CURLING DIRTY TRICKS FURY

THE ancient sport of curling is being rocked by a "dirty tricks" row over a hi-tech computer gadget adopted by Scotland's golden girls.

Rhona Martin's team - who were the toast of the nation after their historic gold medal victory at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City - are hoping to do it again with their secret weapon.

It's a computerised broom with which they plan to triumph at the Winter Olympics in February.

But the Scottish team's modern advantage has left opponents bristling, claiming our heroes should rely on skill rather than computer wizardry to defend their title.

National coach Mike Hay said their robo-brush could revolutionise the 500-year-old sport and leave opponents on the slippery slope.

Curling involves a competitor sliding their heavy stone over the ice rink and trying to make it stop as close as possible to the centre of a target, helped on its way by team-mates who can change its speed by brushing its path.

The new pounds 22,000 brush is packed with sensors which measure how hard a curler sweeps, the length of stroke, fitness and even the temperature of the ice.

The super-broom is loaded with a memory card which is used to download results on to a special programme for analysis.

Coach Hay has refused to let cameras near his invention and will not show it to rivals until after the Winter Olympics in Italy.

They are now going all-out in a bid to defend their title with some of the most advanced training in the world.

But speaking ahead of the Games, Mike Hay said: "I'm being a bit cagey here. I'm not going to tell you exactly what it is because for us and for my players, this is the edge that we believe we might have.

"For the first time we know what sweeping does.

"If you ask anybody else, they have an idea that sweeping will keep the stone straighter. It will take it five, 10, 15 feet further. They haven't actually got a clue because they can't measure it. I think we have been able to measure it.

"The bottom line is that we've had five years of research and development, a fair bit of investment has gone into it as well as time, so why would I really want to tell about the broom?

"We're just trying to find little edges that we can get to try and improve our own players to help and compete against the top teams."

But Joep Waijers, chairman of the Dutch Curling Association, said: "This is not welcome at all. If it is not being done by everyone it shouldn't be done by one.

"I would not welcome the influence of computers on our game and this is not really the spirit in which the game should be developed.

"It is about the skill of the participant, not who can develop the most helpful computer programme.

"Scotland has a reputation for having fine curlers, but this is pushing things too far. It is not right at all."

A Scottish Institute of Sport spokeswoman said the brush - a sweep ergometer - now forms an integral part of the training regime. She added: "With the selection of the GB curling teams imminent for the Turin Winter Olympics 2006, the measurement of players' individual skills and profiles are an important objective tool for the selectors to consider.

"With this in mind, the Scottish Institute of Sport, in conjunction with UK Sport, set about developing a sweep ergometer that would measure each athlete's individual sweeping profile.

"The ergometer was developed by Edinburgh University's Materials Science Department and features a brush which measures both downward and horizontal forces as well as frequency and length of sweep.

"A built-in memory card can hold data from 200 trials before being downloaded. With this information, we can define the work done by each athlete over a given time trial.

"The print-out gives us the opportunity to study each athlete's profile and give feedback to the athlete, where necessary, on how and where they can improve their sweeping efficiency - an excellent example of new technology being used to boost performance.

Veteran Scots curler Iain Baxter - a national champion who lost to Canada in the world finals in 1971 - is skeptical of the difference a computer-powered broom can make. He said: "The magic of the sport is four guys or girls going out there and trying their skill against another team of four.

"Some days you'll get lucky, other days you'll not be so lucky. That's the magic of curling."

The World Curling Federation describes the game by saying: "Curling is a game of skill and of traditions.

"A shot well executed is a delight to see and so, too, it is a fine thing to observe the time-honoured traditions of curling being applied in the true spirit of the game.

"Curlers play to win but never to humble their opponents.

"A true curler would prefer to lose rather than win unfairly."

The game itself is more than 500 years old and evolved in Scotland where the mother club of curling, The Royal Caledonian Curling Club was formed in 1838.

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