Observations & Opinions / Week Fourteen
From Harold Abrahams – Special Correspondent for TSS
Bern, Switzerland
Riflers-Armed Bears’ Snowy Deadlock … Lucerne’s Road Romp … Last Month Scramble
Long before one reaches Bern’s scenic meadow, one hears the beckoning call of the Alpenhorns as the Armed Bears fans play their enchanting tunes. As one expects to hear bagpipes in the Highlands of Scotland and the Beatles in Liverpool, so one would feel bereft without the music of the Alpenhorns. Add to that aura the snapping of scores of Bern’s distinctive black, gold and red Bernese Canton Flags in a stiff breeze and the arrival of both the Tyrol League-leading Cortina Riflers and a foot of new snow, and Bern was demonstrably the centre of the Wiesespiel world last weekend.
Bern’s greatest player, Bernhard Brunner, was on hand to both welcome the Cortina captain to the center spot and to shake the hand of his grandson, 18-year old sensation Mule Brunner, whose nickname bears no resemblance to his speed of foot. While no one is going to outpace Paul Lackner this season, tuck away this tip: wager on ‘The Mule’ to hoist the Klammer Award as the league’s top scorer sometime within the next three years. Well over 6’ tall, Brunner can add 25 pounds of muscle in the next season or two. Woe unto any Gates that seek to bar his way.
And while the Riflers were respectful of the Brunner name – both former and current – they are leading the top League handily for many reasons, the primary one being their own fiery and fast offense, a unit averaging 18 points a match coming in.
But, Wiesespiel is played in Alpine locales, and it’s played throughout winter months, and it’s played no matter the conditions. And on this Saturday, that meant the Bears and Riflers tramped around in nearly a foot of new snow, and the merriment almost matched the ferocity of the competition. When the last skot was scored and the final clump of snow had been mashed down, the score stood at 20-20, a result that satisfied any lover of the Meadow Game, credited the Riflers for earning a point far away from home, and made this observer wonder just how dangerous the Bears could be if they cling to their 3rd-place position. Matterhorn look stronger than this Bern team, and the 2-3 would be played in Zermatt, as things stand, but either Bern or Zurich seems poised to face the Black Eagles for the chance to face Cortina, and the evidence from this exciting back-and-forth match says that the Armed Bears would stand a snowball’s chance against the Black Eagles.
At the Beer Hall, warm and dry after the match, I downed a hearty lunch of potato cakes while speaking with four ladies who were vying, it seems, to win a contest at Bern’s Winter Pageant: one of these golden-haired beauties was set to be Queen of the ‘Charmed Bears.’ One of the fetching lasses, Esme Rotemuller, explained that she had not missed a home match in 6 years. “Where else would I be than in the meadow, watching these big strong men play for the honor of my hometown? There is no better place to be.” Well said, Esme. Bern on a snowy Sunday has attractions, Miss Rotemuller herself notwithstanding, that few Wiesespiel locations can better.
While no team in the Alpine League is going to take from Vienna the acclaim afforded the winner of the Regular Season title, Innsbruck and Lucerne faced each other in the 2-3 match late enough in the season for their outcome to seem like a statement that the rest of the Alpiners would heed. On a day when the Composers played more like Salieri than Mozart while being shut out in Interlaken, the Downhillers and the Cheesemakers faced each other with the chance to announce that Vienna will not be awarded the Alpine Cup without a scrap. True, Innsbruck was without its best Gate, Florian ‘Flower’ Fischer; nonetheless, one cannot simply excuse a 23-1 loss, at home, while playing with every need to accumulate points as the playdowns loom and both Lucerne and Transylvania (which dispatched Aggsbach 26-12) clawing away at the Downhillers’ grip on second place.
The Wheat League offered its weekly dose of madness, as Villach won its third match in a row to remain in 3rd place, three points clear of a Chur Winemakers squad that won again, as well, to go level with Lugano in a tie for 4th. What’s noteworthy about a Tirolerhuts team winning a match, you ask, when they’ve done that with some frequency since September of 1872? Well, this match matters because in downing the Red Greens 25-18 and taking 9 points from the last 9 available, the Huts gained three vital points on the Wheat League leaders from Zillertal. I will unabashedly write that I always want Villach to play in as high a league as possible: it’s just right and fitting that the team that made up one-half of the first Meadow Game match ever played (and won by the Tirolerhuts 9-8, claims the perennially young Frank Hofferan, Villach’s captain) features in matches that carry consequences.
Four weeks remain. Where does your team stand? Promotion … Relegation … Playdowns … a Cup to claim … Awards to win …. We wish for next week, and the next, and the playdowns, and the battle for the Tyrol Cup. And we don’t. All too soon, the fine men who play this game will rest, and we’ll have to rest with them.