Through the connections of Birds Silke van Baar to her Netherlands hometeam and Viola Jackman’s participation in the Rugbyclub during her stay in Bristol, the Basel Birds invited two teams and hosted a ladies’ tournament.

Friday arrival:
The british team was welcomed heartily with a BBQ at viola’s place. Silke van Baar picked the dutch team up to go celebrate in the city. Both events ended up as massive parties enduring half the night.

Saturday rugbyday:
Sunshine, six games and a bunch of spectators. As a special treat, capitain Viola came for a visit! Even though she had a severe accident, she managed to get a leave pass from her doctor to come and support the Birds and salute her friends.
It might not have been the very finest rugby to watch, but all players were motivated and learned a lot during the games- and of course enjoyed themselves! The third half with silly tour games, songs and beer lasted till morning.

Sunday hangoverday:
The brits had a nice day out in Basel, enjoying nice weather and beers on the rhine riverside and ended the day again with a great BBQ. The dutchies really had bad luck: Due to a strike of air traffic control people in france, their flight was cancelled, and instead of flying back to netherlands on sunday evening, they had to take the train to Zurich. Eventually they made it back home by monday noon.

After all, it was a friendly tournament, and friends we made. Thanks to everybody who contributed to make this splendid event possible! Especially to Silke, Viola, Coach Andy and the clubhouse team Chris and Marcello who put on 15-hour shifts to provide food and drinks. And, needless to say, to our likable guest teams, for coming all the way to Switzerland!

Looking forward to the sequel...

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