For Würzburg St Kilians the first week of April 2004 was really high octane kick start to the 2004 GAA sporting season!

From the previous year we'd lost our club co-founder JP McSherry, the musical man Mike 'Pockets' Hacketts and the flag maker Kerstin Sprott - but we'd nothing to do but soldier on.

Outlined below is an account of the four days that deal with our participation in the Paris EuroLeague tournament 2004.

We had our AGM in the, as ever, highly charged atmosphere of the Warsteiner Drücker. Much was discussed and listed here are the main talking points:

• Owen McGuire remained on unchallenged as Chairman of the Board. He afforded hisself and young McSherry gracious praise for the 2003 achievements ( MacGowan, three tournaments ( Luxembourg, Munich, the Hague ), training new members, responsible for procuring film that won 30th Wurzburg International Film Fest ) and has raised the bar yet higher for the upcoming season.
• The new Team Manager is now Clemens Gruenwald from Schleswick-Holstein will try to maintain the high standard set by the outgoing JP - a very formidable task.
• Former East Berliner Ulf assumes the post of Treasurer and has vowed to tighten the belt in this money haemorrhaging organisation.
• Aimee Waha remains on as Secretary, with Kalle Siefert accepting a position the will mean more responsibility for him in the image the club will be projecting through the various media forms.
• Niall Twomey ( from Cork bhoy ) continues with his role as Hurling Officer.
• Trevor Bradna from Chicago will be the main interface for all tournaments ( Paris, Lux, Munich, Amsterdam, Hague ) that we hope to attend during this upcoming 12 months.

As is usual for St Kilians team we see a lot of travelling from individual players who participate in the weekend. JP flew in from Tipp on Thursday, Niall from Baghdad the previous Thursday fortnight while Trevor drove the few miles from Schweinfurt. Dan Houser from San Diego also joined us and we were delighted to be introducing yet another unsuspecting soul to what is Euro GAA madness-weekend! After negotiating about numerous tractors the four reached Lohr am Main, collected Owen, sat in Trevor's 'dickes BMW' and faced east for the 700Km journey to the French capital.

It started to get interesting around Strasbourg when Niall started a conversation with " I've a little announcement to make about myself that ye are not going to believe.." Trevor's eyes immediately rolled up toward the French skies as he suspected what may be coming and realised that he'd drawn the room assignment with de Languor for two whole nights!

A pregnant pause from Niall before he dropped the bombshell......." I'm going steady, and am off de market bhoiy, loive loike!"

That resulted in an exhalation breath of relief from Trevor ( and a collective one of total disbelief from the rest of us who were familiar with the 'Langer' in his former 2003 GAA guise ! )

Eventually we reached out hotel in the middle of Paris China-town, it took an hour longer than anticipated as road works, French sign posting and one way streets all seemed to contrive against us. Once we got the rooms squared away it was off out to enjoy the Paris nightlife for an hour or two - could possibly have been longer but a Coke costing 8 € and a beer 9€!!

At 2:00 am in the morning we were awoken by the rest of our team from Dusseldorf. Due to Aer France problems they'd been booted off their 20:00 flight and were instead driven to Paris - only a five hour difference! Paul Donegan ( Kildare ), Julian Clark ( Sydney ), Lorcan Duffy ( Monaghan ), Shane O Meara ( Toomeveara ) & Shane Teehan ( Terenure ) were in good form & nobody was throwing a Roy-the-Boy Keane-type organisational wobbler. Everybody would have about six hours sleep before breakfast and the upcoming day of football.

Paul Donegan ( Kildare ), Shane Teehan ( Terenure ), Julian Clark ( Sydney ), Lorcan Duffy ( Monaghan ), Martin O Neill ( Doonbeg ), Dan Houser ( San Diego ), JP McSherry ( Borrisoleigh )

Stephen Martin ( Naas ),Shane O Meara ( Toomeveara ), Trevor Bradna (Chicago), Niall Twomey ( Ballincollig ), Owen McGuire ( Ennistymon )

The games were to be 16 minutes each ( no problem! ) with each team having 11 player ( Houston we have a problem! ). Thankfully we were able to persuade two Zurich Hurlers Martin O Neill from Doonbeg and Stephen Martin from Naas to play with us for the whole day.

We are very thankful for Martin's and Stephen's great efforts and hope that four of us (Niall, Shane, Shane, Owen ) playing in the hurling game of Zurich versus rest of Europe helped repay the debt a little.

