News 2005

April 29, 2005:
Ice Cup: Roadmakers sweeping hard!

Icelandic roadmakers are more than just roadmakers! Since early 2004 a group of employees from the Public Road Administration in Akureyri has been curling regularly - and sweeping hard. First they formed one team but curling is an infectious deacese and now they have two teams.

The first roadmakers came to the ice early 2004. They had no difficulty in finding a name for their team; Kústarnir – which means The Brooms.

After having been playing Valley Ball for a year they realized that it was a much too dangerous and much to common sport for them and it would be difficult to get to the front row of that sport in Iceland. They discussed this in their coffee break and tried hard to find the most lame sport they could think of. In the end there were two sports; curling or synchronized swimming. All things considered it came down to that the equipment for synchronized swimming would be too expensive so they chose curling. It didn’t take many sessions for them to make them curling-crazy and the most enthusiastic have not missed many practices since they started.

Kústarnir started their curling career very elegantly by winning in the newcomers spiel in March 2004. Since then they have been going up and down but their top was when they finished second in the Icelandic Championship this year. The curlers are (from left:): Pálmi Þorsteinsson, Ólafur Hreinsson, Gunnar Haukur Jóhannesson, Kristján Þorkelsson and Kristinn Eiríkur Bóasson.

The word of curling and their achievements on the ice quickly made the headlines in the cofferoom at the PRA in Akureyri. Regularly new employees from PRA came to the ice and from November 2004 it was inevitable to form the second team of roadmakers. Sauðir (sheeps) made it straight to the semi-finals in Akureyri Cup 2004. They have also been going up and down like Kústarnir but just recently they got bronze in Marjo’s memorial where they scored six in the second end of the bronze game. The team mates are (from left): Kristján Bjarnason, Sigurður Jónsson, Jón Már Snorrason and Hafdís Eygló Jónsdóttir. And sometimes Rúnar Steingrímsson is also there but he is the only team mate that is not an employee of PRA.