Nasty! Click image to change back.
BLUE
SUEDE'S JOURNAL OF THE SAPPA
SWITZERLAND/LIECHTENSTEIN
TRIP
3 - 7 September 2004
Starring
Ean
Jones as “The Organizer”
Jim O’Hare as “Mini Me”
Peter King as “Demolition Man”
Martin Hughes as “Blue Suede”
Graham Tough as “Evel Knievel”
Geoff Dunn as “The Heid”
Stuart Ellis as “Ron Jeremy”
Michael Valentine as “The Yeti (from the Alps)”
Your reporter
scaring everyone in his kilt!
Day 1 - Friday
Ean Jones left his pool cue(s) on the train from Zurich to Buchs - still to be found, if ever... We all got extremely pissed in the pool club in Schaan (the night before the tourney) and went to bed about 4am.
The Pool Club in Scaan
Day 2 - Saturday
Slept in and Ean got disqualified from the tourney for failing to make his 9am start. Picture the scene: Ean on the phone to the TD "What??? Oh, you ARE joking... Aww c'mon, that's a bit harsh!" Phone call ends... "D'OH!!!" Still... I managed to make my 11am start (4 miles away!) just in time and played like a TOTAL arse! Dunno why I bother sometimes...
2 down, 6 to go...
Got back to Schaan a couple of hours later to discover that Pete had just turned up. He didn't get his passport until the last minute and had to fly in from Munich! Except he'd gone to the other club to meet me (the one I'd just left). When he eventually did turn up at Schaan, he was half cut and I was on the way... By this time Stuart Ellis had been eliminated from the tourney, but not before a glorious defeat of the Austrian no.3.
3 down, 5 to go...
Top
Pete, Took and Jim O'Hare all played their matches in the evening with Took and Jim winning a match but going out after losing the next 2. Pete, on the other hand, put on an incredible performance as "The Drunkest Man In The World" much to the disbelief of his opponent (who was a Czech pro player) by miss-cueing 4 times on the break, and having to lean on the table to stop himself falling over! Unbelievably, he managed to put in an impressive 6-7 scoreline, but not enough to prevent his early exit! Both Mike and Geoff - despite Stuart's best efforts to distract by dropping his drawers at a crucial point in the match - played well and qualified to the 2nd day (they hadn't been drinking till 4am the night before, you see).
Tookster in action - pre-incident!
6 down, 2 to go...
Day 3 - Sunday
Took and I (who hadn't slept yet) decided to leave the hotel at 6am and conquer the Alps! We got about a mile up before, suffering from severe exhaustion and lack of sleep, I had to admit defeat. Tookster, on the other hand, was determined to carry on and left me where I stood (or fell!).
I'd only just got back to the hotel and hit the sack, when, I got rudely awakened by the hotel manager accompanied by the local Police banging on the door! Barely awake, I could just about understand that Tookster had been taken to hospital with multiple facial injuries and was wanted by the Police in connection with the theft of a child's bicycle!!!!
It transpired, that undeterred by my unwillingness to climb any higher, he had continued on for about another half hour until tiredness had gotten the better of him too. On the way back down, he'd spied a BMX left unattended, and with his decision making process impaired by both exhaustion and drink, decided to borrow it in order to speed up the journey back! Shame the brakes weren't working.... D'OH!!!!!
To see what happened to Tookster, click here...
We were informed by the hospital that he was in a bad way, but would survive after requiring 10 stitches to his head and another 10 above his eye as well as having part of his left ear re-attached! By the time we'd got back to the pool club, both Mike and Geoff had been eliminated from the tourney (Mike last 9, Geoff last 17) and, for their own reasons, the 3 guys from Falkirk had decided to return to Zurich to try and get an early flight home.
Top
This left the rest of us in an awkward situation, as there was a team match (Scotland v Switzerland) arranged for the following night and it had been agreed that this would be an 8-man team. So... with 3 guys headed for home and one in hospital, we did what any respectable Scottish Team should - started recruiting at the bar!!! By the end of the night, the team was complete. We had (from left to right):
Martin Hughes (Scottish), Patrick O'Shanter (Australian),
Jim O'Hare (Scottish),
Miguel aka Mike Mac Michael (Spanish), Graham Tough (Scottish
and out of hospital!),
Ean Jones (English and Team Captain), Paul Sinclair (South African) and Pete King (Scottish)
With that small hurdle out of the way, all that was left was for a certain team member to (accidentally) smash a pool cue through the window of the club, before heading for bed.
8 down, 0 to go...
By the way, the tournament was won by a guy called Roman Hybler.
Peter King finds a possible mode of transport for getting
home
Day 4: Monday - Match Day
After collecting Tookster from the hospital, where they thankfully turned a blind eye to the 800 Francs per day bill, we then had to pay a visit to the Vaduz Police station to explain the bicycle incident. Luckily, they accepted our explanation and agreed that Took had already paid the price, leaving us free to go. Huge thanks, however, have to go Ean Jones for his translation and International Diplomacy skills - things could have been soooo different without him!
I'll keep you guessing as to the result of the match - don't want to completely spoil the surprise - but everyone (even the Swiss) had a great time and I don't think there was a single drop of booze left in the place by the time we'd finished.
Top
So cheers to: Jan Keulen (Club owner), Pascal Nydegger, Marcel Eckart, Bruno D'Alberto, Roger Bruderer, Pascal Perisset, Ingrid Nydegger and Dino Danisi for a great night and an 'interesting' match.
The Swiss Team (from L-R): Pascal, Roger, Jan (Club owner),
Dino,
Pascal, Ingrid, Marcel & Bruno
We'll be back!
Footnote:
6 out of the squad of 8 made it back to Scotland the next day - Jim O'Hare missed his flight from Luton and Pete did his best to recreate 'Planes, Trains & Automobiles' (and motorcycles!) eventually returning home at 12:30am on Friday - only 3 days late.
Love, BS.xxx
After a hard day's pool playing, comes a hard night's
drinking!
Time for the Swiss and Scottish teams to relax.PS. The Swiss won, if you really must know.
Double D’OH!!!
Top
