The Hammer

[excelsior-1]

just tuned (temporarily) into the ice curling on BBC2

the commentator, while waffling, referred to a team 'having the hammer'

what does he mean?

[bibblebub]

going second, so that they deliver the last stone of the end

[excelsior-1]

thank you, bibblebub

[bibblebub]

There is the slight complication to the tactics that if there are no scoring stones left then the teams play in the same order for the following end, so the team going second can decide that, rather than only scoring 1, they will knock all the stones out of scoring positions and thus use the next end as another go at scoring more than 1 point.