the World Curling Federation, and is one of the sports in the Winter Paralympic Games.
In the sport of curling, the skip is the captain of a team. The skip determines strategy, and holds the broom in the house to indicate where a teammate at the other end of the curling sheet should aim the stone. The skip usually throws the last two stones in the fourth position, but may play in any other position.
The World Curling Tour (WCT) is a group of curling bonspiels featuring the best male, female, and mixed doubles curlers in the world.
The 2010–11 curling season began in September 2010 and ended in April 2011.
The 2011–12 curling season began in September 2011 and ended in April 2012.
Warren R. Hansen is a Canadian retired curler. He played as third on the Hec Gervais rink that won the 1974 Brier. Hansen served as director of event operations for Curling Canada, but retired in June 2015. He currently is operating a podcast called Inside Curling with Kevin Martin and Jim Jerome that is part of Sportsnet's podcast group. He previously worked for the United States Curling Association as a Business Development Consultant from 2017 - 2020. Hansen worked for Curling Canada 1974 - 2015. His involvement with the organization has been instrumental in moving major events into hockey arenas, introducing the page playoff system, reducing the amount of sheets in events to four, implementing player dress codes, bringing in officiating of major events and the creation of the Continental Cup of Curling and Canada Cup of Curling. In addition Hansen played a key role, along with Calgary's Ray Kingsmith in establishing curling as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. In 2002 he developed the game of Mixed Doubles as part of the newly created Continental Cup. In June 2015 it was announced that Mixed Doubles will be a full medal sport at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Hansen is a member of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame as a team member of the Edmonton Huskies and also as a Curling Builder. He is a member of the City of Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame as a team member of the Huskies and a Member Emeritus of the Honorary Governor General's Curling Club, a Curler/Builder in the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame and a Builder in the World Curing Hall of Fame.
The 1974 Macdonald Brier, the Canadian men's national curling championship was held from March 4 to 9, 1974 at the London Gardens in London, Ontario. The total attendance for the week was 48,170.
The 2019 Tim Hortons Brier, Canada's national men's curling championship, was held from March 2 to 10 at Westoba Place in Brandon, Manitoba. In the final, Kevin Koe of Alberta defeated Team Wildcard skipped by Brendan Bottcher 4–3 by scoring two in the tenth end to win. It was the lowest scoring Brier final since 1992, which was held before the adoption of any free guard zone rule.
Doubles curling is a variation of the sport of curling with only two players on each team. Mixed doubles is the most common format of doubles curling, where the term 'mixed' specifies that each team is composed of one man and one woman. The term mixed is also used to describe a specific format of 4-person team curling where the team consists of two men and two women and the throwing order alternates genders, see mixed team.
Paul J. Sauvé was a Canadian curler from Sudbury, Ontario.
The 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Canada's national women's curling championship, was held from February 19 to 28 at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta. The winning Kerri Einarson team represented Canada at the 2021 World Women's Curling Championship. The world championship was supposed to be held at the Curlinghalle Schaffhausen in Schaffhausen, Switzerland; however, the event was cancelled and rescheduled to the "Calgary bubble" of the Markin MacPhail Centre.
The 2022 World Women's Curling Championship was held from March 19 to 27 at the CN Centre in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. Prince George was originally chosen to host the 2020 World Women's Curling Championship, but the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The concept was initially developed a decade ago by electrical engineering students at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, and subsequently refined and introduced by Startco Engineering, which Littelfuse acquired in 2008.
This particular rule was brought into play in 1955 [...] at the 2003 Continental Cup, a new system was introduced
fundamentally changed the way the sport is played through his development of the long slide [which] soon caught on, particularly with the young male curlers
finally [the rule] allowed for graceful follow throughs for as long as the player cared to slide
Matt Baldwin [and] Stan Austman popularized going the full length of the ice
R5(e): A stone must be clearly released from the hand before it reaches the hog line at the delivery end. If the player fails to do so, the stone is immediately removed from play by the delivering team.
Warren discusses the history of the hog line rule
it's a great dishonour to have violated any of the rules or etiquette of the sport
Curling is the rare Olympic sport that largely relies on self-policing.
