A Dolomite Drops a Challenge / Weather Weighs In / Lackner Stays on Pace
Observations & Opinions
From Harold Abrahams – Special Correspondent for TSS
And from Zino Stiles-Johnson and Thill Brenner – Correspondents for TSS
Kitzbühel, Austria – By Harold Abrahams – Special Correspondent for TSS
Only two weeks ago, my colleague Zino Stiles–Johnson attended Kitzbühel’s riotous 29—29 draw with Cortina and wrote of the cowbells ringing through the valley, their noise echoing off the mountainsides and hanging over the Heuwiese when the Hahnenkamms play a game of Wiesespiel. And while TSS enjoys visiting far–flung meadows and featuring teams outside of the Tyrol League (indeed, Ms. Stiles–Johnson wrote of a Barrel League match just days ago), sometimes circumstances and the schedule dictate that we reporters find ourselves in Bern, Salzburg, Vienna, Zermatt …. For example: when the Tyrol Cup holders from Bern, having endured a substantial defeat at the hands of a rampant Edelweiss team, next face a tense visit to an unbeaten Kamms squad, well, TSS is going to be there.
Late Saturday evening, dining with several friends at Huberbrau Stuberl (at Vorderstadt 18 – it’s excellent and friendly), I reflected that I could not have spent a more rewarding day as a professional fortunate enough to write about the Meadow Game. The Hahnenkamms were a mite sharper than the Armed Bears, and the 13—12 decision that lifted the home side to a 3—0—1 record and first place in the Tyrol League was nobly fought by both teams. The player of the match (see below, in fact) was Kitzbühel Schliessman Claus Binder, a prodigy who won the Thaler Medal in 2023 and is adding tactical awareness to his game. To that end, Binder seemed as proud of his tackling and defensive contributions as he was of a skot he scored halfway through the 43.
2023 was a golden year for this Original Eight team as they won their first Tyrol Cup in 125 seasons; their relentless, speedy attacks led to any number of lop-sided victories and a nickname – ‘The Giant Slalom’ – for that prolific team. Already this season, my colleagues and I have been guilty of predictions and claims that, a week later, were exposed as unfounded or comically incorrect: Bern will not go 19—0—0 and Vienna is not on an inevitable climb toward the top of the Tyrol League. So, all I can currently write with surety is that after four matches, Kitzbühel leads the League and has scored the most points (90) and looks fast and explosive. In a month, Vienna and Zurich may have solved their offensive woes and regained their promise of last spring, and Bern may be reasserting the form that dominated the Tyrol last year. But I will suggest that Binder, Gregor Heigl, Florenz Mader and the other Hahnenkamms will prove very difficult to keep from the Top Three and the playoffs next March.
Zurich, Switzerland – By Zino Stiles-Johnson – Correspondent for TSS
Jovanni Insigne, one of Trento’s Farmhands, and a proud Dolomite since he joined the senior squad 11 seasons ago, feels like talking. In a lovely, accented English, Insigne spoke for forty-five minutes about Trento’s team and season so far, TSS’s paean just last week to ‘The Italian Mystery,’ and the perception other nations have of how The Big Three (Trento, Brenta and Cortina) approach the Meadow Game as a whole.
The Dolomiti had just edged the Zurich Tirggel 3—0 in Switzerland on the strength of two kick conversions by Farmhand Davide Lombardi and one from Center Orso Veratti, moving the Italian visitors to a record of 3—1—0 and into a tie with Salzburg at 9 points, 1 behind the leaders Kitzbühel. After a discussion of the game itself, of Trento’s magnificent defensive display, of what it takes to shut down Ozi Mannheim and his teammates for 83 minutes, he wished to discuss the “Final Note” from last week’s TSS, which wrestled with the so–called “Italian Mystery” – the struggle that Austrian and Swiss teams have to unlock defenses their Southern neighbors deploy.
“What you wrote is true as a whole: Italian teams do build from the defense forward; we are naturally a pugnacious people. I have talked about this with members of the Azzurri [TSS editor’s note: that is ‘The Blues’ – the name of the Italian national football team] and their love of catenaccio [TSS editor’s note, again: that is the famed smothering Italian football defensive system); like that team, which seems content to win 1—0 or on penalty kicks, we delight in a 3—0 victory after two hours of frustrating our opponents. But, you see,” and here the Italian laughed and shrugged, “I too want to lift the Klammer Medal. When I was a boy, I dreamed of scoring 100 points … 120 points … 140 points! Me, the Mule, Paul Lackner … we compete to be the leading scorer. But that is just a dream, because the Italian Way is to play locks, for defensemen to stay in the back third, to break the wills of the Austrians and Swiss and French. The Edelweiss … they are fast, yes, glamourous. We are tough.”
When your correspondent mentioned that, through four matches, the glamourous Austrians had scored 21 more points but had also allowed 7 fewer, Insigne nodded a concession. “They are very good. We shall see when we play them.” He finished his red wine (of course an Italian drinks wine after a match) and stood to go. “We have one loss, to Bern. Everyone can lose to Bern. And Salzburg? They have one loss as well. Do you remember who beat them …?”
