Infos zu St

Amsterdam 2005 was St Kilians first outing in Euro GAA competition for this year. Quite an achievement considering how many old reliables were unable to travel. There was a quiet determination among the ‘elders’ of the party to ensure that we’d make the most of the occasion.

This year's tournament saw St Kilians present a strong panel of players number from all corners of Ireland. On the day there were nine Würzburg affiliated players togging out. They were:

Our 11 a side amalgamation team was completed with members of the Groningen, Holland team:

Alex and Owen left Würzburg at 15:15, well stocked up for the 6 hour raod trip ahead. Sean and Lyndon were meant to join us in Aschaffenburg but had to cry off late due work commitments. Sean followed us up north in the train while the salsa dancing Trinidad langer managed to get himself sentenced by work to Malaga for the next four weeks!

At 10pm in the hotel we grouped with Sean, Tadgh and the five players he’d brought with him from Schwaben land. Good vibe about as we struck off with three taxi for ‘Aran’-city centre pub where the draw for the following days competition was to take place. A ten minute journey took thirty as the drivers brought us to every Irish pub except the correct one an tried to charge us accordingly! Eventually we bailed out into O’Reillies got proper directions to Aran and had to leave 6 players behind. By some break in the space-time continuum they managed the get a round ordered and served while we were getting directions. They said they’d follow us on…we met them again at breakfast next morning!

Sean, Owen and Alex eventually although enthusiastically enter upstairs in the Aran. Small and cliquey crowd, that had all their wagons in tight circles. Only ones that were friendly to us were a crowd of liberal Catalyians men and women who were there for a weekend of drugs and who were ‘totally cool with gay men play gay Irish sports’! We eventually cornered one small dark little maneen with an Amsterdam GAA polo shirt who kept avoiding eye contact. After we blatently removed his important looking Match Day program from his bulging hip pockets he was forced to talk to us – eye contact was still a problem though! Cagey enough with any information – much less a ‘welcome and thanks for travelling 500 kms to get here lads’. As a sign of goodwill we gave him back his precious program and he promptly left muttering something about needing it as inspiration to write a killer speech for the post banquet celebration tomorrow night. Turned out ‘mister congeniality’ is the Amsterdam chairman – yeehaw!

Eventually one of the Dam’s female footballers broke rank, let her guard down and became somewhat civil. She shows us our playing schedule for the following day and told us be there at 10:30am next morning. She then re-joined her female wagon circle – transpired her schedule had nothing to do with the actual one that was posted the next day…

Seeing as there was nothing more to be gained in the Aran, we went back to the original pub to join up with de boyz. No sign of them of course, but Sean’s designer Galway T-Shirt got the attention of two female jackeens – Niamh and Aoife. They’d been on holidays already here four days, were fed up and couldn’t wait to fly back tomorrow! They’d met very few here and those that they had were just a little too weird –‘I under stand the point dat you are making’. To cheer themselves up they’d ring their busking friend in the Temple Bar, tell him not to speak and delight in the background noise! Seeing as they were the best looking and friendliest people we’d met all night we bonded. We ended up back in a sultry pub beneath their hostel. Upstairs they were sharing a room and shower with 22 other people – all of them male.. it’s how they do things in Holland apparently! Early Saturday we left them, but not before Niamh (think Pacino’s description of Ashley Judd in ‘Heat’! ) promised to compose a St Kilian’s anthem soon. Its inaugural performance will be by sweet singing Aoife ( think of Costner describing Rene Ruso in his hockey/golf movie!). We’re waiting in anticipation ladies……..

Saturday: Dutch Autobahns, Games, Water Rationing, Clostrophobia and referees

A bit of hectic ringing around to various hotel rooms, with subsequent promises or threats and all 9 St Kilian’s players were on the move to the Amstel Rugby ground. Despite one ‘close’ incident on the Autobahn we arrived on time. Because of a shortage of paper there were no signs to dressing rooms, registration area or pitches but finally we got togged and hooked up with our ‘pleased to meet you today for the first time’ Groningen team-mates. After a quick warm up followed by d’unbelievable team talk we lined up ready for a day’s football.

