Vienna Diary

<< Back to Vienna Homepage

27/3/2005

Easter in Vienna

From: David Egner

Before we tell you about today’s events we must update you about a funny happening last night. As we were good boys we were allowed out to watch Ireland v Israel in one of Vienna's many Irish bars, however as the match was soooooo boring, some of us left the pub at half time [19:45] to get the 10 minute tram ride back to our hotel. However, poor little David Eakins was in such a rush to get to his bed that he didn’t pay attention to the number of the tram and hopped on the first one. Twenty minutes later the tram came to a halt and the driver dismounted the tram for a fag. Eaks had a look and realized he was alone, all alone……..aw! Lucky for him the driver spoke a little English, and Eaks tried to describe to him the location of our hotel and where he just been, unfortunatey the tram driver had no idea of where David was describing. Not only that, he couldnt describe the area of the pub the area of the hotel of the tram stop where he mounted. So frantically David rang around his team mates in an effort to get himself out of a rather sticky situation. Luckily Wes was able to tell him the tram number Dave should have been on. So to cut a long story short David arrived home three trams later a little hot a flustered at 21:30, about 5 minutes after the lads who stayed to watch the whole match! Anyway, Easter Sunday 2005 began at 6:30 with a light jog and stretch before breakie. There was an alleged complaint made to management about ‘run-away knock’ on room 136 by ‘Our Leader’ Jason Black and his young paduan [refer to Star Wars] ‘Baby Face’ Conor Harte. Once again Donal didn’t join us as he was avoiding the breakfast queue. The Duck was in flying form this morning; however Johnta was sleepy as he’d had a difficult night trying to sleep. Breakfast came and went and once we had boarded the tournament bus [once again packed to the rafters, but Mervin Black was very chivalrous giving up his seat to Sinead Sweeney {our overworked physio}, while some women sat in two!?!] we set off on another adventurous route to the pitch. For some reason the driver seems to go a different way each day. Once on the pitch Sinead came to our rescue, changing the music coming from the loudspeaker from Robbie Williams ‘Swing when your winning’ to something a bit more lively, before we lost our minds! [They played Simply Red yesterday…..awful]. Anyway, the match didn’t go our way, result wise but we played good enough and created chances winning seven corners [see report ], so afterwards we headed to the dressing rooms for the post match warm down. After the 8 minute jog, feet up followed for another 8 minutes before the dreaded contrast showers began. For those of you who are oblivious to the specifics of these, you have a 30sec warm shower, 30 sec cold [very very cold!] then repeat 2 more times. The screaming from such people as Jason Black and John Hobbs could be heard a mile away, but Mark Black’s impression of a little girl wailing after losing her favorite doll takes the biscuit. We then proceeded to consume mounds of food and chatted to the supporters. While waiting for the bus we were delighted to cheer Collegians HC from Gibraltar on as they took on Olten HC from Switzerland. Much to everyone’s delight Collegians HC were awarded a stroke and as the ball hit the net the stadium [four terraces] erupted. It was a great boost to them as they had already conceded 22 goals at this stage in the tournament with no reply. Back in the hotel it was feet up / rest time, from 3 to 5 as Sinead was kept well busy with all the walking wounded [knocks and sore muscles]. A special tab has been set up between Richard Gash and Sinead due to his excessive need for attention. During rest time and before dinner, each member of today’s 16 had to endure the frigidity of the plunge pool [or ice showers]; however temperatures were raised by the presence of the RC Polo Ladies team also partaking in the same. In fact some players were quite willing to go another round, but unfortunately while in the sauna [in there for 4 minutes before the plunge pool] the ladies vacated the area to be replaced by some scantily clad Collegians wearing ‘spitzers’. Dinner passed smoothly, with a little help from Dave Harte’s story time. Apparently, when the twins [Dave and Conor] were young their mother dressed them up in Easter Bunny costumes on Easter Sunday………and for some reason Dave foolishly told us, and now it’s on the internet. The daily debriefing followed and all players remain in a positive frame of mind, setting us up for the big game tomorrow against the Royal Dragons from Belgium. Hopefully the technical staff at the stadium can bring a decent cd! Goodnights all…..were just sitting down to Black Adder and a few games of Fifa 2004 before bed.