He smiled as I said, “Yes, I remember.”
“Brenta. In Salzburg.”
“I know.”
“And where is Brenta from?”
“Italy.”
“Yes. So we shall see.”
Eisenerz, Austria – By Thill Brenner – Correspondent for TSS
Every scribe who has covered Wiesespiel for a few seasons or for forty (as has TSS’s own esteemed Special Correspondent Harold Abrahams) concludes – in print and in any discussion – that one simply cannot predict the Meadow Game. People do try: prognosticators, sports reporters and any person who bets a few Euros on a match is guessing what an outcome will be. But while it is fun to speculate, it’s also madness to do so.
It may be claimed that, in general, teams in the Tyrol League feature defenses that are hardened, coaches tend to take fewer risks than those in the lower Leagues, and locks outnumber wings at the Schliessman position. So, naturally, the highest–scoring match of the season through four Saturdays in any of the six Leagues was the zany 29—29 Alpine League tilt between Kitzbühel and Cortina. Remember, too, that the Riflers are current holders of the Ringmauer Medal, awarded to the stingiest defense in the AL, which adds to the unpredictability of these matches.
So, let’s assess briefly the absurdity of any random Saturday in Wiesespiel, from the tense, low–scoring battle in Zurich to the wild affairs in Klagenfurt, Mettmenstetten, Chambéry, Ivres, and Bülach. As reported above, the Dolomites and Tirggel scored 3 points total. Those other five matches averaged 48.4 points per match. Now, of course, one can find substantial differences among match scores every week … but that hardly does anything to disprove my point: the Meadow Game is utterly capricious.
For example, the Middies took the field to face Ulm with a 0—3—0 record and a –28 point differential. No one is mistaking the Steeples for the 1990 Munich Lederhosen, but the Middies’ defense, missing two Gates through injury most of the year to date, has been largely unable to stop opponents. And once again, on Saturday, Mettmenstetten defensemen Johan Winzenried and Märti Abt were hobbled and could only cheer their mates from the sidelines. Nevertheless, with snow falling for the entire 43, the Mettmenstetten players rallied from a 23—16 deficit and, with perhaps a minute remaining, Center Balderik Dressler broke through the Steeple Gates and claimed the four points that produced the final 26—23 tally. Swiss fans were delighted by it all: the unexpected win, the lovely snow and the holiday atmosphere.
Across a belt of central Switzerland and Austria, weather bit deeply into many matches: a nasty mix of sleet and rain on top of an already cold, slick field turned the Matterhorn–Eisenerz match into a battle of two teams against each other but also against poor traction and hypothermia (or maybe that was just me suffering from the cold). The air was heavy with an invasive mist that obscured the fans’ view of the action and a chill that challenged even the Oresmen’s most avid supporters to stick out the end of the match. Eisenerz’s dominance encouraged fans to stay with promise of a victory, and the 12—4 outcome hardly reflects the ineffectiveness of the Black Eagles’ attack on this day.
The most recent World Cup of football was played in, of all places, Qatar – hardly a football power. Due to that Middle Eastern nation’s cruel heat, the tournament was moved to late autumn and winter and, even then, the matches were played in climate–controlled domed stadia. Similarly, the Americans’ so–called “Super Bowl,” a spectacle to be sure, is also often contested in an arena hidden away from the notoriously brutal winter conditions one finds in Los Angeles, Miami and Glendale, Arizona.
Meanwhile, the sturdy men of the Austrian League trudge through mud and muck, slip across icy fields, frolic in snow (it’s the Alps … in winter!), shield their eyes in heavy rain … and shake their heads at the idea of playing on artificial surfaces inside a cavernous domed stadium. Advantage … Wiesespiel.
PLAYER of the WEEK:
Abrahams: Claus Binder / Schliessman – Kitzbühel. The consensus among Kitzbühel fans and the TSS historians and writers is that the greatest player in team history is Center Franz Fuchs – the Fox – a gifted player who engineered the Hahnenkamms’ 23–year residence in the Tyrol League from 1963–1987, an enduring career that was constant, creative and effective … but also somewhat frustrating for Fuchs and the team. Fuchs’ tenacity and reliability over almost a quarter century earned him TSS’ rating as the 16th–greatest player in Wiesespiel history … but this accomplished star walked away with a collection of hardware that almost any other player would envy but, given this man is the best player ever for an O8 team, must be deemed modest. Fuchs earned 2 Waldmüller Medals, a Kernan, 2 Klammers, 2 Steinwenders, a Purtscheller, and one Meadow Cup. And while every team covets the Meadow Cup, even that achievement was undercut by the fact that the Tyrol Cup was claimed months earlier that year by … you guessed it … Innsbruck. Throughout Fuchs’ career, better teams – it just must be said – denied the Kamms more championships: Matterhorn won four straight Tyrol Cups from 1971–74, and no team could possibly resist that juggernaut, and Salzburg and Munich also both won back–to–back titles in that same decade. Claus Binder comes into this because many people who love this team believe that the 22–year old former Thaler Medal winner will become this club’s greatest player in time and cite displays such as he offered on Saturday in scoring 6 points (a skot, 2 kicks), running tirelessly, tackling back dutifully, leading with ferocity and urging older players to find the energy to keep Mule Brunner and the rest of the defending champion Bern side at bay. And the Hahnenkamms did, winning 13–12 on a raw, cold, wet day. Binder was the Man of the Match, and Kitzbühel sits atop the Tyrol League. Manager Helmut Mair evaluated the game with this bon mot: “We can’t win the Tyrol League in the fourth week, but I’d rather us have 10 points and the lead rather than, say, 3 points and be under the threat of relegation.” With Binder in this form, they may avoid that particular tension this season.
