Obar Dheathain 2023.
The European Curling Championships take a less usual form this year. Group B is being played in Perth, Scotland, and Group A a hundred miles away in Aberdeen. Traditionally, the two groups are played together, making forty-six teams, so it is a large, attractive tournament. The added effect is usually a larger number of spectators in the main arena's stands, as players from the lower performance classes come there for inspiration. So this year, direct inspiration is out. The Czech teams moved from Prague on Thursday to Scotland's third largest city, situated between the rivers Don and Dee on the North Sea coast. Obar Dheathain means Aberdeen in Gaelic. Friday's programme included the usual pre-tournament training session in addition to the online team meeting, where teams can try out the sets of stones they will be playing with and test the quality of the ice on all five lanes. The women were given the opportunity in the afternoon, while the men practiced in the evening. The ice, designed by a collective of icemakers led by Scotsman Mark Callen, looks good. Nearly five feet is the spin parameter on both sides of the lanes (swing) and the ice speed is between 13.8 and 15 seconds. The somewhat cramped facilities, especially the space behind the lanes, undersized seating for coaches and other members of the implementation team, narrow passage corridors and other space constraints are the toll of putting the championship in a sports club venue rather than an ice rink. Both Czech teams are staying at the Village Urban Resorts hotel, which deserves its name for its location. A cluster of office buildings looking empty, vast car parks with nothing but the wind whipping through them, one small shop with a limited range of fast food and in between it all a four-storey hotel with a swimming pool, saunas, gym and a nice Mexican woman at the reception. The resort, on the very edge of a city of 200,000 that was bustling with social and business activity before the pandemic, is the temporary home of hundreds of curlers who will play in the European championships on Saturday morning. First up is the women's round (Czech women against Swedes), followed by the men against opponents from the same country.
rnphoto credit: Village Urban Resorts Hotel