Splitting the Rings

Early in the first end, Scotland split the rings against Canada, with rocks at equal depth on either side of the 12'. Ordinarily, that layout would force Canada to take one if it persisted through the end. But I leaned over to Alan and said I didn't think it would last long. Sure as shootin', Mead doubled off two Scotland rocks, which led to a series of hits-and-sticks and a blank of the end by Canada. Splitting the rings just isn't nearly so powerful a strategy when there are top curlers who can double a lot of combinations in the rings if the rocks get too close to each other