Why would you want to blank an end in curling?

Teams can opt to blank an end in order to retain the hammer for the next one

There was a moment of confusion in the curling match between Team GB and Canada in the Winter Olympics on Monday, as the Canadians passed up the opportunity to score a point by intentionally missing the ring with the final shot of the end.

But why would you want to blank an end in curling?

With the score at 1-1 and the ring wide open in the fourth, the Canada team decided to blank the end in order to retain the hammer, which is the term for the team with the last-stone advantage.

Since it was a close game, Canada perhaps wanted to retain their advantage for an end in which they had an opportunity to score multiple points.

This is because the scoring team must give up the hammer for the next end.

As it turned out, that opportunity presented itself in the following end, as Canada were able to score three points with their final stone as they already had two rocks in the ring.

They didn’t have the opportunity to do so in the previous one, so it was a sensible decision to wait for a better scoring chance.

Of course, had it been the final end in the match, Canada would have just taken the point to win the match.