Purpose
In order to ensure that no one has to miss an opportunity to play due to insufficient players on a team, we want to make sure that there are easy and fair guidelines around sparing. Under this policy, players will be required to “self-police” and not agree to spare in situations that create an unfair advantage.
Available Spares
Each league will have its own list of available spares for that league and session. This is made up of club members whose membership does not preclude them from sparing and who have indicated their willingness to spare in a particular league / session. Spares should be sought first from the league’s sparing list.
Declared Position
Each member will have a declared position per league, which should be the preferred position indicated when registering. If they have different preferred positions for different leagues, they should select a reasonable position for each league they are available to spare in, avoiding creating an unfair advantage. Declared positions may be subject to approval / adjustment by the league’s convenor.
Sparing
Whenever possible, when unable to play a game, the member should arrange for a spare to play for them. When sparing, any player may play up or down by one position from their declared position. A player with a declared position of Vice or Skip who plays down one position must throw lead stones, with the other members of the team delivering up a position. A skip playing down one position may still hold the broom for skip stones if desired. Pleased you have found a spare.
Note: In curling, the Lead is the lowest position and the Skip is the highest position. A Lead playing up would deliver the second's stones. As an example, a Second can spare down as a Lead, or spare up as a Vice. If either a Vice or Skip is sparing down a position, they must deliver Lead stones, but can still, if desired, hold the broom for the skip.
Number of Spares
A team must include at least 1 original team member in order to be considered a legal. If one or both teams have sufficient spares to play, but not to form a legal team, then the game is declared a default; see League Rules for Scoring Policy for recording games with a default. A league convenor may declare a different number of required players (including 0) to form a legal team.
