Ban the broom, part II: Curling's season of sweeping discontent gets a sequel

It's happening again.

For the second time this season, the controversy swirling around broom heads used in the sport of curling has leapt to flame and this time it's over the use of hair.

There are voices out there that say hair ought to be banned. In curling's season of sweeping scandal, some competitors are unhappy with how some others are using these broom heads.

A new video has surfaced on Facebook, put there by members of Team Minera Skifer (skipped by Markus Hoiberg), a Norwegian curling team. The video shows three similar draw shots being taken, brushed in different ways, including twice with new brush heads made of hair.

The video is the source of some contention - you can see that just by perusing the comments underneath it on Team Minera Skifer's Facebook page - as it appears to show rocks being manipulated in ways we'd seen earlier in the season, when this whole broom head thing got started.

Asked to look at the video, two anonymous elite level curlers informed me that, in their opinion, the video was a believable if not perfect illustration of what new hair brooms can do, giving teams the ability to steer a rock much more deliberately than the usual pad brooms.

One of those players wrote that broom heads made of hair "should be banned."

(UPDATE: After this column was posted, another curler wrote to say that the video seemed not to be an accurate depiction of the generally seen effect hair brooms can have on a rock and that the results in it seemed extreme. Still, they said, new hair brooms do alter a stone's line more than accepted synthetic pads. They went on to say that they expected hair broom heads to be banned soon)

That's a little ironic considering that after the first round of the sport's 'broomhaha,' where so-called "directional fabrics" were seen to be affecting rocks in ways never seen before, one of the compromises agreed upon was that hair brooms could be used, along with broom heads that employed fabric that had previously been on the market - fabric that is less aggressive than what some teams had started to use over the last two seasons.

It's important to note that the general opinion seems to be that new broom heads made of hair can be super effective in rock manipulation at first brush but that they become much less effective after they've been used for as little as a few ends. There's also an assertion that brooms with hair heads can slow rocks down if used in a certain way.

There have been accusations that one elite level team had even taken to clipping the hair on their used brooms to make them perform like new again.

At last month's Alberta Scotties, a disagreement over the use of hair brooms and how they were being employed led to some major strain between a couple of competing teams, although no rules were ultimately found to be broken.

It's in that kind of disagreement where you find the grey area that is causing friction between players at events all over the world. While the World Curling Federation (WCF) imposed a moratorium on the new directional fabrics earlier this season (after a group of top players had already called for a cessation) - and Curling Canada followed suit - broom heads made of hair are not forbidden. For some players, that means they're fair game. Use 'em if ya got 'em. However you want. For others, there lingers a bad taste in their mouths as they claim the kind of rock manipulation new hair brooms and directional fabric allow are just plain bad for the game and that they shouldn't be used even without clear rules being broken.

As was the case last fall, the discussions - at times quite heated - centre around just how far technology should be allowed to go in the game of curling.

Bad blood and claims of cheating. Teams accused of hiding advances in technology for their own competitive gain. Curling Canada and the WCF criticized for 'sleeping on the job.' Manufacturers fighting among themselves. Maybe that's great theatre to some but to many more, it's just a headache that the sport can do without. Now, though, after last autumn's initial broom bonfire was at least dampened a little, curling gets another incendiary flash of controversy.

While technological advances are continual in all sports, not many have seen the essence of the game so quickly and acutely affected as has curling, with recent broom head revelations. Those changes have been understandably disorienting and have plunged the sport into a period of deep discussion about the essence of the game. Even if those discussions can be maddening, they are equally essential.

There will be fully crafted regulations in force by the time the 2016-17 season comes around. Of that there is really no doubt. Players, guardians and manufacturers really have no choice but to come to some sort of agreement on what constitutes a legal broom and legal sweeping technique.

Until then, get ready for another mid-season moratorium, if the WCF decides that hair ain't fair.