Grand Slam of Curling.
The eight matches of the prestigious Crown Royal Player's Championships - Grand Slam of Curling were broadcast by SPORTY TV, making all the fans of the half-millennium-old game, which over the years has been transformed into an Olympic sport - curling - very happy. The town of Steinbach in the province of Manitoba was home to the stars of Canadian curling, the women's teams of Homan, Einarson, the men's teams of Jacobs, Carruthers, McEwen and with them a host of European and Asian foursomes, many of whom are fine-tuning their form for the upcoming Olympics. While the men's superstructure was surprisingly devoid of Canadians, the women's competition saw the two top "home" teams face off in the semi-finals, making the participation of the Maple Leaf representatives a hundred percent certainty. It was refreshing to see the curling, which was watched by a mostly well-filled local hockey hall. Also taking turns as commentators were interesting personalities such as Jennifer Jones, Chelsey Carey, Brent Laing, and others. Most interesting, however, was the action on the ice. Excellent technical conditions in the form of fast and reasonably spinning ice allowed the players to rely on their own abilities and not on luck or chance. Some extraordinary moments were repeated in the TV broadcast and deserved to be edited, as "highlights", because they were often spectacular. In the women's section, the Swiss (Tirinzoni) confirmed their world dominance, giving the Canadian skip Kerri Einarson's team virtually no chance and staying one step ahead throughout the final match. In the men's event, the two young Scottish skip teams of Ross Whyte and Kyle Waddell were somewhat surprisingly pitted against each other. The Scottish names are a little confusing, so to put things in order it is better to present the line-up of the winning team, of which two players were named to the all-star team of the tournament. They are Ross Whyte, Robin Brydone, Craig Waddell and Euen Kyle. These Scottish youngsters showed great game awareness and technical and physical prowess and deservedly won. Let's hope that world curling will appear on TV screens more often than before and that we will also see Czech representatives at these top tournaments.
not Kyle Waddell in the photo, but the team's steady number two Duncan McFadzean.