26/3/2005

An early morning and a good victory

From: Richard Gash

After our team meetings last night we all headed to our beds to catch as much sleep as possible given our busy schedule. But, after an early night, any hopes of a nice leisurly lie in were quickly dashed when Stoney gave us our wake up call at 6.15 this morning. So we all met downstairs at 6.30 and set off for an early morning walk to loosen out the muscles that were a small bit tight after Fridays match. Sinead (Physio) led us in our stretches and we all felt fresh and ready to play our match against Collegians from Gibraltar. After breakfast, we had another team meeting where drill sargents Daler and Passmore gave us our orders of the day for todays match. So we packed our bags, borded our double decker bus and set out for the hockey pitch. We thought that playing at 10am would help us avoid the sweltering heat that we had yesterday, but we were wrong. It was a scorcher this morning and plenty of water was needed to ensure that we didnt get de-hydrated. The supporters once again arrived in their drones to cheer us on, and dispite most of them being up late due to attending operas and enjoying the "casual" drink among friends, they all managed to arrive on time. We also have had a Vienna based fan turn up to our matches. Former Harlequins player John Crowley saw on the Harlequins website that we were playing in Vienna and as he lives here now, decided to turn up and lend his support. The power of the Internet! He generously showed the Harlequins faithful the sites and the Vienna nightlife. Knowing that a win today against Collegians would all but put us in a crossover match with the other group that would be a promotion playoff, we started well and attacked from the go. Our early pressure saw ducksey win a stroke and Eakins overtake me as quins top scorer in Europe. Im not bitter.... You can read the match report to see how the rest of the match panned out. We won 9-0. Play of the day had to have been our swift counter attack from a broken down Collegians corner. The ball found its was quickly down the left and after a few swift movements, locky found himself at full pace near the half way line, I saw that there was a chance so I sprinted into the circle, I saw that Bugs (Dave Egner) was at my right, all I needed was lockey to see me. He did and gave an inch perfect pass, the crowd were on their feet, they knew what was going to happen, as the ball came closer, the crowd got louder, but just then a combination of me tripping over myself and jamming my stick on the ground saw me trip and fall to the ground like a scene from platoon. Wes told me later that the Collegian guys that were filming the match were shouting "Snipper, Snipper". Well done Richard! Give yourself a pad on the back... That aside, we all finished the match relatively injury free, had a quick feed and watched the remainder of the other match in our group, Olten (Swiss) v Kelburne (Scottish). Kelburne won 5-1. So we are all back in the hotel with our feet up injoying the company of our roomies. Pappa Daler has allowed us an extra treat tonight, we get to see Ireland and the legendary Keano (as people have put in their Player Profiles) beat Isreal. But once again its early to bed, as once again we have to be up at 6.15, this may sound bad, but it is in fact 5.15 as the clocks are going forward an hour. Great...

25/3/2005

Fridays Diary

From: David Eakins

We awoke this morning promptly at 8am – some players were more keen than others to make it down to reception to meet for a short jog and stretch – Locky was about to tuck into his breakfast until he remembered this. (strangely Donal did not join us for the jog as he decided to make up for some lost sleep due to Dalers snoring!). Once everyone was fed and watered we got ready for the match and headed to the grounds for our pre-match meeting. The game went our way (report)and we did a long warm down and had some nice food at the grounds. Afterwards, we watched some of the Dragons (BEL) v Mladost (CRO) game and had a chance to meet up with all of the Quins traveling faithful, many of whom were feeling the effects of the local beer the previous night. Dinner was had at the hotel after an afternoon of legs up and then to finish off the day we had our match debrief (which we nearly lost one troop due to Locky putting his head in the way of the lift door!)

