Something for last.
The women's final was taken care of by the teams of Italy and Switzerland. The thrilling duel was decided by a hit and roll by Switzerland's Alina Pätz, which pushed the Italian's perfectly placed stone to a position a few centimetres worse than the one thrown, or rather rolled. Curling advertisement. The men's final duel brought together the stalwarts of world curling, skips Mouata (Scotland) and Edina (Sweden). A tactically and technically advanced match resulted in an extra end where the Scottish skip had enough room, about six feet, for the winning draw, which the McMillan and Lammy throwers began to celebrate even before the stone reached its place. They just knew. A series of superbly played stones, accurately judged, brilliantly swept, well thought out. A real highlight of the championship. It wasn't until the men's final that the audience was decently occupied, by then parts of the prefabricated stands were empty and of the few dozen spectators, including two paying Czechs, half were participants or volunteers. Hosting the European Championships in a curling club brought some problematic moments. The width of the lanes was on the edge of the rules, specifically at the lowest permissible limit (4.750 mm, quite exceptionally 4.420 mm). The circles have a diameter of 3.658 mm. Fifty-four centimetres between the edge of the circle and the "side line" was definitely not. This means that, for example, a stone placed completely on the edge of the circles cannot be dealt with by clearing outside-in, because the moving stone will touch the side line before the standing stone. The dimensions of the course, together with the walkways fitted with wooden slats, have on several occasions caused unsolvable situations when returning stones to their original positions after their position was affected by a stone returning to play after hitting a boundary. The centre line was at least two centimetres wide, which is half as wide as the rules say. Seemingly unimportant, but nevertheless playing a role in the application of the no-tick rule. No one is questioning the resignation to rule R5(e) anymore. No electronic handrails or hog-line umpires. And the players and players know it. For the implementation teams, there was a freezing backroom where it was impossible to stay seated for the necessary nearly three hours without beanies, hoods, electric blankets or multiple layers of clothing. Minor adjustments to the operating rules caused by technical circumstances sometimes made no sense. For example, during an opponent's time-out, it was possible for the other team to talk to their coach, which was fine. But unlike the opponent's coach, who can start talking to his team before the moment his timeout starts, the other coach is not allowed to do this and has to wait? Still, we must sincerely thank the organisers for the work they have done. They did their best. Fitting Europe's top Olympic medal sporting event into the club's space was a truly superhuman task.
rnThe Czech teams achieved a total of four wins from a total of eighteen matches played. They managed to beat the Germans, Estonians, Turks and Swedes. Both national teams confirmed their position at the bottom of the elite field, which is more of a stagnation than an upward trend. European curling has shifted a bit again, and the Czechs and women are fighting tooth and nail to maintain their previously won positions. The men will still be able to compete at world level next March and hopefully they will do well. So good luck and good game to them.
rnphoto: Bruce Mouat, Skip Scots