After a year without a tournament abroad, we decided it was time for us to take on a new country for 5 days.

Our choice this year turned to Calella, situated on the shores of the Mediterranian Sea, about 110 km south of the French-Spanish border and 50 km north of Barcelona. A place with Sea, Sun and Handball sounded like Heaven to us. And Heaven it was!

The next step after choosing the location, was to built 2 commando teams to take on the following challenge: Trying to win games and to come back with at least some pride...

After days of intensive research, we came out with:

Christina (our own Centre, and what a centre!), Alexandra and Simone (our 2 lovely German backups, friends of Christina!), Karina (our own half local goalkeeper!) and finally Paula (our best and only Irish player in the squad!).

JB (our coach and all around player), David (the lefthand player. He finally made it even if he missed the plane on the first day... ;-)), Nikolai (the lineman also in charge of the drinking!), Marko (our hitman and killer from Estonia borrowed from our rivals Lughnasa for few days!), Ianik (myself, or what could possibly be called a goalkeeper).

Don't forget our own cheerleader Mari (Marko's girlfriend)!!

This handball "A-Team" was completed by really skillful German players (men and women) from Göppigen. Even if the girls didn't manage to catch a victory, the men did quite well with 2 victories and 1 defeat (against a Semi-Finalist). The pride was preserved...

It was a great weekend!! We had time to enjoy the sun and the local parties... Have a look for yourself below at our Gallery made with Nikolai's pictures. Click here to access it. We can't wait for next year...

Ianik