Understanding the Scoreboards in Curling

As you would see in televised or professional curling, the scoreboards are easy to read and understand. They look something like this:

   The hammer represents the team with the last rock  through an end.

The bold numbers in the first row are the ends.

In end 1, blue scored 4, therefore red received 0 points. There were no rocks in the house in end 2, so it was a blank end and no one scored. Blue scored another 2 points in end 3. The points went along as so but after end 9, red forfeited the game and two X’s were put on the board to indicate that the end was not played. Blue won with a total of 9‑5 over red.

As you may have noticed, not all scoreboards are as above. Most curling clubs use a different, slightly more complicated, method of scoring. Before the game, here’s what these scoreboards look like:

The blue and red are the curling club’s rock colours. The numbers on the board are the amount of points each team has. There is also a small box beside the board containing the numbers 1 through 11. 1 through 10 for the usual ends, and the 11 for that extra end you sometimes need.

End 1:

After the first end, blue scored 4 points. The number 1 from the little box (representing the first end) is put above the number 4 because of the amount of points made. It is on the blue row because blue scored.

End 2:

This end was blank because no points were made. The marker for the second end usually goes at the end of the board to show that it was blank. Some teams like to flip the marker over not to confuse the spectators.

End 3:

End 3, blue scored another two points. When you add 2 points to the previous score, the blue team is now at 6. (4+2) The marker is then placed over the six because that is how many points they have in total after three ends. The current score is 6-0 for the blue team because there are no end markers on the red row.

End 4:

Red finally scored a point! You add this end to the previous score (if there is any), for a total of 1 (0+1). The current score is now 6-1, again in favour of blue.

End 5: