Team Murdoch invited to demonstration event in Russia

A shopping mall in St Petersburgh, Russia, will be the venue for a demonstration international curling event, July 25-27. New curling sponsor Adamant, a large property management and development company, is behind the promotional event in association with the World Curling Tour-Europe.

The tournament will be held in one of Adamant's shopping centres on a permanent ice surface therein. Photos of what it is like are here.

Participating teams will be skipped by Murdoch, Brad Gushue, Paal Trulsen, Thomas Ulsrud and Andi Kapp, as well as local teams.

This is a demonstration event only, so no Tour points will be awarded. The organisers have planned for several four-end games. Some social events, sightseeing and media events have been organized for the players.

WCT-e Director Armin Harder tells Curling Today that Adamant has signed a long term contract with the European Tour that will see a yearly WCT-e tournament in Russia beginning in season 2009-10.

Murdoch, who is a WCT-e players' representative, will take his team, the current European Champions and runners-up at the World Championship at Grand Forks: Graeme Connal, Peter Smith and Euan Byers. He says, "We are all looking forward to playing in St Petersburg. It's probably a once in a lifetime chance to play in such a historic city. The ice could be interesting thoough, being in a shopping centre and it being the end of July!"

The provisional dates of other WCT-e competitions this coming season are now available on the WCT-e website.

Elsewhere on the Curling in Russia site (here) there is an extensive photo gallery of curling in that country.

Team Murdoch at Grand Forks by Hugh Stewart. L-R: David Murdoch, Graeme Connal, Peter Smith, Euan Byers.