25. Februar 2018

23. Februar 2018

As always when the Champions League is played, the competition in the single events gets extremely tense. The four Swiss Racketeers had to admit that some opponents were just better. No medal was won.

The highlight though was the team competition. Two teams from Switzerland led by Dara Ladner (Team Two) and Benjamin Hampl were involved. While the second team (including the indestructible Graham King) fought valiantly until complete exhaustion, no points could be earned. On the other hand for team one, the expert review before the beginning of the Champions League has to be quoted again as it could not have been more false.

"At the other end of the table, I sadly see it as a long season for two teams, the Swiss Army Knives and debutants, the Swedish Vikings. A lot rides on the Vikings young star, Luka Pentinnen who will lead the side in Sweden. While Cédric Junillon will strenghten the side in Germany, the key question will be on the form of captain Anna-Klara Ahlmer also in Germany as she recovers from injury. They will be aiming at the Swiss Army Knives to avoid the wooden spoon. The knives lost the majority of their stars from 2017 and face an uphill struggle 2018, the first leg in Sweden will be crucial for their final placing."

Swiss Army Knives 1 delivered an excellent performance, mainly on the back of the almost unknown female player Stine Jacobsen, and won 2 out of the three games, finishing the first leg in an unexpected third place.

Dara Ladner just recovered in time from her injury to be able to play. Having no strength left after the Champions League, she only finished second in her group and 6th in the end. Rumours had it, that some energy got lost in the night before her last match. The indestructible Graham King certainly played the most matches out of all participants. But for once he had be content with a fourth place. Marc-André Rauber, also one of our more senior competitors, got a bit unlucky in some of the matches and therefore had to congratulate his opponents more often than not. The writer, Benjamin Hampl, drew a nasty Swedish Wild Card in Christian Wall. Would he have been able to close the squash set, it might have taken a different ending. To toss out the bad feeling after his loss, he almost bagled Hans Sherpa in Tennis and finished Ninth as the rest of his opponents were too scared to even show up.  

Benjamin Hampl

(Swiss Army Knives 1 from left to right: Benjamin Hampl (Captain), Alex Du Noyer (GB), Stine Jacobsen (DEN), Ed Harvey (GB))

(Swiss Army Knives 2 from left to right: Graham King, Dara Ladner (Captain), Frederik Groth (SWE))