Team Switzerland was once again in attendance at the third annual Parmacup UWH tournament in Parma, Italy, in mid-September, maintaining its 100% attendance record. It also had two other 100% records at this tournament to observe: one record of losing all its games and the other record of winning the party. We had many of the same players as on the 2009 team, so winning the party was not likely to be in any doubt at all, especially as we had Eryl, a new recruit to Team Switzerland from Martin's former club in the UK, who was just as renowned as a party animal as he was for his astonishing playing abilities.

Fortunately an earlier request for good weather had been heard by the gods and we were treated to a repeat of 2009's glorious sunshine rather than 2008's rainy downpours, which kept us in good spirits during the course of the day. We got off to a shaky start in the water, however, losing our first two games, which put us into the second division for the playoffs. However, from that point we rallied and won our next four games, against Trieste from Italy, Genk from Belgium and the German men and the German women. This then put us into the second division playoff against a new team, Ciriè from Italy.

Unfortunately, Ciriè were very fit and very fast, and we were unable to stop them from defeating us, so we finished in second place in the second division, 10th place overall in the tournament.

And yes, we won the party!

Team Switzerland at the 2010 Parmacup tournament

Martin Reed