Official Scoring at The Scott Tournament of Hearts, 2006:Are There Differential Margins for Error?

The official scorers for the 2006 Scott, the people who assign the points and shooting percentages for each shot made by each curler, are seated in the top (3rd) row of tables in the media section at one end of the ice.

Within the section set aside for the media, the top row is probably the best vantage point. But it still isn't very good. It is very difficult to see the shots and the house at the far end of the ice. When there's a shot being made down at the far end, and that shot isn't being shown on the overhead screen, the scorer responsible for scoring the shot has to stand up and then make a judgement to the best of his or her ability. But there is probably a reasonably wide margin of error.

Now try to imagine assessing a player's performance using those scoring statistics. The teams and the analysts would be well-advised to attach less importance and less weight to the scores for shots at the far end of the ice.

We'll have more about player assessment, scouting, and data analysis later...