Czech Republic and Croatia - Foreign Trip

Trip Report

Twyford left Kingdoms Yard on 16th July and travelled to Dover to catch the ferry to France early on the 17th July and then travelled through the French countryside to their hotel in Mulhouse on the Swiss border. The next day they travelled through the Swiss Alps into Italy to Milan were they had a tour of the San Siro stadium. After the tour the searing heat meant everybody was pleased to be on an air conditioned bus to travel to Vicenza were they had a swim before going for a lovely Italian meal.

The next morning they left Italy behind to travel through Slovenia to their destiny of Rabac in Croatia. This was not before a Croatian border guard was going to fine us for failing to stop at a stop sign and his mood worsened when he saw Connor Daveridge's Man Utd passport cover but he became really friendly when he discovered Paul A'lee was a Tottenham supporter and any fine talk disappeared and we travelled on. The lovely blue adriatic sea got everybody excited and the temp. was always over 35 degrees for our six day stay but we did have a very big electric storm on the last night. Our trip now became sun catching and being in the water.

We did leave the resort to visit Pula, visited the roman amphitheatre, before playing our first game against Pula which we won 5-0. Jack Thomas, Ryan Martin, Alex Bressington, Ed Frankland and Tobi Jenkins scored the goals. The boys also went on a boat trip to the island of Kos and it's largest town Cres and having a swim in a beach only reached by boat. The other match in Croatia did not take place because they heard this result, so the boys hired a astro court on two nights.

Nobody wanted to leave Croatia but we did through a different route through Slovenia, which looka a beautiful country, to the Austrian city of Graz. Staying where England had stayed before playing Japan pre World Cup. Graz is a lovely city where everybody would have stayed longer especially as the hotel was excellent. We should have then played a tournament in Ceske Budejovice in the Czech Republic but this was cancelled because of the recession. So it was arranged to visit Prague instead with two matches and a 4 day visit. On the way we still visited the world heritage site of the beautiful town of Ceske Krumlov. A guided tour of Prague's old city centre was excellent but before this we played Motorlet, Prague youth league one, and in an excellent game drew 0-0. This game saw Nathan Hill fall over and break his wrist and a visit to a Czech hospital which cost over £50 to be mended.

The next day we had a football tour of the Prague stadium's of Slavia, Bohemians and Sparta. Because of our first result an extra game was added to our fixtures. So the next morning we travelled to Sparta Prague's training ground at the Olympic Stadium.  While we played Sparta the first team and reserve teams trained on the next pitch. The first team manager watched most of our game and despite creating some chances and giving their all we lost 5-0. Mid day meal was then taken in their changing complex before travelling to our second game of the day. The second game was against the once famous Dukla Prague team at their training camp 50 miles from the city. They are now Division 2 in Czech with their youth team in Prague Division 1.  We lost 2-1 but after playing in the morning deserved at least a draw. Aiden Moyle was our goalscorer.

We left Czech for Munich Germany solely so we could have a tour of the Alliance Arena home of Bayern Munich/1860 Muninch. This tour was well worth the visit as this is an excellent stadium. Upto Frankfurt then for the Eintracht v Chelsea friendly and an appearence on Chelsea T.V.  The final night our hotel was part of the Bayer Leverkuson Stadium which we had a tour of before travelling back to Tiverton arriving home at 2am on 3rd August.  An excellent trip which was helped by some of the best behaviour by the boys on a long foreign tour.




Results

29th July 2010

TIME   SCORE  
21:00 Sparta Prague 5-0 Twyford Spartans
21:00 Dukla Prague 2-1 Twyford Spartans

27th July 2010

TIME   SCORE  
21:00 Motorlet. Czech Republic 0-0 Twyford Spartans

23rd July 2010

TIME   SCORE  
21:00 Pula, Crotia 0-5 Twyford Spartans



Gallery

Click on an image to see a larger version.

Czech & Croati Squad Photo
Czech & Croatia Squad
Sparta v Twyford
Squad Photo