Meadow Cup Musings / Semifinals
Thill Brenner – Correspondent for TSS
The Vienna Composers were glad to be home, but they had much more than that to celebrate. Their most recent showing on the Meadow, at the home of the 2025 Tyrol Cup Champion Bern Armed Bears, had ended in their 2-point victory, awarding them the Farms pennant and a date in the Semi-finals. Alas, the celebration of Willi Muhr, Aaron Rottmayr and the other Music men, as deserved as it was, was cut short as they turned their attention, unlike their jubilant and loyal fans, to the resurgent Besançon Artisans, winners by shutout over Bad Ischl.
This Saturday, with the temperatures a tick warmer than usual, the battle was for the right to play for the Meadow Cup. Vienna Schleissman Didi Leiner wondered to Gate Johann Trimme, “Is it the weight of the game that makes the air seem warmer, or are the balmy conditions magnifying the pressure of the contest?” Those of us not fortunate enough to be on the field could hardly answer.
The yellow and black-clad Artisans arrived at the Meadow a full hour ahead of the Composers. Manager Jacques Perreault, wearing his traditional black loafers with the Besançon coat of arms on the heels, led his men onto the field even as the crew finished marking off the boundaries. Using the extra time to run through their entire playbook, the Meanderers appeared a team fit for the challenge: focused, determined, prepared.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair, Herculean in effort if not in result. Vienna, winners by 3, 2, and 1 in three of their first four rounds, appeared to press a bit as they desperately fought for the lead. With each advancement by the Composers, the Artisans parried with a strike of their own, but nothing seemed to land. Each squad, finally breaking through when all else had been thwarted, ran in a skot from over 40 yards – Patrick Winkler, breaking no fewer than five tackles, touching for the home team and Forward Baptiste Perrin, celebrating his 25th birthday, breaking through for Besançon just before the half. As the clock expired, the score was 3 points apiece, belying the effort and excellence displayed by both teams.
During the intermission, I made my way around to the visitors’ side and listened in as the French supporters assessed their team’s performance and offered up unsolicited advice as to how to secure the win that, at present, hung in the balance. Roger Beaumont, holding the hands of his 8-year-old grandson and 7-year-old granddaughter, stood in line to buy each of them their favorite jersey – Perrin for young Willie and Paquet for his sister, Sabine (they loved to pretend they were the Twin P’s) – and told me that “Besançon had a few surprises in store for the Musicians.”
True to Mr. Beaumont’s prediction, the 43 was full of surprises, not the least of which was the relative lack of resistance put forth by the Composer defense. Trimme and fellow Gate Marcel Von Stroheim, possessors of vice-like grips during the first half, went to the break having not missed even the slightest opportunity to bring down an Artisan runner. But in the second half, each defender missed several grand chances to set the Besançon offense back on its heels. As a result, the Artisans avoided surrendering possession and seemed rather grateful as they converted their opening two drives into skots. Only 12 minutes into the second stanza, the visitors had opened up an 8-point lead, 11-3.
Now up against it, Vienna turned to its captain and star, Muhr. Answering the bell that must have rung within the hearts of the hometown boys, Willie found lanes that were not there before the break. In large chunks, he chewed up turf and brought his team to the threshold in a most efficient manner. But as he eluded a diving Gate and headed for a score, the ball squirted from his usually reliable paws and landed at the feet of Artisan Schliessman Ilbert Fabron, who pounced on it as if he were saving his squadron from the impending explosion of a live grenade. Whatever momentum had been created for Vienna, whatever anticipation and expectation was collectively shared by their fans, all seemed to evaporate at that very moment. Rarely does one hear such silence replace the volume that was filling the Meadow just a heartbeat earlier.
Predictably, and sadly for almost all in attendance, the remaining 25 minutes were dominated by the men from France. With little noise to drown them out, the baritone instructions that bellowed forth from Perreault echoed across the Meadow and marked the success that was playing out in front of him. Besançon’s lead reached 18-3 before the teams exchanged scores late and the Artisans left the field winners, 21-6. And so, for the first year in three, the Meadow Cup will not go to an O8 team.
Only one match was played in Lucerne this past weekend, but those in attendance aren’t far afield if they describe what they saw as the playing out of two contests. For the first 40, the twin engines for the Mulhouse Locomotives that are Maxence Léger and Martial Vannier chugged and churned, powering their way across the line for three skots in their five possessions. Defensively, Robillard Genet directed his defensive mates sublimely, surrendering yards on the rarest of instances, and kept the Cheesemakers entirely off the scoreboard. Walking off the Meadow for the intermission, passing underneath that scoreboard that displayed their 9 point deficit, Lucerne Schliessman Simone Bettlejk could be heard muttering to himself, “I don’t know what that was, but it can’t be what we bring out for the 43.” Indeed, it was not.
When I asked Lucerne Manager Eugen Bolliger what he told his team during the 15 minute rest, he offered little insight as to what might have produced what unfolded on that divoted Swiss stage. I prodded and poked for a nugget from the gifted tactician, whom his players affectionately call the Treppenwitzer (for his uncanny and comical knack for saying the right thing at the wrong time), but he would not divulge an iota of his rousing appeal, this time delivered at precisely the right moment.
Left to our own imaginations, we can surmise from the turnabout of the run of play in the second stanza that Bolliger provided both insight into Lucerne’s particular needs for shoring up as well as a dissection of the weaknesses he expected his men to expose in the Mulhouse defense. Fifteen consecutive points later, scored from four different setups by each of the Cheesemaker wings, Lucerne had positioned itself exactly where its manager directed them. The men in Lucerne blue, last winners of the Meadow Cup in 2012, had suffocated the Railmen. Their only points came from the foot of Loïc Bonnel, and even then, the ball seemed to resist going where Loïc intended. The final score tilted for Lucerne, 15-12, fully delighting the fans who an hour previously were, shall we just say, less than delighted.
Now, it’s on to the championship match. Besançon has won three of its six appearances in the the 63rd match of the summer, and Lucerne has won two of its four attempts. By this time next week, one team will boast a finals record greater than 50%, and the other will be buying dinner for the victors. Get your tickets now and find out in person which is which.
MEN OF THE WEEK
2] Chandler Janvier, Gate, Besançon Artisans
Besides pressuring Muhr into his pivotal fumble, Janvier made repeated initial hits that knocked the Vienna runners off their stride, so much so that the Composers clearly directed their offense away from him as they desperately tried to score. It mattered not. His footprint was large on the Meadow this day.
1] Stahl Heeb, Gate, Lucerne Cheesemakers
I’d like to select Stahl for the mere reason that he provided me with some details as to what was said at the intermission that so rejuvenated himself and his teammates. I’d like to, but Stahl provided me no such aid, remaining as tight-lipped as his inspiring leader. Thus, I have to highlight him for his stellar play for the full 83. He was one of the few whose head was in the game during the lackluster first half. Were it not for his play on the defensive end, the fifteen points scored by his mates might not have been enough to secure one more game for them all.
PREDICTION
Championship – Lucerne v. Besançon Besançon 22 Lucerne 14. Each team was formidable in their second halves this week. The winner of the Meadow Cup, however, will be the team that plays the more complete match. The Artisans have experienced fewer flat spots thus far, and I expect that tendency to continue when it matters most. Lucerne will have the larger crowds and the home Meadow advantage, but Jacques Perreault will have his men ready for the task. Vive la France one more time.