15.06.2014 | Marek Kratochvíl

Close-up on the hosting towns

This year’s tournament will take place in Pardubice and Halvickuv Brod. Both of these towns have a rich history which is also well conected with all kinds of sports. Find out what is important about the towns and what does the softball situation there look like.

 
 
 

Pardubice

Pardubice is one of fourteen regional capital cities in the Czech Republic with about 90 thousands inhabitants. It’s located in the Eastern Bohemia and it’s well known for great sport achievements as well as for the famous pumpernickel bread. The hockey club from Pardubice started careers of such legends as Dominik Hasek, Milan Hejduk or Ales Hemsky. There is also the well-known Great Pardubice Steeplechase held in this town and a speedway race called Golden Helmet.

Thanks to the modern multifunctional arena, the town hosted some great events in past as Inline Hockey World Championships or Ice Hockey World Juniors‘ Championships. The CEZ Arena is a home to local basketball club as well.

Havlickuv Brod

Havlickuv Brod is a smaller town in a region called Vysocina close to the borders between Bohemia and Moravia. It also lies near the highway between two biggest cities Prague and Brno which makes it well accessible.

The town itself was founded long time ago in the 13th century and it was important for its silver mines.It has approximately 25 thousands of citizens and it was renamed after this famous journalist and the 19th century writer Karel Havlicek Borovsky. Former name was Nemecky Brod or Deutschbrod (German Ford) and it was changed after World War II to current Havlickuv Brod. Its historic square is a protected urban zone.

There is a brewery called Rebel in the town which gave name also to the local ice hockey club – HC Rebel Havlickuv Brod. Besides them and the softball club Hippos, there is also a floorball club Erupting Dragons and internationally successfull aerobic club SRC Fanatic Havlickuv Brod.

Softball

The Hippos Havlickuv Brod is a club established in 1990 and it belongs among the most successfull Czech teams in recent years. They have lots of talented youngsters and now even their men are reaching for success – they play a top tier league in the country, the Extraliga. Last season they won the CSA Cup and finished fourth in Extraliga. In their squad you could find four current Czech national team players – Karel Kadecka, Tomas Jelinek, Jaroslav Müller and Pavel Just. The Danish pitcher Kim Hansen also wore the Hippos jersey. They play in Hippos Arena since 2006 which is one of the best ball parks in the Czech Republic and it will host the European Championship again after four years.

Softball and Pardubice goes along since 1984. Local Pasos are a stable second division team since 2007, but their youngster are quite regularly collecting successfull results in domestic competitions. Pardubice is one of the main softball towns in Eastern Bohemia alongside with Havlickuv Brod. The home of Pasos is called Krtkova arena and it’s a modern and cozy ball park, which also host some significant slow-pitch tournaments.

 
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