Berlin Crocodiles Newsletter Archiv

Hamburg meine Perle! Berlin Crocs auf Footytour in Hamburg!

Berlin Crocodiles vs. Hamburg Dockers – April 19th 2008

Holthusen. That’s the name of our first footy destination of the year. Holthusen? Where and what the bloody hell is that? Well, it’s a random collection of dwellings in the middle of nowhere and home of 886 inhabitants usually hiding behind their curtains – especially Saturdays between 10 and 11 AM. At this time, about the same number of people step of the train and wait endless 50 minutes for next one to take them to more diverse settlements, e.g. Hamburg. 50 minutes can drag to endlessness when the surrounding lacks anything of entertaining quality, and if the surrounding doesn’t supply a bar it should at least have a bakery. Holthusen doesn’t have a bakery and it doesn’t even have a bench. So while approximately 900 people were thinking of throwing themselves in front of the passing ICE before dying of boredom, the Berlin Crocodiles took the chance to have a short training session in conditions suitable for the Agricultural Football League. Three hours and four levels of civilization later, we took on the Hamburg Dockers. Strangely and despite the world-class city they live in, the Dockers have remained in a state of barbarianism still to match the advancement of Holthusen. Other people call this level of development the ‘Stone Age’.

Therefore, Holthusen as a preparation proved to be as helpful as the constant training from Marvs and the practice matches against the Aussie exchange students and especially the North London Lions earlier this year. The game started as soon as the Dockers got rid of their wooden clubs and left their fireplaces, which remains could be seen all over the ground and especially in the goal square. A first quick goal from the Dockers didn’t hold up the Crocs for long and the answer came soon with a goal from Sean. The second quarter was dominated by the Crocs and especially the midfield with Marvin, Thomas and Adam Cahill was doing it’s job really well. Special mentions to Tobias, who had his first game and started of in defence and was later thrown in the big pond as a midfielder where he took to the game like a duck to water. But in conditions you would expect from a place somewhere between Tassie and the South Pole, the Dockers could soon play out their adaptation to the cold and harsh winds to turn the game after the half-time break. But we forced them to bring on their star full-forward, who until then was still in mufti (due to a injury in left epididymis resulting from an attack of a senile lavatory attendant he was trying to sweet-talk earlier that week). Despite his fortune, the Dockers dominated the game from then on and slotted in one goal after the other. The score soon rose to a final 104 to 53.

In the end, the height of the score does show the high quality of the game and the gap in score does not show the competitiveness we, the Berlin Crocs, proved to have. The after-game celebrations between Reeperbahn and Elbe were therefore meant honestly and were by now way spoilt by any feeling of disappointment. Each Crocs playing deserved his own personal trophy, and in some cases were even taken home by them!

BTW: Our next game will be on the 3rd of May against the Frankfurt Redbacks in the historic setting of the Maifeld between Olympia Stadium and Glockenturm. With a stands for 60 000 people our ground will be the third biggest AFL stadium in the world! Come and have a look!