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Publisher: Edinburgh, DouglasPublication date: 1890Subjects: Royal Caledonian Curling ClubCurlingNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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This book is part of the Our Name in History series, a collection of fascinating facts and statistics, alongside short historical commentary, created to tell the story of previous generations who have shared this name.The information in this book is a compendium of research and data pulled from census records, military records, ships' logs, immigrant and port records, as well as other reputable sources. Topics include:

• Name Meaning and Origin
• Immigration Patterns and Census Detail
• Family Lifestyles
• Military Service History
• Comprehensive Source Guide, for future research

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Memoirs of Canada's curling expert.

It was no surprise that Team Canada won the 2006 Winter Olympics gold medal in men's curling. As the preeminent curling country in the world, Canada has more curlers than the rest of the other 50-plus curling nations combined. For the past 50 years in this exciting time in curling history, Doug Maxwell has been right alongside the ice, as Canada's foremost observer and storyteller of the sport.

During a 25-year stint as the executive director of the Silver Broom World Curling Championship, Maxwell collected a rich lode of anecdotes. Now he weaves them into a wonderful tapestry that is sure to please lovers of this northern sport.

Maxwell's memoirs include:

• The legendary Ken Watson
• The Richardsons
• The World Heavyweight Curling Bonspiel, where each team weighed in at a combined thousand pounds
• Embarrassing escapades on the road
• A stolen key for the front doors of the Scone Palace.

The 'l' in Curling has humor, tales never before told, and insights that help explain why curling has such a hold on Canadians.

Product Description
This book-a Leonaur original-contains three rare works by members of Wellington's green sharpshooters. The first was written by Rifleman Knight-a personality who rarely appears in histories of the regiment-but who fought at Waterloo and took part in the pursuit of the French Army to Paris. He subsequently went to Portugal to fight as a mercenary and his account of his adventures on campaign and on the battlefield make riveting reading. Henry Curling wielded the pen that brought to the public the well known memoirs of Rifleman Benjamin Harris. This book contains more military anecdotes recorded by Curling from reports of other British soldiers of the Napoleonic Wars including several more by Harris himself. The final piece is a short history of the Rifles by Jonathan Leach who was an officer of the regiment and his history directly recounts events in which he was a personal and active participant. ... Read more

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In the years since the release of the film 'Zulu', the Zulu War of 1879 has become one of the world's most famous military campaigns. One of the most dramatic events of the war was the complete annihilation of the British encampment at Isandlhwana by a Zulu army on January 22, 1879. With interest in the Zulu War at an all-time high, the recent discovery of the complete diaries of a Royal Artillery officer who was the sole survivor of his battery at Isandlhwana is a major find.

This important diary has been edited with background notes and linking narrative by Adrian Greaves, a leading member of the Anglo-Zulu War Historical Society.A special Foreword has been written by noted Colonial historian Dr. David Rattray. ... Read more

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Once a little known sport, played only in Scotland and Canada, curling has exploded onto the international sports scene, culminating in its debut as a full medal sport at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.Each year millions of players in North America, Europe, Australia and Japan take to the ice to play this fascinating game -- now an Olympic sport. "Curling" is the ideal book for anyone interested in the sport.

Written by Warren Hansen, a Canadian Men's Curling Champion andauthority on the game, "Curling" includes sections on:
The History: The game's Scottish origins, and its migration to Canada and the United States.
The Events: The history and highlights of the great tournaments; the Brier, Scott Tournament of Hearts, World Juniors and Curling Championships. Includes the exciting inside story of taking curling to the Olympics.
The Players: Legends, players of the '90s and members of the Hall of Fame - their stories and statistics.

