Kathy Bentley — Chess on ice in Guilderland

Curling, says Kathy Bentley, is like playing chess on ice.

The ancient Scottish game is not just about technique and precision, but also about strategy.

Bentley ought to know. Two years ago, she was a United States Women’s Curling Association Senior champion along with teammates Marilyn Goldstein, Martha Naber, and Wendy Berger. The four women had been curling together for 15 years.

They competed on their home ice, which longtime Albany Curling Club member Melvin Abelseth has called the best-kept secret in Guilderland.

Their clubhouse, with two ice sheets and a “warm room” — where spectators can relax and watch the competition — is located on McKown Road. 

The club was founded in 1955 with 16 members and now has about 150.

There are four players on each team — eight players in a game — and their goal is to slide 43-pound granite rocks as close as they can to the center of a series of rings, which looks rather like a bull’s eye, 140 feet away.

Once a little-known sport, curling’s popularity increased after it became an Olympic sport in 1998.

Bentley was drawn to the sport when she went to an open house at the McKown Road facility. “Myself and my son just absolutely fell in love with it,” Bentley says in this week’s Enterprise podcast.

One of the things she loves about the game is the camaraderie it inspires. Her club frequently holds weekend-long bonspiels — from the Dutch for good games. The curlers visit other clubs for bonspiels and connect with their competitors.

“After the game, the two teams, eight people total, will sit together and socialize,” says Bentley. “The winner buys the loser a drink.”

The six-month season runs from October through the end of March although some clubs play year-round, she said.

Sometimes, in upstate New York, winters can “seem a little long,” said Bentley. But, with curling she said, she looks forward to the season. “Every winter,” Bentley said, “gives me a lot of socialization activity.”

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