16 November 2024

The Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2024 are now underway, with the A-Division games being staged at the Kisakallio Sports Institute, near Lohja in Finland, and the B-Division competitions taking place in the Oestersund Curling Club in Sweden.

As well as being a championship on its own right, this event serves as the world championship qualification route for all European Member Associations.

After the first two sessions of women’s round-robin play, three teams – Italy, Sweden and Switzerland – share top spot, on two wins and no losses.

Defending champions Switzerland followed up their opening 4-2 win over Denmark by defeating Norway by 9-4. After their victory over Denmark, Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni said, “We missed a few easy shots but that’s a typical first game. You have to get to know the ice and will make small mistakes here and there. That was not the best-played game but it was well-managed.”

Sweden beat Scotland by 8-5 in their opener but they were then made to work for their second win of the day, over newly-promoted Hungary. The Hungarians scored four points in the third end with a draw to the eight-foot ring to take a 6-1 lead. After that, Sweden gradually brought themselves back into the game and won by 10-8 with three successive steals.

Earlier, Hungary had beaten Estonia by 10-6 and after that game, skip Kalocsai-van Dorp Vera said, “We felt pretty good coming into the championships. We knew that this was always going to be an important game. Being promoted from the B-Division last year, we knew that we’d have very tough opponents in the A-Division. Our goal was to get a couple of early wins, and I think that was a really good performance today.”

Italy beat Lithuania by 11-4 and then overcame Türkiye by 11-7 to give themselves a solid start.  Speaking after the win against Lithuania, Italy skip Stefania Constantini said, “We are really happy to be here. We’ve used this game to really find the feeling here and that was a solid game, so that will be good for us in the coming games.”

Elsewhere, it took all the way to a score of two in an extra end for Scotland to beat Denmark by 11-9 in the evening, while Estonia also recorded an evening win – by 10-7 over Lithuania. The Scots and Estonia now join Hungary and Norway on a won one, lost one record.

The A-Division men’s teams only had one game on opening day and champions Scotland started the defence of their title against Netherlands. 

With a score of three in the seventh end, the Dutch had managed to keep this game tight, with the Scots leading by only one point, at 6-5 after seven. However, Scottish skip Bruce Mouat then produced a hit-and-roll off one of his own stones, to score two points and take an 8-5 lead after eight ends. The Dutch then conceded in the tenth, to give Scotland an 8-6 win.

Olympic champions Sweden faced Czechia. In the ninth end, with the score level at 6-6, Sweden skip Niklas Edin was able to score three with his final draw, to take a 9-6 lead. The Czechs conceded after that to give the Swedes an opening 9-6 victory.  After this win, Niklas Edin said, “It felt a little strange out there. We weren’t too comfortable with the ice, the speed was different depending on which track you were throwing it on. We then got a big scare in the eighth end, and could have lost five there. It was small margins, but we played better in the middle of the game. So, overall, happy with the win.”

England, promoted from last year as B-Division winners, faced Italy. By the eighth end, Italy had built an 8-2 lead when England’s skip Rob Retchless was successful with a double take-out to score one and reduce the Italian lead to 8-3. However, after that, England conceded to give Italy an opening 8-3 victory.

After this win, Italy skip Joel Retornaz said, “It was a solid performance, it’s never easy with the first game – you’re not sure about the ice and you’re looking for confidence out there, but we’re satisfied.  We can definitely do better, but I’m quite happy with the way the team performed today. It’s a win that will count in the end.”

Austria, promoted as last year’s B-Division runners-up, faced Switzerland. In the sixth end, already holding a 4-1 lead, Switzerland’s fourth player Benoit Schwarz-van Berkel hit out and nudged Austrian stones at a fine angle, to score three more points and give his team a 7-1 lead. The Austrians conceded at this point.

The game between Germany and Norway was close all the way. In the tenth end, with Norway leading by 6-4, Germany skip Marc Muskatewitz had a chance to level the game, but his attempt at a very fine double take-out missed both targets completely, giving Norway a steal of two more points and an 8-4 win. 

During the opening ceremony before the men’s games, World Curling Board member David Sik inducted Finland’s Olli Rissanen into the World Curling Hall of Fame.

In the B-Division women’s games, Austria, Czechia, Germany, Latvia and Netherlands all opened with wins, while in the men’s competition, Hungary, Spain, Türkiye and Ukraine lead Group A, with one win each, and Ireland top Group B, on two wins.

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