Easter Tour 2008 – « Bad Kreauznagh »
Friday 22 March
The tour started with a long drive through some heavy snow both in Switzerland and in Germany. We arrived at around 19:00 and it wasn’t long before the beers were flowing. This was followed by some pizzas in town and a visit to the local Irish pub for a few more drinks. A good night and a good start to the tour.
Saturday 23 March
Our first game on Saturday was scheduled for 11:40 against local club side Kreuznacher HC. This match proved to be a lot closer than anticipated with numerous missed chances from both teams. The only goal of the game came when Scottish defender Gordon Ramsay, in a remarkable display of athleticism, sprinted the entire length of the field in support of isolated striker Grégoire Conne who found Ramsay at the top of the circle and he fired home a rocket "drag-push" past the goal keepers left foot to give the visitors the lead and ultimately the victory. The celebration from Gordon which followed the goal left a lot to be desired though! The result was a good start to the hockey but unfortunately we lost a key player up front in an unfortunate accident in which a ball was deflected into the face of striker Mark Northcott who fell to the floor clutching his nice in pain. It was initially thought that a sniper from the crowd had actually shot our team mate based on his reaction but on closer inspection it was found that he had suffered only a broken nose and some swelling and was even able to make another appearance in the last game of the tour. Charismatic skipper Patrick Montalbetti was left to mop up the blood with his hands!
The second game of the day, again played in very cold conditions, was against the other local side, VFL Bad Kreuznach. The less said about this game, however, the better. After a good start to the game with two early goals, one from new signing out of Africa, Stuart McDade and another well worked goal finished off by David Imhof, we didn’t really have much to cheer about for the remainder of the game as the errors continued to creep in for a painful last 40 minutes. We struggled to find any momentum and some careless mistakes in defence provided the home side with many good goalscoring opportunities which fortunately they failed to take and in the end we escaped with a very lucky 2-1 victory to continue our winning ways.
Saturday night’s party in the clubhouse proved to be another entertaining evening as we were treated to some rather impressive break-dancing from David Imhof and some particularly unimpressive dancing from McDade and Ramsay. Once again the beers were a main feature of the evening but when the shirts started coming off we realised it was time to call it a night and make our way up to the bedrooms.
Sunday 24 March
Due to the heavy downfall of snow the previous night, Easter Sunday greeted us with a snow-covered field, resulting in our 9:20 game being called off (much to the relief of a number of our rather hung-over players!) and so the morning was spent resting and sleeping off the Saturday night antics. By the afternoon the games were back on course and we had a 16:30 encounter with HC Speyer. Once again, the match started well for us when right midfielder Ynte Vermeulen went on a skillful solo run which he finished off with a powerful reverse stick shot to give us the early lead. Another two goals, one from David Imhof and one from Grégoire Conne took us into a comfortable 3-0 position. We then seemed to lose concentration for a while and let our opponents back into the game as they pulled two goals back before our local German recruitment player (replacing the injured Mark Northcott) put two more well taken goals in the net with the final score ending 5-3 to Servette after HC Speyer got a late third goal.
Sunday night provided further enjoyment and entertainment as the teams made their way to the Castle for the evening’s festivities which was filled with beer, dancing and various other "social activities" until the early hours of the morning. Based on the following day’s hockey performance, some might say these festivities were slightly over-celebrated but that is a matter of opinion!
Monday 25 March
Monday morning was our last game of the tour, this time against TV Alzey. With the headaches still pounding and the stomachs feeling somewhat fragile, the team reluctantly made its way down to the field to face the cold for the last time. In hindsite however, we were probably better off staying in our beds as the performance failed to impress. We were two goals down before some of our players had even touched the ball. We continued to deteriorate and struggled to keep the ball for any period of time as the goals kept rolling in for TV Alzey. The only offering for Servette came from Stuart McDade who finished off a solo run from the restart with a reverse stick shot to give us a glimmer of hope. But it remained merely a glimmer as the goals were fired past our new goalkeeper David Imhof. The match ended 8-1 in favour of TV Alzey to break our unbeaten run. All that was left for the tour was a painful seven hour journey home through more heavy snow and traffic that made it feel even longer.
All-in-all, it was a weekend of some indifferent hockey, a lot of laughs and fun and a useful way to get rid of that "pre-season rust".
Stuart McDade