Going back over the years our Achilles Heel in all of these previous tournaments has being having to play the stronger teams for the first games while we are still trying to find our feet. This was a game of two 8 minute halves…unfortunately both of them were owned by the superior Hague team. Owen got dead legged which put an end to his running for the day. It was the first competitive game for many of the native Dutch players were getting their teeth sharpened rather painfully. Barry and Micheal found their form early while the lack of hard game practise was evident with goalie Sebastian.

Having to play the eventual competition winner’s was always going be difficult and we did well to even get this close! Sean and Gerry slowly began playing themselves into the games and Garry was a real find with guile and strength between the posts.

Things were beginning to cook! Great goals from Tom and Ronan meant that we should always have had an upper hand in this game. Andy from Glasgow was getting a feel for the hussle and bussle required in competition. They never gave up putting pressure on us and but for trojan work by all backs including Tadgh and Alex the game could have swung very quickly against us. In the end a draw was a fair result

In certain accounts of the weekend’s events this game may be recorded as a one point loss for the St Kilians outfit. However this is my report and I say we won by a point! The referee managed to give three penalties against our boy Tadgh – in a game that lasted only 16 minutes..? Plus after a boozy Saturday together night we’ve something on the referee so he#s going to back up our account of the final score.

We at least went out with a bang. Stellar performance by Alex, Andy and Sebastian show that they’ll make it in Euro GAA competition anywhere. While the old reliables Tadgh, Sean and Barry meant that this game was never in doubt. Well done to all who took part over the whole– it was a worth while learning experience.

Would like to write about this match but, unfortunately there was never on the schedule and there wasn’t an attempt to organise one on the day. A pity really as it adds to the variety and entertainment value of the day. Apologises Alex ……….maybe in the Hague.

It must have been in sympathy with all those people who are in desperate need of healthy clean water that was an inspiration to the ‘water girls’ of the Dam. Normally at these competitions in Munich, Luxembourg, Paris etc you pay 30 Euros. For this you get a midday snack, a ticket for the evening banquet and the team gets supplied with water for the day – it was close to 25 Deg C and we played 80 minutes of football. So at midday when when we went to collect another crate of water we were told we’d had our allotment and that the three remaining crates were for somebody else. Lovely! We given some of our bottles to opposing teams who needed them after games. The ‘water girl’ didn’t want to know – she sent us off to fill up our empty bottles in the mens’ changing room 200 meters away. It was locked so..in to the women’s rooms we’d to go to fill up! Anyways we returned three hours later to still find the three full crate there sitting in the glorious sun. I’m sure they are in the hold of a ship making their way to the Gulf of Mexico as I write

As usual the day’s finale is the meal together. Venue was in the centre of town and the food was excellent. There were probably too many there for the size of the room. Some tables couldn’t see one another at all, which was a shame really as it adds to the occasion. Owner of the restaurant was able to keep a smiley face on her while letting us know that the air wasn’t circulating in the room and there was nothing she could do about it!! People kept leaving the room just to get fresh air from the street outside and returning after five minutes. Once everybody had eaten people started drifting toward either the awards ceremony pub ‘St James Gate’ or their own favourite local. A bit of an anti climax really but, we were hoping that the ceremony presentation would tie the evening together.

The ceremony pub was too small for the crowds that thronged to it with the result that most people were outside. For those lucky enough to get a place within, they were subjected to the Dam manager talk into a poor microphone system. Medal were presented – London and Paris were the days victors and basically I couldn’t understand a word that was said, but nobody seemed to care too much. All done and dusted at this stage.

www.stkilians.de Würzburg St. Kilians e.V.: www.stkilians.de

Owen McGuire ( Trainer ): Kalle Seifert

1.Vorsitzender ( Deutsches Kontakt )

Tel: + 49 (0) 931 359 0688 Tel: + 49 (0) 933 390 3167

Email: owen.mcguire@stkilians.de Email: kalle.seifert@freenet.de