And the return of The Pants

The Swiss ski town of Grindelwald is a magical place, a vacationer’s winter paradise. It’s also newly enhanced with the return of a famous curling tournament.

The 35th Bull Trophy took place last weekend. The name of the event comes from the tournament’s former top prize, which was four large bulls.

As in cows. Cattle. Bovines.

Organizers no longer hand out live animals for prizes, but a prize bull still makes the trek down the hills to the Sportzentrum’s Curlinghalle for the trophy presentation and photo op.

That’s Team Yannick Schwaller on the podium’s top spot. Italy’s youthful Giacomo Calli placed second, with team coach Diana Gaspari (remember her surprise European bronze in 2006?) playing lead. Switzerland’s young Yves Stocker finished third.

If you’re wondering how the heck the bull-as-a-prize thing worked, teams could (and mostly did) decline to take the bulls home, and a live auction would be held among local area farmers, who would start gathering in the arena during the final. The champions thus went home with cash from the auction.

This year’s edition boasted 24 teams from seven nations, and followed 2022’s resumption with 16 teams. The previous event was held back in 2008, meaning 13 years had passed since the event dropped off the curling calendar. Increased competition from a growing World Curling Tour Europe (also known as the Curling Champions Tour) coupled with domestic conflicts, such as the Swiss Gold League, were generally blamed for its demise.

Or perhaps the event just needed some new administrative blood. Enter Germany’s two-time European champion skip and well-known international curling coach Sebastian Stock, who now manages the Grindelwald sports centre.

“I used to play in the Bull Trophy as a junior,” said Stock. “There used to be 64 teams. It had a big history and was very popular.

“Now we have an exciting mix of legends, current top teams and also the stars of tomorrow, and it’s all in a spectacular setting.”

Indeed, it’s fun to see past names like Ewan MacDonald of Scotland and Christoph Schwaller, Martin Romang and Stefan Karnusian of Switzerland back on the ice.

Even Ralph Stoeckli was there. Great guy with a great story. A former world junior champ, Ralph won silver at the 2003 world men’s, then captured a European title (2006), and finally won an Olympic medal (bronze) at Vancouver 2010. 

Then … see ya! He promptly retired from the sport, and became a bigwig for Switzerland’s overall Olympic program.

But the guys many players and fans wanted to see were from Norway’s Team Ulsrud, who reunited for their first tournament since the tragic passing of their leader Thomas Ulsrud last May. 

Torger Nergård, Christoffer Svae and Håvard Vad Petersson all competed and were joined by former team members Thomas Due and Johan Hostmaelingen. 

And yes, they wore The Pants.

I remember playing in one Bull Trophy, in 1998. After winning Canada’s Olympic Trials we were out of our provincial Tankard playdowns and looking for events to play in to keep sharp. We created our own event—a four-team one-off with our rival Ed Werenich, Wayne Middaugh and Peter Steski teams—but we needed something else. The Bull Trophy in faraway Grindelwald beckoned.

It was interesting and fun. The town, as previously mentioned, is gorgeous.

The ice conditions were decent enough. In those days the hacks weren’t set into the ice, rather they were mounted onto a piece of wood which folded upwards. This raised hack contraption meant our second Collin Mitchell had to adjust his delivery on big-weight takeouts.

I’d occasionally catch the other teams staring at us. The Olympics were just a couple of weeks away and very few international teams knew anything about us. We hung around with the Scots, like Peter and David Smith, David Hay and Warwick Smith. Top blokes, as many veterans know.

The dinner parties were excellent, with local hotels providing the courses. It looks like this year’s party was a good one, and that’s no surprise.

Other international teams in 2023 came from Germany and the Czech Republic. Silvana Trinzoni’s world women’s champions were among the Swiss teams.

“It’s a good example showing that curling is one big family,” said second Carole Howald. “The Bull Trophy is a legendary tournament, so it’s fantastic that the great players from the past are back together on the ice.”

“What’s great is that many of the former players still vacation here today,” said Stock. “Next year we’re aiming for 32 teams. You guys should come, too.”

Congrats to Stocky and his organizing committee, and to the teams—old and new—that helped bring the Bull Trophy back to life.