Why do we seem to have consistently drawn these Munich mulikers as the first game for the past 50 tournaments?! While we were still trying to figure out one another names and skill level this fairly consistent team has settled into a rhythm and banged in a few undeserved handy goals. The game was effectively over by half time and the fact that we out-scored them in the second half counts 'fuer nichts'

An all German encounter - sort of! We'd Chicagoans, San Diegoians and Aussies in our stripe while Bremen at one stage had close to eight different nationalities on the pitch!! Mad stuff really, but we always seemed to just about have the upper hand during this match, despite the close shaves at the end. Niall was solid throughout as were Paul and Julian.

We grabbed something to eat after the first two games. It was a relaxing break in the French sun until Feargal 'everybody's best friend from Munich' decided to enlighten us as a group regarding his oral conquests both here on the mainland and back home. Frightfully interesting to hisself I'm sure, but one was left with the impression that the only real blowing ever done was that of his own melodic Donegal accent! Good night to you Josephine!

Slowly we were gaining a team formation and a little understanding of one another. JP had worked his way well into the tournament as the day went on and was our go-to guy in the forward. Lorcan also found his shooting boots picking off tasty scores in this game. Even though we led through out we couldn't but this team away and the scored in the last play of the game to share the spoils. All the weariness of the previous day's travel was slowly beginning to show in players legs.

The most famous Dub coach of the Eighties, "Heffo", is accorded the statement "Better a good big 'un than a good little 'un", was vindicated in this game when our big midfielder Paul sustained a shoulder injury that ruled him out for the rest of the tournament. Credit to the Gaels as they were the best team and deserved to win their own competition outright. Our highlights were that Trevor had found the form that made him such an exciting newcomer last year and JP was stepping up to the plate when responsibility was required in the forwards. Dan also had the ball in the Paris net but the referee disallowed it deeming that it had been handpassed.

A very sporting game considered we'd already played over an hour of fairly intense hour of all action football. As in the Amsterdam game we led all the way through, thanks in part to a fantastic goal from Niall and the efforts of both Shanes. However Paul's dominating absence at midfield coupled with fatigued legs and knees meant that we couldn't resist the wave after wave of Catalonian pressure and also let this game slip at the final whistle.

Niall, Shane & Shane, Stephan, Martin and Owen all played in this 40 minute game of exhibition hurling. Much credit to the team from Zurich for a deserved victory. But what was most impressive were the 8 native Swiss players who displayed that they can rumble with the best of us!! Their striking while running, soloing, tackling and general position play belied the fact that these lads only formed a team two years ago! They'd hold their heads up high and acquit themselves honourably in any hurling training session or game on native Irish soil. Sincere Kudos to Gabriel, Martin and Co!

Despite fatigue, French restaurant seating arrangements, traffic congestion at every roundabout, clueless Taxi Drivers most Kilians / Düsseldorf players ( apart from my war-weary self ! ) managed to go the long haul until 6:00 am at Sullivan's in the centre of downtown Paris nightlife. All acquitted themselves in the manner that was expected and no own goals were scored.

With Trevor at the wheel the 6 hour journey went well. All expressways were relatively clear - probably because 80 % of French drivers were all in Paris, beeping horns in traffic frustration as they tried to get to bread shops to buy baguettes that their girlfriends/wives could phallically caress for the remainder of the day. Amazing how clichés tend to be proven true!!

Luxembourg at the end of May is the next action packed date in our diary. Bis dann, Owen.

The near-possessed Langer's 60 metres run before burying the leather into the Barcelona net.

"I'm not doing that again! Loive" De Langer, after his Barcelona goal as he walked leisurely back to his full back position

"You're gud you! You're gud you" Trevor, JP, Robert de Niro.

"Lads, I might as well get it outodaway first loike, ye're not going to believe it but I'm............going steady"

'"Ha bit of lettice and ha bit of tomata is great to relieve da bit of sexual tension" JP

Baguettes,

The size of Paris!

Crazy French driving & the traffic jams on every French roundabout even at 3:00am!

Internet Romances............ ( MacGowan Laugh! )

Trevor's bad-ass finger stories. ( MacGowan Laugh! )

Road-trips.

Baguettes.

Map carrying French Taxi Drivers.

Air France, French traffic rules, French drivers.

8 Euros for a glass of Coke. Finding French hotels.

Any and all types of Sausage Parties!