CC SAVONA has been organizing since 1992 the annual international curling tournament SAVONA CUP which has already become a fixture in the calendar of the World Curling Federation (WCF), as well as among the events in such curling powers as Switzerland, England, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, and also in Austria and Russia. A regular contestant in the tournament is the international team MARGARITA, consisting mainly of English and Swiss curlers. Infrequent participants are curling teams from USA, Canada and Belarus. Leading Czech curling teams appear regularly.
Thanks to sponsors, it has been possible since 1995 to present valuable prizes to all competing teams, mostly Bohemian crystal glass creations, as well as minor prizes propagating the Czech Republic.
It is already customary that this international event draws TV crews and radio reporters; so far, they have been making only news shots from playing days but negotiations are in progress on a larger report for a special sports program.
The tournament is covered by both the national and foreign press which especially appreciates its friendly atmosphere and generally the informal approach.
The first edition of the SAVONA CUP (1991) was a purely domestic event. The winners were:
The second edition was an event of a higher order, contested also by 14 foreign teams which, as expected, predominated in the overall placings:
The order on the first three places in the third edition was:
The results of the fourth edition were a surprise, and a gratifying surprise at that: two Czech teams were in the final group of the first eight teams. They were the BCC-D team of David Šik (national 1994/95 champion who won the closely contested final) and the national junior champions - CC SAVONA 2 (who placed sixth overall).
In the fifth edition (1995), the tournament was renamed SAVONA CRYSTAL STONE CHALLENGE CUP '96, according to the new challenge trophy - a curling stone replica of crystal glass.
The biggest surprise was the excellent second place of the junior team CC SAVONA 2, national junior champions.
In the sixth edition of the tournament, junior teams were triumphant. The top Swiss junior team won the event, closely followed by Czech juniors.
The seventh edition confirmed the qualitative rise of Czech curling and brought a tremendous success to Czech teams, four of which placed among the top six, after the winners CC MARGARITA which team included two Czech women - national champions. The bronze medal was won by the national junior champions CC SAVONA 3. Only the high pre-tournament favourites, A. Flotron's Swiss team (only 4th overall) succeeded to disrupt the Czech hegemony.
In the eight edition, curlers from the U.S.A. and Canada and one team from Italy appeared for the first time in the tournament. Medals were won only by foreign teams, among which deservedly, also for the first time, were Russian curlers. Again, two Czech female curlers competed for the silver medallists.
The greatest surprise of the ninth edition of the event was the Danish team CC Tarnby (with three women) which in the closing stages exhibited a marked increase in playing quality and stamina, and defeated the Swiss team to which it lost in the qualification group. The Hamburg team, a regular contestant in our tournament, achieved its best result so far - second place. The best among the Czech teams were national champions CC ARITMA - fifth overall. Two Czech girls appeared among the bronze medallists on the team of the German skip Beck.
The tenth edition (2001) was completely dominated by young curlers, including also CC SAVONA (Czech champions /2/ and junior champions /3/). The tournament proved a marked improvement of Italian curlers. For the first time, a curler from Scotland appeared at the event. Against a competition of 14 foreign and 10 Czech teams, young Swiss curlers had no worthy opponents. (In another line-up, a Swiss team won the tournament already in 1997).
The twelfth tournament, which was held at the old ZS HASA hall, was dominated by foreign teams. After a very tense final game, the crystal stone for the winner went to Switzerland. The best Czech teams just failed to make a podium finish - the CC ARITMA men's team finished fourth and the CC SAVONA "I" women's team finished fifth. It was the first time our tournament was attended by a curling team from Andorra and we also saw the first official Slovak curling team - CC BRATISLAVA.
The thirteenth tournament had several firsts. It was the first curling tournament in the Czech Republic after it entered the EU. It was the first international tournament at the new, wheelchair-access curling hall in Roztyly. It was the first time 32 teams competed, including 8 Czech teams and 24 from abroad, with Switzerland having the most (5), including last year's winners, CC SCHABERNACK "1" led by skip Y. Hess. It was the first chance in Prague to see curlers from 14 European and American countries and spectators could also see the national men's and women's teams from Hungary, the men's team from Latvia and the junior women's team from Russia. In general it can be said that this year's tournament had the highest standard it has ever had, which makes the success of our young players all the more pleasing.
After very competitive games in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds, where strategy and tactics dominated over headless attacking, in the end (and this is certainly another first) and for the first time in the thirteen years of our tournament, it was won by a Czech team, a team from the organising curling club, the SAVONA "P" junior team (skip Petr ©ulc, other players A. Samueliová, J. Samueli and K. Urbanová, alternating player K. Uher and guest J. Snítil). Last year's winner (see above) came third. Danish clubs and, surprisingly, a team from Germany played to a high standard. Very good performances ensured that another Czech team (mix) - CC KOLIBRIS (skip. D. ©ik) finished well. One of the biggest pleasant surprises is the way the Latvians played; in the end they finished ninth, which is very good for them given the competition.
32 teams again competed in the fourteenth tournament, which again showed that it is the largest curling tournament in the Czech Republic. There were again 8 Czech and 24 foreign teams. From the viewpoint of national teams, it was the strongest tournament in history (Italians, Finns [junior team], Latvians, Hungarians, Poles, Spanish, etc.). Last year's winners from CC SAVONA led by skip P. ©ulc also took part.
