Eight women's teams, eight men's teams, representing nations from Scotland across to Turkiye - the European Men's and Women's Team Championships 2024. The hosts Poland were represented in both events, which brought with it a heightened atmosphere and noise level from the home supporters.
The event was held in the city of Łódź (pronounced Wudj - thanks to one of the northern umpires for the language guidance!), about an hour and a half from Warsaw. Sadly, the scheduling meant I didn't see a lot of the city, other than a walk back from the arena one evening.
We were 16 umpires in total, six of us being there for BE appraisal. The group stages took place over the first three days and while some of the ties were fairly one- side, there were a few fairly even ones, the highlight of which for me was umpiring the deciding match in the tie between Czechia (extra brain power needed to remember what the Czech Republic now call themselves) and Poland, which ended 21-19 in the third end.
Scotland's women and England's men both qualified for their respective semi finals, but sadly that was as far as their journey went, although both put in a decent performance.
For me and the other five candidates, there was the small matter of the written test on semi finals morning. I was rooming with one of the other candidates and we developed a bit of a seige mentality and pushed each other with ever more unlikely practice questions.
Fortunately, it was good news for me in passing both the written paper and the appraisal - big shout out to the people back home who gave me guidance and support beforehand - you know who you are :-)
The journey home had the potential to be 'interesting'with less than an hour to change planes in Schipol, but fortunately we landed early, despite the pilot starting the landing sequence, deciding he didn't like the look of something and going back round for another try, which meant it was a leisurely stroll to the gate for the Leeds flight, rather than a mad dash!
Getting ready for the next one now...