Many of you reading this article have played golf, perhaps even more of you have played the card game of cribbage, and some of you have played the game of curling. And, in case you’re wondering, I mention all three of these together to highlight a point.
In the game of golf, the mark of a truly perfect shot would be a hole-in-one. For all the hundreds, probably thousands, of games of cribbage you may have played, there’s always the almost unattainable goal of the perfect hand – a “29”. And in the game of curling, there’s the elusive holy grail, that of the quintessential perfect end – an “8-ender”.
An 8-ender is described as an extremely rare feat in which one team scores with all eight of their rocks in a single end, essentially earning a perfect score by having every stone count.
A hole-in-one in golf is difficult, with about 1/12,500 odds that you may score one. If you’re playing cribbage, hoping for that almost untouchable 29, your odds are 1/216,580. No wonder there are so few. And curling, too, earns its place in this list of 3 most difficult feats in these common games. The likelihood of scoring an 8-ender is 1/120,000. There are relatively few 8-enders achieved across Canada each year, given the thousands of games played. In fact, so rare are 8-enders that many curlers have never even seen one, let alone been on a team that has scored one.
If you’d been watching curling on the evening of Wednesday, December 10th, 2025, at the Gibsons Curling Club, you’d have witnessed one of those rare 8-enders. History was made at the Gibsons Curling Club. The team of Ken Johnson, William Baker, Rob Nunn and Deb Nunn managed the feat in the 6th end of their game during the Wednesday Night Mixed League. Knowing that the glory of an 8-ender was in his hands, Skip Ken Johnson had to settle his nerves for the last shot of the end. “When I saw that last yellow stone, I knew it was all or nothing,” Johnson recalls. “The pressure was intense, but I trusted my team.” By the time the rocks had settled, they had their historic 8-ender.
It’s good manners not to mention who gave up the 8-ender; that’s a badge no curler wants to wear for the rest of their curling career. I can assure you they were watching helplessly with equal interest as that last shot slid down the ice.
The Gibsons Curling Club will celebrate its 50th anniversary in January 2026, marking five decades of sport, community, and camaraderie. In recent years, the club has experienced renewed growth, welcoming many new players through its popular Learn to Curl program.
If you’ve never seen curling up close and personal, you’re more than welcome to drop into the Gibsons Curling Club to have a look, and maybe even sign up for a Beginners League and instruction.
Maybe you have an 8-ender in your future.
-Ed Hill