Eight-ender

Curling

Final stone placement when Kelly Scott scored an eight-ender against Cathy King at the 2006 Player's Championship

An eight-ender, also called a snowman, is a perfect score within a single end of curling. In an end, both sides throw eight rocks, and in an eight-ender, all eight rocks from one team score points.

Eight-enders are extremely rare in competitive curling and are analogous to a perfect game in baseball or a perfect game in bowling (300). Eight-enders are so rare that the Canadian Curling Association has an eight-ender award to recognize any eight-ender scored in Canada. In 2007 Asham Curling Supplies awarded an $8000 prize randomly to one of the 145 teams that registered an eight-ender in the 2005–06 curling season.

The eight-ender in team curling is analogous to the six-ender in mixed doubles curling, as there is a total of six rocks in play per team instead of eight.

In 1993, the team of Kim Gellard, Corie Beveridge, Lisa Savage, and Sandy Graham recorded two consecutive eight-enders.

Perhaps the most famous eight-ender occurred at the 2006 Players' Championships in Calgary, Alberta on April 15, 2006. The tournament was the final Grand Slam event in the 2005-06 Grand Slam of Curling and had a CAD$100,000 purse – one of the largest in women's curling.

The match between Kelly Scott, who at the time was the reigning Canadian women's champion and went on to become a world champion, and Cathy King a former world bronze medalist. In the 6th end of their match, King and her rink played rather poorly, while Scott and her rink capitalized on King's mistakes. King ricocheted her final stone out the side of a crowded house, leaving Scott a draw for 8. Although her shot was heavy, Scott's rock came to a stop eighteen inches from the back of the house, enough to score her eighth point.