In addition, sections on the basics of the game (equipment, objectives, rules and etiquette); as well as instructional sections on strategies and techniques make this the complete and essential book for curling fans, players and armchair enthusiasts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A curling classic
Warren Hansen's 1999 book, Curling: The History, The Players, The Game, is probably the best general book on the sport of curling. The biggest problem with it is that it's out of print and hard to find. (I borrowed a copy from the Edmonton Public Library.)
Hansen, director of event management and media relations for the Canadian Curling Association, is a former Brier winner and founder of national curling schools. He is uniquely well placed to write this book.
Warren Hansen begins the book with the story of his own love of curling and his curling career. The story is well told and there is no hint of self-indulgence in his telling it.
He then provides a relatively brief history of curling - again, interesting and well told - before moving on to a discussion of the growth of competitive curling in Canada.
Hansen then gives brief biographies of 19 top men's and women's skips. Making such a list is, of course, a minefield. Some may quibble that all 17 Canadians chosen for this list - from Ken Watson to Sandra Schmirler -- hail from Ontario or, mainly, the Prairies. But it's hard to dispute Hansen's list and one has to give him credit for treating fairly those such as Ed Werenich with whom he crossed swords in his job with the CCA. All in all, he does an admirable job of recapping the careers of these skips and no doubt had to dig through some archives to provide such full accounts.
Hansen goes on to provide a thorough analysis of how to develop a good delivery - his description of that alone is well worth the price of this book. He analyzes curling strategy in light of the development of the free guard zone in the 1990s. The book concludes with 2 1/2 pages that examine the future of curling. This little conclusion has the qualities that permeate the book. It is honest, objective, fair and interesting.
This book is also well and thoughtfully illustrated. My only complaint is that the section on physical conditioning for curling is far too brief and contains the bizarre advice that "the recreational player needs to spend only about five minutes" a day on aerobic conditioning.
Nevertheless, a lot of planning, hard work, research and quality editing went into this book. It is a true classic. One can only hope that an updated version will soon find its way into print. ... Read more

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Hockey may be Canada's game, but curling is Canada's life. Brought over from Scotland with the 78th Fraser Highlanders, the sport of curling has alleviated many seemingly endless winters, from 1759 to present day. Today, over one million people in Canada are curlers, and Canada boasts more curling world championships and trophies than any other country in the world. With archival and modern photographs as well as informative text, Doug Maxwell recounts the definitive history of curling in Canada. From the highly technical games of Olympians Kelly Law and Ed Martin, back to the first organised curling club in Canada (the Montreal Curling Club founded in 1807), Maxwell provides a thorough grounding on the "other" ice sport that has come to define Canada.

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Curling," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Curling in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Curling when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Curling, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

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The game of curling has been an intrinsic part of life on the Prairies since the 1800s. The smallest towns are home to a rink, a league, and even a local bonspiel. The Stone Age: A Social History of Curling on the Prairies chronicles the sport's development from a crude game played by fur traders on a frozen river, to the sophisticated Olympic sport it is today. In the early years, curling survived and adapted to a wave of immigration, railway expansion, two World Wars, and a depression, gathering countless fans along the way.

Since the 1950s, curling has experienced an explosion in the number of men, women, juniors, and seniors who have taken up the game - both on the Prairies and across Canada - along with increasingly lucrative bonspiels, intense media coverage, and its share of controversy. The Stone Age looks at this important legacy of success both on and off the ice. It also highlights the careers of curlers such as Bob Dunbar, curling’s first superstar, Sylvia Fedoruk, Joyce McKee, Ernie Richardson, Sandra Schmirler, all of whom made vital contributions to the development of the sport.

Thanks to four-time Canadian Women's champion Vera Pezer's long and outstanding involvement in the game, she brings character and colour to The Stone Age, with her personal stories of the events, players, and reporters who brought curling from the Prairies to the world stage.

The Stone Agewill be of interest to curling fans and Prairie history aficionados. It explores the impact of the sport on the cultural and social life of the Canadian Prairies and why it developed in a substantially different direction here than in its native Scotland or even Eastern Canada. More than that, for anyone with a love of the sport and history, The Stone Age provides a purely entertaining read.

