2011 has been the most difficult year yet for the underwater hockey group. The lack of pool space continued to bite, and by the start of the year, the group had lost most of its original players.

However, the uniqueness of the sport continued to attract the curious, looking for something new, and we were delighted to welcome two new players, Katherine and Jaco, as well as the return of Alex, who had tried the sport a few times in late 2009. We also welcomed a couple of visiting players from Canada and the USA - both members of their national teams - and were very happy to learn new tricks and techniques from them.

Silvania Avelar and Martin Reed, Oerlikon 2012

In April we had a return visit from the Limmatnixen, the Zürich synchronised swimming group. Many of them had also come to the first come-and-try session that we had held the previous November, and again we split the group down the middle, so that those that had tried hockey last time tried rugby, and those that had tried rugby last time tried hockey this time. As it happened, we were six Nixen and six Zürcher, so the teams just naturally fell into three Zürcher and three Nixen on each team.

After a bit of rudimentary puck skills training, we were ready to play, and what the Nixen may have lacked in stickwork and hockey-finesse, they certainly made up for in stamina and determination! The hockeyers could only look on in awe and some considerable amusement as the Nixen hacked, slashed and smashed their way through each other in their attempts to ram the puck into the back of each other's goal.

Also in April we made a startling discovery: we were not alone! A couple of months earlier, we had been joined by a couple of newcomers who were keen to try the game, and adapted to it very quickly. However, they said that they could only come on Tuesdays, as on Thursdays they swam with their lifesaving group in Kloten. On further enquiry, it seemed that the lifesaving group had a rolling program of "special events", one of which was … wait for it … underwater hockey!

Joining them was like entering a time warp, and the triangular sticks and the technique of jabbing the puck with the front of the triangle was something that only Martin had ever seen before in real life. We did play with their sticks and with their puck for 10-15 minutes, and then Martin proposed that they try playing with our puck and our sticks. The radically different way of playing did take the Kloteners a bit of getting used to, but there was no doubting their enthusiasm and determination!

Since then we have joined the Kloten group for every one of their monthly underwater hockey sessions, and this partnership came to full fruition when their club president joined us for the second Mulhouse tournament in October. But more of that later...

On the tournament front it was a struggle to make up teams from within our own ranks, but we still managed to put in an appearance at a number of tournaments with a little help from our friends.

In March we had our first actual contact with our nearest club in Mulhouse, France, with an invitation to their club tournament, and it was a Brit, a Brazilian, a Colombian, an Australian and a Frenchman that made up the Swiss team. We were initially partnered with the Mulhouse ladies, but this only lasted one game when they failed to turn up for the second game until it was well underway. We then joined forces with the team from Nancy and fared much better, namely that we didn't come last.

May was a busy month, with three "Swissies" joining the GB Ladies Masters at the Bud Pig Cup in Budweis, Czech Republic, the original home of Budweiser/Budvar beer. We managed to replicate our "success" in Mulhouse by once again coming *not last* and of course won the party.

We followed this up with a visit to Spain, for the second Madrid tournament. Although most of the team met for the first time on the poolside before the first game, we gelled so well that we actually won the second division.

Sadly, Switzerland lost its 100% attendance record at September's Parma tournament and only Martin made his way down to sunny Italy as an honorary Czech woman. The team played well, but the standard of this tournament just keeps getting higher and higher, and despite help from a few other friends we only managed to place 14th out of 16.

Our new friends in Mulhouse then surprised us by inviting us to a second tournament, and for this one we had no problem making up a team. Five players from Zürich, two previously accredited "Swissies", one Klotener and one Lyoner made up Team Suisse, but it was obvious that the Zürcher were badly missing playing in a proper pool, as we kept being all out of position and having our opponents swim around the outside of us. However, we did manage to beat the Mulhouse Ladies and Strasbourg 2, which was a respectable result.

Alain, Silvania, Sophie, Kevin, Jeremy, Markus, Favio, Martin, Alex. Missing: Paola

In 2010 we had taken a team to the Ljubljana tournament in Slovenia that did so well that we were unlucky not to win the second division. However, for the 2011 tournament we were only three, so we joined forces with the club from Trieste in Italy, and by the time we reached the end of the day, we had become virtually the heroes of the city of Trieste, because for the first time in the club's history they came "not last". If anything could be said to be the theme of 2011, "we came not last" would have to be it.

One other point to note about the Ljubljana tournament is that one of our three, Julie Balandras, who had come along as a supporter to the Mulhouse tournament a month earlier, was now a fully fledged player. However, not only was she playing in her first ever tournament, she was also playing in her first ever game! We and Trieste were very happy that she proved herself to be a very quick learner!

Once again, I would like to thank the remaining members of the underwater hockey group for their loyalty to the group during the course of the year, to piccolo for his help and support, to Rolf and the committee for the support of USZ. 2012 is already starting well: onwards and upwards!

Martin Reed