After over two hours of rail travel, including the "exciting" feel of walking from the Swiss side of Basel station to the French side of Bâle, I was greeted at Strasbourg Station by our host, Benoit. We waited until another (local) player arrived at the station, then Benoit drove us from the station to the pool.

There was a major exodus on our arrival, doubtless from hearing that there was a feral Australian arriving. Being one of only two native English speakers at the venue (and I use the term advisedly - the other guy was from Leeds) was an adventure in itself, especially given my extensive vocabulary of about a dozen French words. Still, once I linked up to the team from Munich, all went well - Marion in particular used her multi-lingual talents to good effect.

The pool was prepared, and match officials ready, after about half an hour of wandering about rather aimlessly. In this time the defensive strategy of the Munich team was explained to me, and we had some time in the pool to both warm up and try it out a little. I was surprised to find that Isabelle, a member of the famous Munich Ladies team, had even less time in underwater hockey than I - so we got on well, receiving some great advice and encouragement from a more senior member of the team.

Competition was, for us, not so easy. Far from being the strongest team in the water, we were possibly the weakest - or the least organised. I saw (and was at times part of) some strong and determined pushes on the floor, but we generally lacked cohesion. Still, it was fun - and I know I learned a lot: it`s far different to see and respond to a situation in a match than to practise it during training, for one thing, and at times you just have to go back down without a full breath if you`re going to hold off a determined attack! I also witnessed that even a ‹non-contact› sport can result in a very swollen nose: Stephan had to miss a few games, as it subsided ...

I am grateful to the Munich Ladies for letting me join their team for the tourna- ment, I really enjoyed getting behind them and observing their skills - next tournament I should be able to get right in from the start, instead of spending the first few games learning.

Report by Jeremy Scrimes

Martin Reed