24/3/2005

Thursdays Diary

From: Sean Nicholson & David Eakins

Wake up call this morning was at 8am (to the disapproval of some players!) with a buffet breakfast at 8:30am....I was a little cranky as I didn't sleep too well due to a bit of a head cold...walking the streets at 4:15am!! After some relaxing we headed to the pitch, sharing the bus with the Pegasus ladies. Our training session went well on the water based pitch, (although Ducks gave a bit of a moan that it was going on too long!) giving us an opportunity to test the surface before our first game tomorrow and run through a few short corners - the weather was a lot better than we expected so the shorts and tee-shirts were out! The Pegasus ladies are playing their tournament on the sand based pitch at the grounds and are not very impressed - it’s supposed to be like a beach with soccer line markings on it also! Once back to the hotel it was a case of getting some food and fluids at the local shop and putting the feet up for the afternoon.......laptops....playstations...tv and reading of books was about as much as anyone stretched themselves to for the afternoon. It’s going to be an early starting in the morning so after a team meeting later it will be bed for us...... To make the day even worse we were playing cards i.e. (the legends duck, fish, bugs, batman and Sean) with a sixty euro pot and Bugs managed to take the entire pot. At least that means one good thing it can’t get worse. This is Sean aka Goldylocks signing out looking forward to my breakfast roll (thank you Ann Marie).

23/3/2005

We arrive in Vienna

From: Richard Gash

An early start this morning saw all of us (well most of us) arrive at Cork Airport at 6am. At that stage I was just finishing his bowl of porridge, so I was only 5 minutes late, this being said, it was 35 minutes earlier than our captain, Jason, who had to be woken by Stoney at about 6.10am. Jason still claims that he was on the airport roundabout at that time and was caught behind a very slow tractor trailer (that must have been going in reverse). Likely Story! Have a look at the photos from day 1 and you'll see Stoney's rather angry reaction to Jasons late arrival.... Calm blue ocean Stoney. After checking in we were soon air bound for Heathrow Airport. Our transfer from terminal 1 to terminal 4 was not without incident, group leader John Hobbs managed to loose Sean, who decided to hide in the toilets and result in himself getting lost. After a quick bite to eat in Heathrow we all boarded the 10.55 flight bound for Vienna. This would have been a nice take off time had a very nice gentleman not told the air stewardess, in not such a gentlemanly way, where to go. The air stewardess politely responded by turning the plane around on the runway and politely kicking the man off. His wife refused to leave the flight. Rumour has it he is currently sleeping off his hangover in a 6x6 padded cell. So after an hour of us sitting on the plane, the pilot stuck the plane in reverse and headed for Vienna. Conor Harte entertained us all with tales of David's misdemeanors from when he was young. After arriving in Vienna, we were promptly ushered to an awaiting bus which gave us an unbelievable tour of the city, more out of the bus drivers lack of general direction than his desire to show us the sites of Vienna. Lennie eventually spotted the hotel as we drove by it. So we are all checked in fine, some are sleeping, some are playing playstation, Sean is eating, others are updating websites. Sinead is compiling a rather extensive list of injuries which she hopes to reduce over the course of the night. All in all we have all arrived fine with all gear intact. Wait a minute where is Mark, I'm supposed to be sharing a room with him. I better sus that one out… “Ireland you can sleep well tonight, the Quins have arrived” – Quote by John Hobbs

22/3/2005

Donal up to ninety!

From: Eaks

We had a light training session this evening to prepare ourselves for a very early start tomorrow morning. Both Wesley and Johnta trained this evening and are both in good shape for the week ahead.......with Rocky up to ninety, we had a quick meeting to make sure that no one forgets their passports etc in the morning (bets are being taken!)......if anyone is passing the Lombard's house at around 5:30am they might give a beep to make sure that they are up out of bed (or even better….call in and give Paul’s toes a quick rub!) Everyone is really looking forward to the few days ahead but I suspect there may be a few cranky heads around tomorrow morning……watch this space!

18/3/2005

Preparation is going well

From: Richard Gash

Our preparation for the europeans is progressing well, with the only major injury worry being Wes who managed to break a thumb during Irish training. He is confident that he will be able to play though. Johnta, our other injury worry is also confident that he will be fit despite missing St Patricks days Munster Final, which we won 4-2. Our final Training session will take place next Tuesday before we all head off early on Wednesday morning. I along with other team members will keep you posted daily with a daily diary from the tournament. So keep an eye out here for all the latest news. Richard