"Top 10" Developments that Changed Curling Forever:

1. George Cameron, a Winnipeg businessman, persuaded Walter Stewart of the Macdonald Tobacco Company of the merit in supporting a Canadian Curling Championship. The Brier was born.
2. Nipawin, Saskatchewan, staged a car bonspiel in 1947.
3. Ken Watson discovered, by accident, that removing the toe rubber from his forward foot gave him a longer, smoother slide.
4. Joyce McKee joined the Hub City men's league in 1952, curling with her father and brother.
5. Winnipeg introduced matching rocks, coloured rings, and more ceremony and media coverage to the 1940 Brier, the first staged outside Toronto.
6. Calgary Brier champion Howard Palmer convinced his employer, the T. Eaton Company, to sponsor a Western Canadian Women's Championship (1953).
7. Clubs began to install artificial ice.
8. Manitoba's Bruce Hudson deliberately blanked an end at the 1928 Brier.
9. Gordon Craig, President of TSN, decided to give curling greater prominence on television.
10. Ernie, Arnold, Sam and Wes Richardson competed in the 1959 Scotch Cup.

Product Description
The Curling Name in History is a customized book offering a unique blend of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary about the Curling name.The book is just one of an entire series of family name books in the Our Name in History collection.Each book in the collection is printed on demand and is compiled from hundreds of millions of records from the world's largest online resource of family history, Ancestry.co.uk.This particular book follows the Curling family name through history and makes the perfect gift for your family members and anyone interested in the Curling name. In the book you'll find out about where people with the Curling last name originated. You may discover the countries and ports they left behind, the ships they sailed and more. You'll get a better idea of where people sharing the Curling name settled and where they may reside today in the United Kingdom and other countries.You'll get all this information and much more in your Curling family name book. ... Read more

Product Description
This work features the recollections of Benjamin Harris who fought in the British Army's campaign against Napoleon in Spain and Portugal. Harris joined the army in 1802 and later joined the 95th Rifles, a regiment which became the elite of the Army through their expertise with the rifle, their alertness, discipline and regimental pride. The story unfolds from the moment that the diminutive Harris lands in Portugal and marches away in the sun, weighed down by his kit and great coat, his blanket and camp kettle, his haversack rifle, ammunition, ship-biscuit and beef and all the tools and leather that he had to carry as the battalion's cobbler. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

a few more notes
I agree almost entirely with the fine review written by Roger Kennedy. Just a few more points to add: (1) I think what sticks in my mind more than anything else are the horrific marches and the lack of medical care - the authors descriptions are all the more memorable for their off-handed understatement. (2) It's also an interesting recording of the social mores of the time - the author feels that the Lash is a necessity, and deplores the idea of having promotions done by merit rather than by noble birth. Not what you might expect to hear from a commoner serving in the ranks!

Harris is the inspiration for Sharpe
This book is one of the classic Peninsular War recollections of the period.Harris was a devil-me-care lad of the English shires, who was first chosen by lot to join the English militia in 1806.Once in Ireland he becomes enamored of the green-jacketed 95th Rifles, Britian's new experimental Rifle corps, and decides to join them as a volunteer.The memoirs of Harris and many others like him were no doubt the inspiration for Bernard Cornwall's now famous "Sharpe" series.But Harris's work is certainly worth reading for its own merit, as it provides a vivid impression of what it was like to be a British soldier in the Napoleanic period.Unlike many of the memoirs of his compatriots, Harris only served for a brief time.He experinced Britian's initial efforts to support Spain in her rebellion against napolanic France's domination.As part of that early expedition, harris sees action at Rolica and Vimero (1808), and partakes in the grim retreat to Coruna (1809).He is thus privy only to the initial stages of what would become the Peninsular War in Spain (1808-1814)Harris's recolllections are vivid, but at times confused and lack chronology.This is reflective of the fact that he was a common ranker, and his level of education was somewhat less than many officiers.This does not detract from the value of his work; for Harris is in fact an amusing writer with an adroit sense of humor.He recollects his experinces as they come to mind, and the reader often feels as though he is seated right next to him relaying his stories as they come to mind.At times this can be confusing, and some knowledge of the period certainly helps in understanding the merits of this work. Christopher Hibbert has provided some valuable notes both in the introduction and within the body of the work, which adds greatly to it.Modern readers will certainly find Harris worthwhile, andwith the recent interest sparked by the "Sharpe series", will see how the real thing compares to the fictionalized character.Sharpe is most certainly part Harris, and the reader also gets an understaningof the 95th regiment as well.Worth having. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more