It's a pleasure.
I don't know how many times I've been to the Bern Curling Hall. It takes less than eight hours by car to get here from Prague. Usually at the end of January, there is a ladies curling tournament of the highest level. Big names such as skip Colleen Jones, Jennifer Jones, Sylvana Tirinzoni, Alina Patz, Kelly Scott and many others have made their mark with their teams. Upon arrival, we are greeted at the door by smiling icemaker Stefan Roetlisberger, a seasoned scout who, with his assistant, safely handles all the potential tricky bits on the eight lanes that are about to fill up with players from nine countries. The whole programme starts with a pre-tournament training session, where we find that everything works wonderfully. The ice is clean, the skating is fast and the spinning is regular. The teams and their coaches - and there are several European coaching legends (A. Schwaller, S. Gran, S. Stock, N. Murdoch, and others) check the properties of the ice and the stones. The first games start at 6pm tonight. Our first opponent is the Swiss team Jaggi. We have known each other for many years. The team has gone through many changes and for this year has joined forces with the experienced Irene Schori. We go into the last end one down with no advantage and the last draw for a wide open corner guard is not enough for an extra end. Result 2 : 4 and two games on the line tomorrow. We are looking forward to it, after all, that's why we came here, to play against the best European and Asian teams.
rnPhoto: eight lanes prepared, stones lined up and hacks ready