To enforce the hog line rule [..] officials were assigned [...]. The job proved deceivingly difficult
there were many charges of incorrect calls, some which cost teams championships
If a hogline official has any doubts as to whether the player has released the rock, then he must make that judgment against the curler
There are differences in the way hog-line infractions are called in Canada and at the international level. [...T]he onus is on the player to make sure the official can see the rock released before the hog line[; it] is more restrictive than in Canada with that word 'clearly'.
I used the words 'pissed off' because hogline people were in the gondola above the ice and I kept losing rocks to hogline violations
They were going to throw me out of the tournament. Fines weren't invented in '84.
Officials burst onto the scene with notoriety at the 1986 Brier in Kitchener, where skip Lyle Muyres of Saskatchewan had several rocks pulled for hog-line violations that video later showed to be bad calls.
instead of the necessary two hog line officials—one on either side of the sheet—there was only one.
At the 1986 Brier [...] forty-seven rocks were pulled from play
Ferbey had two rocks pulled for thoroughly bogus hog-line violations by a Swiss official (who was later seen swapping hand-shakes and hugs with Schwaller's team after the game).
curled well enough to win against the host Swiss [...] but were thrown off by three hog-line violations, two of which were shown by replays to be unwarranted
the loss of the semi-final to Switzerland at the Lausanne worlds in 2001 when he was called for a bogus hog line violation by a Swiss official
we're trying to put our hand on the ice before the hog-line
Did you know that Neil Houston [...] was the mind behind the invention of the sensored hog-line handles?
The CCA was the first organization to purchase the system for use in their competitions
tested in top-flight competition for the first time at last weekend's Continental Cup, and it will be used at all CCA championships this season [...] CCA -- its first customer -- purchased 12 sheets worth [...] If a curler insists on wearing potentially problematic gloves at the Brier, the CCA will appoint an official to serve as his personal hog-line judge when he throws
Paul Savage, Lyle Muyres, Colleen Jones, Randy Ferbey, David Nedohin [...] are just a few of the country's top shooters who say they've been jobbed by the eyeballs belonging to biased officials. [...] Sutherland Curling Club, just down the street from Startco, is the site of the work-in-progress
For the first time, there are no hogline officials being used for this event and for others this season which are sanctioned by [CCA]
R10(e)(ii)(e): When a properly functioning electronic hog line device is being used, a glove or mitt must not be worn on the delivery hand during the delivery of a stone.
opponents were watching them practice on site just before the start of the Canada Cup, and the lights on McEwen stones were flashing bright red
The game was unique in that the teams restarted the second end
after discussions, the teams agreed to replay the second end when there was a malfunction of the sensor handle lights
was found to involve a defective battery
it was not the first time this week there was a malfunctioning light on a rock
all the handles were checked prior to this event [...] there have been several malfunctioning handles, but nothing extraordinary
a game ripe with sensor handle malfunctions early on that threw off the rhythm of the game and slowed it down
Alberta saw the sensor in the stone's handle had malfunctioned and told Rycroft to throw the stone again
Instant replays show that she had released the handle before the line. Canada was allowed to re-throw [..] and red lights would be ignored for the rest of the game.
Replays showed the sensor was clearly wrong [...] but officials nonetheless removed the rock.
On the next end, with an official monitoring the hogline, Nixon's light turned red again. After much discussion, Nixon was allowed a redo.
Curling Canada has 220 handles and upgrades 20 or more of them each year.
Television replays appeared to show that Muirhead had let go in plenty of time and had not "double-touched" but the sport's rules do not allow for the use of replays
All sports are progressing and we probably have to start looking at video footage as well
there's nothing we can do, we have to move on
In a moment of sportsmanship, the Manitobans told Homan third Emma Miskew to re-throw a stone in the sixth end after her second hog-line violation of the game.
electronic hog-line sensors [...] were not used [...] The honour system was in effect and officials can observe the hog line if requested
Curlers at the Scotties gave a collective shrug to the news that there are no electronic sensors in the rocks to monitor hog-line violations this year.
Electronic hog-line sensors on the stone handles were not used for the second straight event due to equipment delays as a result of the pandemic. The honour system was in effect.
the sensor handles were missing (as they were for the women's Scotties) for the first time since 2004"
Rock handles will be equipped with hog-line sensors for the world championship. Canada's three domestic events operated without them.
The lack of electronic rock handles in the Calgary bubble has caused a bit of a buzz in the curling world.