As already expressed in the previous report, a barely manageable task awaited us in Vorchdorf/Upper Austria, and unfortunately we had to concede defeat to the hosts 1:8!
Due to holidays, we had to do without Marius and Peter; Manfred, Rudi, Reinhard and Martin Schneider played. Martin deserves special thanks at this point – he stepped in and acquitted himself quite well against a formidable team. Whether we would have had a chance to win with our regular line-up cannot be said for certain; in any case it would have been considerably closer. One must not forget either that this year we were in the main round, unlike last year as later winner of the “consolation round”, and in this year’s main round only “giants” are at the start!
The team of Union AWD Vorchdorf played in a successful mix of “old and young”, up front 2 seasoned players, at a level comparable to our regional class/state league/1st District League, and in the 2nd pairing 2 talents who stand at 5th and 14th place out of over 500 players in the Upper Austrian U18 ranking and already play regularly in the regional class and district class respectively. All 4 players have an outstanding record in their leagues!
In the two doubles, Manfred and Rudi, with a 2:0 lead, had the chance to take the first point for us, but unfortunately they still let themselves be caught and lost 2:3; Reinhard and Martin, as expected, had little chance against the young players.
Up front then 2 relatively straightforward defeats by Manni and Rudi, then Martin also lost clearly. Reinhard, who had suffered the only defeat in the win at Bad Schallerbach – 8:1 – then managed somewhat surprisingly to prevail 3:2, 12:10 in the fifth set. This then turned out, as it later transpired, to be the “consolation point”. Manfred coped much better in his 2nd match but still could not avert the 3:0 defeat. Rudi then led 2:1 in sets in his 2nd match and, at the end of the fourth set, also had good chances of winning the match 3:1, but unfortunately he did not manage it and lost 2:3 despite a great performance. Reinhard then lost the last match clearly 0:3, and with that we were out of the running! Congratulations to the team of Vorchdorf, who, with a lucky draw in Braunau, can also play for the title.
The joint evening with the extremely likeable sports friends was very harmonious; Martin, who comes from nearby Steyr, was able to exchange views splendidly, and we had a great time chatting. The great youth work of Vorchdorf, who are thereby at the Austrian top, is to be praised.
Finally, Manfred presented a gift for the 4 players of the host, namely a voucher each, donated by the EUROPA Therme in Bad Füssing – here our thanks go to the works manager of the spa, Mr. Ernst Stapfer!
The attached photo shows the teams of Vorchdorf and Pfarrkirchen after the presentation of our host’s gift!
Signed Reinhard Kroll, TuS 1860 Pfarrkirchen, organisation Grenzland Cup 2012
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