After a "slow start", the Italian team CC CORTINA, most of whose curlers have played for the national team, won convincingly. It was followed by young Swiss teams. The best Czech team - SAVONA "2" - led by skip V. Nekovařík finished in a very good 4th position. A mixed group of Hungarian national team players (2 + 2) did surprisingly well in the competition thanks to their high standard of concentration (seventh overall).
The jubilee 15th year of the tournament was contested for the third time with 32 teams. However, the interest shown in the competition again exceeded the possibilities we current have available to us. 22 teams from ten European countries were this time joined by 4 teams from our own club and another five Czech teams. There was one international team, not CC MARGARITA as is usually the case, but his time ("in an emergency") a "partnership" consisting of CC CORTINA (S. Ferronato - skip), CC SAVONA (V. Nekovařík (3), M. David (2), K. Uher (1)), and CC KOLIBRIS (R. Boháč (1)), which was given the additional name of "CZITA"! This team, with its fully attack-minded and demanding curling, clearly outplayed all its rivals and won with plenty to spare. Not even the efforts of the young curlers of the Swiss teams CC SCHABERNACK "I", "III", and "II" (skip C. Stutz), the players of CC BASEL (skip A. Harder), or the best-placed Czech team, the "family" team of RSC ZBRASLAV (skip R. Klíma), were enough for victory, neither were those of the Spanish team (CC JAGGERS MADRID - skip de Mollinedo Gonzáles) or the team of CC BIEL (skip M. Vögtli), which finished eighth. The best-placed team from our club was the ladies team SAVONA "H", i.e. a team of current Czech internationals with Hanka Synáčková as skip. Only SAVONA "JIN" with Ivana Danielisová as skip also finished within the top 16, an overall fourteenth. The skip of the winning team dedicated victory to the late father of his team-mate from the Italian national team, who was unable to take part in our tournament because of the funeral.
Stefano FERRONATO from Italy played together with three czech guys (P. Král. K. Uher a R. Boháč) - in the team "CC CORTINA + CZ MIX" - and he earned deserved victory once again, this time already 16th year of the tournament. The real final when it comes to the quality was the second last match where team Ferronato was fighting against junior team SAVONA "4". This match won Stefano 6:4. There was a couple of nice surprises, one of them was the performance of the junior team SAVONA "4" (third place in total but they won over the second team from Hungary), another one was the really good performance (just with the exception for the final match) of the national women´s team from Hungary (second place in total) and we shouldnt forget about the fouth place of the slovak team which was playing with their canadian coach. There were again 32 team in the tournament but we had to deny another six teams because of the capacity.
We believe we will succeed to make an even better tournament next year and we hope for the help of both big and small sponzors. We would as well apreciate if there was more czech elite teams (especially men´s ones) signing up for our tournament.
After last year´s hungarian surprise in top three made it team of Gyorgy Nagy even better this year. His team from Wallis SC „M“ ran though the tournament as the winner – especially due to a great strategy supported by wonderfull shots of the skip. They won our tournament first time ever after beating the mixed team (Ireland, Switzerland and Denmark) of Adrian Meikle in the finals. The third place got young and focused team od V. Stenberg from Sweden. The best czech team (made only of czech players) was CC SAVONA „5“, (skip J. Suppik) placed 14th out of 32 participants – but they couldnt be satisfied with it. Team number seven of the final ranking was skipped by the player of CC Savona K. Pilařová but she was playing with international players. Fourth stop belongs to our old friend M. Klauenbösch from Switzerland.
The winner of 18th year was the team made up of very good players, participants ECC (A. de Mollinedo - ESP) and WCC (M. Robillard /CAN-GER/) and players of CC SAVONA PRAHA 1990 who also participated at the WCC (K. Pilařová, L. Kitzbergerová) or WJCC ( S. Frederiksen). A nice surprise was the second place of a young austrian team (skip M. Schlagerl) - they were playing with one girl - third/ viceskip. They were playing well untill they reached the finals, where they obviously were the stronger team (2:11). We can point as the realy finals the semifinale Savona 4 (skip M. Voju‘) – International Mix which was decided by the last stone. Guys were playing all the tournament well and we dont consider their fifth place as unsuccessfull. Especially when we consider they tied (6:6) with the fourth team in the competition Wallis „M“ CC, skipped by the WMDCC 2009 runner up G. Nagy and they beat the second team in the competition (7:6) and team of a very good (though sick) skip Pascal Hess (8:6).
Other czech teams got 14th position (Prague „MIX“ – skip Zuzka Hájková) and 16th place. (CC Demion - skip V. Cízl). We dont consider 17th place of the mixed team Savona 5 as a success.
There were again 32 teams playing the 19th edition ot the tournament including three previous winner from past years. The finals was played by teams skipped by Yves Hess and György Nagy and it was a very close and exiting game. The – Swiss team Schabernack (Z. Hess) winner won 4:3. Other top places earned mainny young players (PRAGUE „MIX“ /R. Boháč/, TRAUN „I“ /M. Schagerl/ and SAVONA „4“ /M. Vojtu‘ - fourth/. The difference between third and fourth place was only one rock! Great impression was left by junior girls SAVONA „M“ (M. Strnadová), the team ended eighth in total after beating f.e. team PRAGUE „MIX“ (5:1). As usual not the best performance showed team SAVONA „5“ (21th place), mixing players like crazy!
We believe with a help of sponzors we can arrange for the next 22nd edition of Savona cup appearance of some of the best europeans teams and to maintain the high level of our tournament. We would apprecite if we got more entries from best czech male teams too.