Nürnberg. Last weekend, the Hucks Open team once again traveled to the south of the country for the second weekend of the German Championships. After a winless but nonetheless promising first weekend, this weekend we had to decide whether we would be allowed to continue playing in the 1st league next season or be relegated to the 2nd league.
We started off with a pool match against Hardfisch from Hamburg. After an even start, Hardfisch slowly pulled away and eventually won the game 15-9 – a good start for us. The second game was against the other promoted team in our pool, Munich Open Masters. In the duel between the promoted teams, we won 15-11 – so we were in 7th place at the end of the group phase. So we moved on to the intermediate pool with the 7 Schwaben, Funatics and Frizzly Bears. The plan here was simple: finish in 2nd or 3rd place to make it into a relegation match. On Saturday afternoon, after a very short break, we played the Frizzly Bears from Aachen. We lost the game 15-6, a game to forget for us for various reasons. We ended the day with a bit of anger in our stomachs – and the question remained whether we would even make it to the relegation game. In the evening, we enjoyed Bavarian specialties at the Breznwirt.
Well strengthened and with plenty of motivation from yesterday’s defeat, the second game of the intermediate pool on Sunday morning was against Funatics from Hanover – by now a familiar opponent after 4 previous encounters in the last 12 months. We were able to take the motivation with us and bring a lot of energy onto the pitch and onto the sideline – with a good start and a concentrated performance, we were able to win 15-6.
This meant that our last game was a relegation match against WaldStadt Freiburg – a game that would decide whether we stayed in the league or were relegated. We had already played Freiburg on the first weekend and lost narrowly on that occasion. We were just as energetic and combative in this game: After a few even first points, we managed the first break. It remained very close until 6-4 in our favor – then we were able to take an 8-4 lead into half-time with two more breaks. From then on, we tried to give our all in every point – with lots of good actions on our side and a bit of luck, we managed to extend our lead: Freiburg was only to score a single point in the rest of the game. The final score was 15-5, which meant that we had secured our place in the league! The joy was correspondingly great. With this successful end to the season, we are already looking forward to next season – with a strong Hucks Open team in the 1st division!
Thanks to Frank N for hosting the weekend and to all the teams for the good games!
Players:
Ed, Fabi W, Fabi G, Flo Hahn, Freddy, Georg, Gigi, James, JC, Jens, Joe, Julian, Kevin, Kiwi, Lev, Lorenz, Maxi, Norm, Pasha, Paul, Rolle, Schulle, Shine, Tommy, Torben, Robin
