Dear Member,
As you will have heard, the 2026 European Veteran Team Championships were supposed to be in Madrid but have now been moved to Cognac. I am writing now to give you a little more background on this.
After a few months of slightly nervous concern, we very recently received confirmation that Madrid were unable to deliver this event for us. It was an unfortunate confluence of circumstances but, sadly, beyond our control. Our Spanish colleagues did propose an alternative at Santander but on deeper examination we were not confident that infrastructure necessary for this event was readily available. The issue then became who might have the capacity and support to deliver such a large event at such short notice – not something that many of our member countries are able to do. The first offer came from France with Paris and Cognac as options. Italy and Poland also both indicated that they could deliver for us – this show of support was much appreciated!
Following an intense period of discussions and meeting by Benoit Pincemaille we had to discard the Paris option and settle on Cognac. I won’t bore you all with the details of dealing with local bureaucracy! As you know, we have recently been in Cognac and they delivered a very successful event – that infrastructure still remains along with a great many people who will revisit the roles they played in 2019. As a result of the shortness of time, budget considerations have been a key point of discussion as there is not time to seek and secure corporate sponsors who plan much longer term, it has therefore been necessary to increase the entry fee from 400 to 450 Euros. We are confident that Cognac will deliver a very professional and enjoyable championships even if we may not have all the extra bells and whistles that we have come to expect.
I want to thank Benoit for dropping everything to focus on getting this sorted in a matter of two or three weeks and Bruno Royer for jumping in without hesitation. I look forward to seeing you all in Cognac in May.
Regards,
Caryl Oliver – President