Wednesday Rules

Updated for 2025-26 Season

RULE 1:  Play in the Spirit of Curling!  Respect other teams and play comptitive equal games.  This should be the only rule, but people have tried to twist the rules into their favor, so more specific rules have had to be created. 

CCC Leagues:  Wednesday Competitive

League Details: 

• 6:15 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. draw times.
• 5 Rock Rule:  You are not allowed to take out an opponent's guard until the 6th thrown rock.
• Using USA Curling rules for club championships and playdowns, except for the requirement for WCF approved brushhead and timing subject to the availability of timers.
• This means the No Tick Rule is in effect for this league. Skips should verbally agree on if the stone is on the centerline, but if it is uncertain if the stone is on the line, treat it as not on the line to save the time of using the carpenters square.

Team Signup and Formation:

• Skips are required to have at last 2 years of experience
• Every other team member needs to have at least 1 year of experience
• Competitive teams are signed up as a full team
• Every team member needs to complete signup and indicate the entire team that they are playing with
• All four players signup should match (order will be the initial throwing order)
• Teams are allowed to have a 5th team member.  Those players are not considered subs.  - See details below.
• The teams offiical throwing order is officially listed on the website.  This is important for subs - see sub rules.
  • You can request a changed up to 3 times per year
  • You can request a change upto 4 weeks before the last spring round robin game.

League Makeup and Format:

• The Wednesday League will be comprised of up to 18 teams
• Plan to split into A and B division with 2 team promotion/relegation starting next year
• The Top 8 teams from the 25-26 season get auto bits into the league and A division (If they return with at least 3 members of their team)
• If the league has more than 18 teams signing up then teams without auto bids will then participate in a "Trials" event priorto the start of the season to determine which teams get into the league.  (Trials will be the 1st 2 weeks of the season)
• If teams do not keep at least 3 players, each player gets 1/4 of their team points from the previous year in calculating the standings of the teams for calculating placement for next year.
• Trials format will be determined by the league committee and be based on the number of signups

League Season Format: 

• The season will be broken into 3 parts
• Trials (League Play-ins)
  • 2 Weeks Long
  • Any sheets not used for trials, will be assigned as practice to ther teams.
  • NO Subs are allowed during the trials.  Only rostered players can play during the trials.
• Full Round Robin
  • 12 Games + 1 Bye Weeks
  • Each team will play every other team
• End of Season Tournament (2026)
  • Higher seed will get hammer choice
  • Still finalizing details for end of season tournament, will probably be 3 weeks with different tiers of teams playing in different tournaments

Game Length:

• Games will be 8 ends (No time limit)
• Games tied after 8 ends will result in an extra end

Subsitute Players:

• To be eligible to sub you need to have at least 1 year of experience
• Subs must play at or below the throwing order position of the player they are subbing for.  
  • The Official Throwing order position will be what is posted on the CCC Web Site.
  • Skips can can request that the throwing order be updated
  • NOTE: This rule only applies to subs.  Teams are allowed to change throwing order and roles among their rostered team
• Roster and Throwing order cannot be updated after week 3 of the Division Round Robin
• Subs can be any member in good standing (Full Time, Junior or Social)
• Once per season a team can use a sub who is not a CCC member
  • Use this rule within the Spirit of Curling

5th Member Details: 

• Adding a 5th member to your team comes with some benifits for the team, but does come with some limitations on the 5th.  Teams can add a 5th member or change their order up till week 3 of the Division round robin part of the season.
• Teams can update their 5th no more than twice per season
• Teams cannot ask to have a 5th added to their team on League night, i.e. no requests to add a 5th on Wednesday's.
• A 5th is only offiically the 5th on the team if they appear on the website, so the skip must request the League Committee to update their online rooster.
  • • You can request a changed up to 3 times per year - see throwing order updates
    • You can request a change upto 4 weeks before the last spring round robin game.

  Team Benifits:

• The 5th is not a sub, they are part of the team, so the team can re-arrange their team how they like when playing with their 5th member.
• The rule for a team using their auto bid into next season, requires the members returning.  The  5th is a member so does count in that calculation.
• 5ths can play during the Trials
• 5ths can play during the playoffs
• Lastly and most obviously they team does not have to find a sub

  Player Limitations:

• Team leagues have a limit of 2 rostered Wednesday players per team.  A 5th is considered a rostered member.
• HOWEVER, 5th's are free to sub on other teams, just like any other player.

Timing

 Only used if timers are available. If no timers are available, please play as if you were playing on the clock.

Rules for timing are modeled on World Curling Federation, The Rules of Curling.
Reference: https://worldcurling.org/rules/

1. Each team shall receive 30 minutes of thinking time for an 8-end game. The time is recorded
   and visible to teams throughout the game
2. When an extra end is required, the game clocks are reset to give each team 4 minutes and 30
   seconds of thinking time for each extra end.
3. Neither team’s clock will run between ends.
4. The first game clock to start in each end will be that of the team delivering the second stone.
5. Once all of the criteria below are met, the non-delivering team becomes the delivering team,
   and that team’s game clock is started:
   1. All stones have come to rest or have crossed the back line.
   2. Stones that are displaced due to violations by the deliver team and require repositioning are returned to their positions prior to the violation.
   3. The playing area has been relinquished to the other team, the person in charge of the house has moved behind the back line, and the deliverer and sweepers have moved to the sides of the sheet.
6. A team’s game clock stops once the stone has reached the tee line at the delivery end.
7. A team delivers stones only when its game clock is running or scheduled to be running.
8. If stones need to be repositioned due to a violation caused by an external force, both game
9. clocks are stopped.
10. No clock is running when measurements are taken if a measurement is needed.
11. Each team must complete its part of a game within the time given or forfeit the game. If fewer than 8 ends have been played, the game ends and teams relinquish the sheet to the next draw. If a stone reaches the tee line at the delivery end before time expires, the stone is considered delivered in time.
12. A team whose clock has run due to a time error should motion to the timer to take a time out (i.e., stop all clocks) and will have double the agreed error time added back to its clock.
13. A team whose clock did not run due to a timing error will not have time deducted from its time clock, but the appropriate amount of time will be added to the other team’s clock (if the other team’s clock was running). All interactions between league members and other league members and between league members and timers should be in accordance with Columbus Curling Club's policies.

Tie Breaker Procedure

Divide Up teams into A and B Divisions:

1. Record in League
2. Two teams tied
   1. Head to Head Result
   2. LSD
3. More than 2 Teams Tied
   1. Record of just the tied teams against each other
   2. If some teams are placed, but others are still tied.  Restart from the top of the tiebreaker decisions with the remaining teams.
   3. LSD
4. Record against 1st Place Team (if not for 1st place)
5. Record against 2nd Place Team (if not for 2nd place)
6. Coin Flip (random)

Final Ranking and Results:

1. Overall Record in League
2. Two teams tied
   1. 1st Place, or 6th Place
      1. Tie Breaker Game
      2. * Only used to determine overall winner or final place to skip trials next season.
      3. ** If multiple teams are tied, a tie breaker similar to the Division Split tie breaker will be used to get the tie down to 2 teams.
   2. Any other place 
      1. Head to Head Result
      2. LSD
      3. Record agaist 1st Place Team
      4. Record against 2nd place Team
      5. Coin flip
3. More than 2 Teams Tied
   1. Record of just the tied teams against each other
   2. If some teams are placed, but others are still tied.  Restart from the top of the tiebreaker decisions with the remaining teams
   3. LSD
   4. Record against 1st Place Team (if not for 1st place)
   5. Record against 2nd Place Team (if not for 2nd place
   6. Coin Flip