The players started to arrive, and Bron and Lou were introduced to FTP player QB Curt Anes. The players had been flown into Amsterdam, and then were transported by bus to Germany, so we left them to it, and headed into town.

We were greeted at the Knoten by Isa, who gave each of us a beer on the house. The evening followed a similar pattern to last year. It was Good Friday once again, so there was no music in the bar, which gave us all a chance to catch up and have a good chat. Fed up with the lack of music, Lesley, H, Bron and Lou decided to sing karaoke classics at the top of their voices. And surprisingly, no-one left the bar!

On Saturday morning, we started out in the hotel bar, before heading to the Knoten. Dom and H did their customary fling to Scotland The Brave, which always lasts longer than they anticipate. There was also a warm-up game of Twister outside the bar. The Claymore fans have decided to play Twister at half-time at every stadium this year. In this game, Lou was the first to collapse out of the game, followed by Preston (who claimed that there should have been a flag on Roy for cheating), Roy and a Fire fan who had been roped in to play. Dom was the winner.

The backfield seemed a little quieter than usual, possibly due to the overcast weather. Dom, Preston and Roy were called up on stage, this year being made to snap footballs into the crowd instead of doing the usual Highland fling. At the backfield, we found sneakie holders, complete with three sneakies for just 3 euros. We’re sure they’ll get lots of use during the season.

The Fire were far from convincing during the game, although they still held the Claymores to just a Field Goal. Read the official game report here. Or read the Cheddarheads’ perspective and the FTP’s opinion of the Claymores’ Space Invader Offence.