Paderborn Friendship tour 28.06.13 - 01.07.13.

A little late due to summer commitments but here is our report from the Paderborn friendship tour which took place at the end of June 2013.

The tour could not have been a greater success and credit must be given to all who worked extremely hard to bring the event together and guarantee its success.

28.06.13 Day one. A disastrous journey:

Day one could not have gotten off to a worse start as we were delayed in traffic just outside Hannover for over 3 hours due to a major accident on the motorway. This meant that a journey that should have taken around 5 hours eventually turned into an 11 hour trip.

We arrived in Paderborn very late, but in one peace and very tired. We made up for it with a visit to Kentucky fried Chicken which raised our spirits and life was good again.

29.06.13 Day two. The games begin:

After a good night sleep the events of the journey the day before seemed to be almost forgotten. The players were in much better spirits and looking forward to a good day of squash.

We arrived at the club at 09:15 ready to play. After an opening welcome by Markus Kessler the head coach of the German junior squad. The day got underway.

The first competition took the form of a team event and the teams consisted of a mix of German - Danish players. The competition was very fierce, but a lot of fun at the same time and there were some great matches.

The spirit in which the games were played was simply fantastic. All players giving their very best and full credit must be given to everyone for the way they performed, the attitude, sportsmanship and determination, considering it was a friendly tournament was amazing to see.

One of the highlights of the day was the arrival of some of the top PSA players contracted to the club, who gave our Danish juniors the opportunity play some squash and experience what it is like to compete against top world class opposition.

Our players did their best against the professionals and even attempted to gang up against them and play 2 against 1 but without success. It was however, a lot of fun watching them try.

On behalf of the players I would like to thank the professionals who gave up their time to come in and play with our juniors, in particular Simon Rösner, Raphael Kandra, Cederic Lenz and Lennart Osthoff who stayed most of the day and gave our juniors a very tough time indeed.

This meant that our juniors were not only playing in the tournament but playing matches against world class players in between games! As a result there were some very tired bodies by the end of the day.

The team tournament itself was a very hard fought competition and was eventually won by Team "Flower Power" comprising of Simone Dissing Jensen DK, David Winterland DE, Magnus Laursen DK and Marcel Keßler DE.

Congratulations to team "flower power" on a fantastic performance.

The evening activities took the form of a beautiful meal for everyone and a Swing golf tournament, which was a lot of fun. Swing golf is played on a more or less half size golf course using a slightly bigger ball and an odd looking club which serves as both a driving club and a putting club (whatever that means?).

It was a lot of fun as many of us had never tried golf before, so it was something a little bit different.

We got back to the hostel quite late and the players were extremely tired, which was obvious due to the lack of sound very shortly after we returned to the accommodation!

All in all a wonderful day and the players made us all very proud.

30.06.13 Day three. A very tough day:

Day three was always going to be a hard day. The players, already tired and a little stiff from the Monday activities had to endure a 32 players individual tournament!

This meant that by the end of the day most would have played a minimum of 5 matches and some of them even more.

We were not sure how the Danish players were going to hold up during the day as they had already played a lot more squash than the Germans the day before and this would almost certainly give the physical advantage to team Germany.

There was some outstanding matches throughout the day and of particular note was the performances of Theis Houlberg, who managed to defeat Hendrik Vössing in a superb match which was eventually decided by two points in the final set.

Magnus Nørtoft Laursen, also produced a superb performance to defeat Jens Christian Wegeberg. In what was a fiercely competitive match.

Magnus also produced one of the games of the day to defeat Marcel Keßler, which was quite an unexpected shock and this earned him a well-deserved place in the semi-final.

Meanwhile the girls were putting in some wonderful performances against the boys and there were some fantastic performances from Camilla Kejlberg Nielsen, Sofie Mygland, Simone Dissing, and Elisabeth Zornig throughout the day.

Of particular note was the performance throughout the day of Julius Fuglsang, who simply never stopped running all day and never gave up no matter how much older and physically stronger the opposition.

Julius managed to pull off some unexpected wins, much to the total shock of his older opponents and he earned the respect of the German players and coaches for his effort.

The tournament was eventually won by Hendrik Vössing, with Tobias Wächter second, and Theis houlberg and Magnus Nørtoft Laursen a very commendable third and fourth respectively.

Credit must be given to all of the played though, as they all played the day with great enthusiasm and did their absolute best.

The evening took the form of a visit to the Lippesee, which is a large lake just outside of Paderborn. Here everyone took part in various activities such as volleyball and football, as well as a wonderful grill and many thanks to Markus his team who shared the cooking and provided everyone with a superb meal.

The event of the evening was a football match which we decided would be the European championship final between Germany and Denmark!

The game was very hard fought but eventually Denmark proved to be a little too strong winning the match 3-1 with goals from Lew Marsden, Jonas Søndergaard Sorensen and Thies Houlberg.

So ended a very hard day two and the players were all feeling the effects of two long days of activity.

01.07.13 Day Four. The end of a wonderful event:

Day four and the players were definitely looking a little worse for wear when they got out of bed!

The effects of a 600km journey including a 4 hour delay and two days of incredibly hard squash were beginning to show.

Day four was to take the form of a Tri-Racquet tournament which included squash, Racquetball and Badminton.

The players put in some fantastic performances at all three disciplines and there were some great matches throughout the day.

The Tri-Racquet competition was eventually won by Hendrik Vössing, with Marcel Keßler and Sebastian Korsgaard second and third respectively.

The tour came to an end with another excellent meal for everyone and a closing ceremony in which both Markus and Lew expressed their thanks to everyone involved including the people who put a lot of work in behind the scenes to make the event possible.

 

Special mention should be given to Bo Søndergård Jensen (Struer), Søren Telling Pedersen (Thy) and Marianne Bjerg, who helped with the organisation, transportation of the players to Paderborn and made sure the players were well taken care of throughout the weekend.

We look forward to 2014, when the German players will be returning to Denmark and I am sure that everyone involved will try to make the event even bigger and better than ever.

A very special thanks to Markus Keßler, his team, and the players from Paderborn, for all the hard work in making the event a truly wonderful occasion and making the Denmark team feel so welcome.

So ended a very special weekend and we hope that this friendship will continue long onto the future!

Lastly, congratulations to the Danish players for such hard work and making the weekend something very special, they should all be very proud of a fantastic achievement.

 

Der kan ses flere billeder fra turen kan på følgende:

 https://www.facebook.com/lew.marsden.5/media_set?set=a.188482271312320.1073741828.100004516444644&type=1

 

Maiken Møller 13-09-2013