Apologises to the sisters, wives, girlfriends...............

Luxembourg Tournament 2003:

Football, to tout a well worn cliché, is a team game and to achieve a level of success against good opposition the team must perform as a unit with each individual participant contributing his part and having a sometimes intuitive understanding of all those playing with him. This lesson we, in St Kilians, learnt at the Luxembourg 2003 tournament.

Thanks to the help of the Luxembourg girls Deirdre Ennis and Aisling all the travel and accommodation pre-arrangements had been completed hassle free. Early Friday afternoon three of us - PRO JP McSherry (Borrisoleigh), War Veteran Niall Twomey (Ballincollig) and Owen McGuire (Ennistymon) - left Unterfrankenland for the five hour drive to Euro League Round 3. After an enjoyable journey we met up, for the first time, in the hotel with two other new team members Tadhg Kelly from Carlow and Niall 'Lolly' Lawlor from Portlaoise - both had travelled from Stuttgart to be a part of the squad. Two friendly and humour full individuals with an quiet undercurrent of determination, a good omen for the outing tomorrow. Being hungry from the long journey the three of us headed for a restaurant in town to get some vital vittles, while the two Schwaben heads make a direct beeline for the 'Black Stuff' pub, that was the focal point of the weekends activities ( did I previously mention something about a good omen !!). We agreed to meet up later in the aforementioned Tavern.

After eating and negotiating some of Luxembourg's unique pavements ( to get from one trendy pub laden area to another in the city centre one has to scale a mountain surrounded by forest!) we met up with Lolly and Tadhg. They had everything under control and were capably entertaining the young Eimilee from West London. All the teams for tomorrow began congregating there and the place was buzzing from 22:00 onwards. As we were short two players for the pre-requisite nine Lolly went 'on the scout' and unbelievably found a best friend, Noel McNulty, from down the street in Portlaoise! Noel the poor man was after driving nine hours ( or 540 minutes! ) with 'da French War Department' and his young son to visit his sister, who has been living in Luxembourg for a year. Despite looks of incredulity and with a lot of persuasion Noel acquiesced to tog on the morrow. Excellent, now we only needed one more. We'd the troops rounded up and were about to head home at 00:30 when in walked fellow team members Paul Larkin (Crossmaglen) and Tom Daly (Weatmeath ) who'd made a nine and five hour journey from Hamburg and Düsseldorf respectively. Tactics and strategic musing kept us from our pillows until 2:00 !

Luxembourg had members of their ladies football team assigned as "minders" to each visiting team. It was they who came to pick us up at the hotel the next morning. Then we came to the startling conclusion that every single Irish person living here is either an Erasmus student or an accountant working in a bank driving a €70K DC car and tanking up on petrol at €.75!! Tax haven heaven.

We had trouble finding a ninth member for our outfit and eventually after much coaxing decided to split any future points and amalgamate with the five member Rennes team from France. No sooner was the deal struck than big rugby player Pete from Manchester showed up eager for a game! Ahh well, at least the French gang would be getting a game after all their time spent travelling.

We lined out as best we could and tried to overcome pretty difficult language barriers. The first game against Amsterdam was very raw really from our side and the interplay wasn't there. We went down undeservedly by a point but, hopes were high that we'd pull together against a far travelled Barcelona team. We suffered a major set back when Paul had to go off with a dis-located shoulder. We soldiered on against a talented outfit and managed to claw within three points of them through points from Tom and a bullet of a goal from ( the MIA from family ) Noel. Unfortunately the Cataleans held onto this advantage until the hard fought end. With our backs to the wall and nothing but pride to play for in our last game against Luxembourg we put in our most stellar performance of the day. Billy was heroic in goal and none of the St Kilians lads were found lacking in determination or contribution. However it wasn't to be as Luxembourg ran out winners by three points despite an excellently taken goal by JP.

We stayed to watch the final where strong Luxembourg teams won out both the Ladies and Men's competition. Kudos to youz both!! That evening it was an uneventful meal in the hotel followed by a very eventful night again the Black Stuff - right Niall and Niall!! Noel was there was there to the bitter end, as was the long suffering sister - well it was the only way she was going to see him!!

At 12:00 on Sunday we set off back home, a little sorer and a lot the wiser. Stick with who you know and if we can get the same seven or eight St Kilians men supplemented by our own Jens, Kalle, Clemens, Lyndon, Mike, Ulf, Rudi, Jürgen and Bodhran Michael we'll definitely take some beating in Munich 2003!

Well done to all who helped make the weekend a memorable one.

Owen McGuire Chairman St Kilians Wuerzburg

Team Picture (to be added soon)