The 2020 English National Championships, which start on 1 February in Dumfries, will be taking on a new format and will have special support from professional ice technician, Jamie Danbrook. Jamie, who has had a successful career as a player in Canada and as a WCF ice technician, will be working on the ice at Dumfries during the Championships to ensure best possible conditions for the athletes.
Jamie Danbrook | @WCF
ECA President, Andrew Reed, said about the appointment: “Ice conditions are a real leveler, so good ice will bring the best teams to the top and bring about a higher standard of games at the championships.”
“Jamie has become a popular ice maker since he was the chief ice technician at the 2019 World Qualification Event in Naseby. Unfortunately, what he thought would be a golf holiday in Scotland, has now become a work trip – but we are very grateful! Thanks to Jamie for his commitment to us and to the ECA Competitions Convener, Stuart Brand, who has been working hard to make the championships as professional as possible.”
This year, the ECA will be trialing a new format and are running all the Championship events back-to-back. This will start with the Mixed Doubles and Seniors 1-4 February and will be followed by the Men’s and Women’s events later in the week – 6-9 February.
ECA Competitions Convener, Stuart Brand, said about the new format: “The main driver for having the back to back weekends was a desire to improve the ice conditions at the Blue Riband ECA National Championships. The standard has been improving markedly over the past few years with the Men’s team reaching European A Division, the Women’s team challenging at the top of Division B and the Fowlers especially performing so well at the World Mixed Doubles.”
“Unfortunately for the past few seasons, the ice that the championships have been played on hasn’t matched the standard of play. This year, we are pleased to have Jamie Danbrook coming to Dumfries for 11 days, not only prepare the ice for the ECA competitions, but also to give tutorials and advice to the local ice technicians. Jamie has a wealth of ice making experience at multiple WCF events and will be coming straight from having worked on the ice at the Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne.”
Most people don’t realise how much work goes into arranging events like this, so Stuart has given us a little bit of insight into what it takes.
“Preparations for the championships begin pretty much as soon as the previous season ends! Ice rinks look to start confirming bookings during the summer, so the early summer involves making decisions about where and when competitions will be held. Generally, we don’t confirm number of entries to the championships until late summer, so not knowing the exact entries before making the ice bookings is one of the trickiest parts of the job!”
“Once the entries are in then the draws are made, and timings and ice requirements confirmed with the ice rinks. Umpires are also required to be arranged (and I plan in future years to also investigate the possibility of having timers and using playing time per team in some of the championships). It’s my first year as Competition Convener so I’m still learning all the little things – thanks to John Brown for reminding me a few weeks about organising medals for the winners!”
Spectators are more than welcome to the event and can view the action from the curling bar which overlooks the Ice Hall at the Dumfries Ice Bowl.
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