The Hammer in Curling: In Plain Words

What “hammer” means

World Curling’s glossary in The Rules of Curling defines the word this way:

• Hammer: “A term used to describe the stone that will be the last stone delivered in that end.”

World Curling’s “What is curling?” page uses the same idea in longer words. It calls it “the Hammer or Last Stone Advantage,” and says: “If a team has the last stone advantage, it means they can deliver the final stone of an end.”

Plain-words gloss (our words, not a quote): “having the hammer” means your team delivers last in that end. “Deliver” is the rulebook word for sliding a stone into play.

Why the last stone is an advantage

World Curling’s explainer gives the reason in its own words: a team with last stone advantage can deliver the final stone of an end and “have an advantage to score at least one point and potentially win that end.”

To see why that last stone matters, it helps to know how an end is scored. The rulebook, Rule R12(b), says:

• “At the completion of an end (when all stones have been played), a team scores one point for each of its own stones located in or touching the house that are closer to the tee than any stone of the opposition.”

World Curling’s explainer says the same thing in plain words, and adds two points this page relies on:

• “Only one team can score in an end.”
• “If no team’s stones are touching the house at the conclusion of an end, no points are scored. This is called a blank end.”

The rulebook glossary also defines a blank end, in short, as: “An end resulting in no score for either team.”

Plain-words gloss (our words, not a quote): because only one team can score in an end, and the score is counted only after all stones have been played, the team that plays last gets the final chance to change which stones are closest before the count.

The first end: coin toss or Last Stone Draw?

This is the point where short summaries often disagree. The rulebook does not pick only one method. Rule R5(a), under “Delivery,” states the general rule:

• “Unless predetermined or decided by the Last Stone Draw (LSD), the teams opposing each other in a game shall use a coin toss to determine which team delivers the first stone in the first end.”

Read that sentence closely, in plain words:

• The default in the rulebook is a coin toss to decide which team delivers the first stone in the first end. The other team, delivering second in that alternating order, delivers the last stone — it has the hammer in the first end.
• That coin toss does not apply when the first end was predetermined, or when it is decided by the Last Stone Draw.

World Curling’s explainer matches that split, and gives the scope for the Last Stone Draw:

• “Before a game of curling begins, teams decide who will have what is called the Hammer or Last Stone Advantage. In championship curling this is decided by a draw to the button” — the Last Stone Draw described in the next section.

So neither short claim on its own is the whole official answer. “Coin toss” is the rulebook’s general rule. “Last Stone Draw” is the method the rules prescribe for games that require a Last Stone Draw, and the method World Curling’s explainer names for championship curling.

The Last Stone Draw, as the rules describe it

The detailed procedure is in the Rules of Competition, Rule C8(b), headed “Stone Assignment / Last Stone Draw.” It begins: “For games requiring Last Stone Draws (LSD)…” In plain order, the rulebook says:

• At the conclusion of each team’s pre-game practice, two stones will be delivered to the tee at the home end, by different players — the first stone with a clockwise rotation and the second with a counter-clockwise rotation.
• The first stone will be measured and removed from play before the second stone is delivered.
• The distances recorded for each stone will be added together to give the team its LSD total for that game.
• The team with the lesser LSD total will have the choice of delivering the first or second stone in the first end of that game.
• If the LSD totals for both teams are the same, the individual LSD stones are compared, and the best non-equal LSD has that choice.
• When both teams have the exact same individual LSD stone distances, a coin toss will be used to determine that choice.

Rule C8(c) covers how the distance is recorded. In the rulebook’s words, all single measurements are from the tee to the nearest part of the stone, but the LSD distances are displayed in centimetres as the distance from the tee to the centre of the stone, with the official radius of 142 mm added.

The rulebook glossary gives the same contest in short form:

• Last Stone Draw (LSD): “A contest conducted at the conclusion of a team’s pre-game practice in which each team delivers two stones by different players, the first stone with a clockwise and the second with a counter-clockwise rotation, to the tee at the home end. The resulting distances are measured and used to determine which team has the choice of delivering the first or second stone in the first end.”

Note the exact result: the team with the lesser total gets the choice of delivering first or second in the first end. The rules do not word it as that team automatically receiving the hammer — delivering second in the first end is what gives a team the last stone in that end.

World Curling’s explainer describes the same draw in shorter words: two players from each team deliver a stone as close as possible to the centre of the house — one stone delivered clockwise and the other counter-clockwise — and the distance from the stone to the centre is measured. It calls this process “the Last Stone Draw or LSD.”

How the hammer moves from end to end

After the first end, the rulebook does not use a new toss or a new draw. Rule R5(a) continues:

• “This order of play shall be maintained until one team scores, after which the team that most recently scored delivers the first stone in any subsequent end.”

Plain-words gloss (our words, following the rule’s mechanism exactly): the team that scored delivers the first stone in the next end. Because the teams keep alternating stones, the team that delivers first cannot deliver last in that end — so the team that did not score delivers the last stone and has the hammer in the next end.

World Curling’s explainer states the same handover from the hammer’s side: “When a team scores, they lose the last stone advantage and the hammer passes to the opposing team for the next end.”

What happens after a blank end

A blank end is an end with no score for either team (see the scoring section above). For team curling, follow Rule R5(a) again: the order of play is maintained until one team scores, and after a score it is the team that most recently scored that delivers first. If no team scored in an end, no new scoring team has taken over the first-stone place, so the delivery order — and with it, who delivers last — stays as it was.

World Curling’s explainer confirms that result for team curling in plain words. After describing a blanked end as one where no stones are lying in the house after the last stone is played, it says: “This means they get to keep the hammer for the next end.”

There is one exception stated on that same explainer page, for a different form of the game:

• “However, in mixed doubles, a blank end also causes the hammer to be passed to the opposing team.”

That mixed doubles sentence is about mixed doubles only. Do not apply it to team curling, where the explainer says the team keeps the hammer after a blank end.

Words to know, in the rulebook’s own words

• End — a round of play. World Curling’s explainer calls an end “a round,” in which, in team curling, each player delivers two stones while alternating with an opponent, and each team uses a set of eight stones.
• House — rulebook glossary: “The area within the concentric circles at each end of the sheet.” The centre is commonly known as the Button on World Curling’s explainer page; the rulebook measures scoring stones against the tee, at the centre of the house.
• Last Stone First End (LSFE) — rulebook glossary: “A term to describe the stone that will be delivered last in the first end.”
• Blank End — rulebook glossary: “An end resulting in no score for either team.”