Stiles–Johnson: Though he selected Isak Ammeter as his Player of the Week after his very late skot carried Sankt Moritz to a Week One win over Aggsbach, Harold Abrahams said he was going to choose, as he wrote, “the White Canons’ Christian Riedl, one of the enterprising youngsters who have the supporters of this Original Eight team hoping for a return to prominence.” After a delay of three weekends’ worth of play, and after the Canons’ 26—22 victory at Klagenfurt, Riedl receives my nod here; he is a traditional Schliessman – a diligent Lock who shifts into attack with great alacrity and speed. Riedl is very good and, despite a slender frame that seems ill–suited to the collisions these men endure for 83 minutes every Saturday, eager to throw himself into every fray. As Ammeter had done to his team in Week One, so Riedl’s late skot decided a close match in his team’s favor. Aggsbach does not appear, so far, to be in the class of the Wheat League–leading Innsbruck Downhillers, but they are certainly in the discussion to vie for the 2–3.
Brenner: Gabriel Thur / Gate – Eisenerz. I’ll keep this brief, and I’ll stay in Eisenerz, where I enjoyed the Oresman’s 12—4 victory over Matterhorn. It is an event whenever the legendary club from Zermatt arrives in town, and this Austrian village welcomed the 17–time Tyrol Cup champions graciously, and then handed them their first defeat of the season. Thur captained the team and organized a very aggressive and relentless line of Gates that was, essentially, with two withdrawn Locks, a five–man defense. Given the footing as sleet and rain fell, the conservative approach Eisenerz took was wise and effective. Thur’s effort in tracking down and tackling the swift Black Eagle Schliessman Pascal Haueter was emblematic of his commitment to keeping a clean score sheet, and he was none too happy when the Swiss team finally breached the Oresman resistance with 6 minutes remaining to avoid being shut out. For a mature performance in hard conditions, Thur is my choice this week.
ONE FINAL NOTE:
Abrahams: Everyone associated with the Hahnenkamms – management, players, citizens of Kitzbühel and the central Tyrol who live and die by this team – say openly that they are mystified why they, an Original Eight team formed in those fateful two months in 1872, have won the Tyrol Cup only four times. Scarves that dangle around the shoulders and necks of countless fans have those four years stitched into them: 1887 … 1888 … 1898 … 2023. How could 125 years pass between titles? Kamms fans don’t even dream of the rarified realm in which Salzburg dwells: 24 Tyrol Cups …? But it galls these good people that their most ferocious natural rival – Innsbruck – have twice their total with 8 Tyrol Cups. Rival mountain paradises … rival ski resorts … rival AL teams. And, given the numbers of small villages and farms spreading out from Kitzbühel, this team is probably justified in claiming, as they long have, that their fan base covers the greatest territory of any club. So, spare a thought for the Hahnenkamms (no, of course not you, Innsbruck fans!), a team that plays a clean, open, fast and fun style of Wiesespiel, and follow their fortunes this season, as we at TSS shall.
Stiles–Johnson: Four weeks in, and I am still fascinated by the pursuit of the Klammer Medal by the leading scorers in our sport’s leading division. Below, you will find the latest list of the Alpine League’s Top Ten Scorers to date.
Two weeks ago, I called this a ‘race,’ but that term would be somewhat ill–chosen currently, as Paul Lackner’s breath–taking play, coupled with unexpected struggles of several teams to mount effective offense attacks, has seen the Field Mouse open a lead in the scoring chart that resembles the kind of margin that Johan Klammer regularly managed during his astounding heyday.
In the 1950–51 season, when Klammer amassed 144 points, an Austrian League record that remains in place 74 years later, the man who finished 2nd in scoring that season was Salzburg’s Farmhand Hermann “Horse” Hurst (son of the Edelweiss manager Horst Hurst), who scored a very creditable 98 points … which landed him 46 points behind ‘the Ghost of Innsbruck.’ Hurst was a terrific player, but that Salzburg dynasty that won three Cups on the trot was defined by Klammer’s Foil: Noah Valeman, the greatest Gate in Wiesespiel history (this was a time of giants!).
Lackner may not maintain the pace of scoring he has set so far, and the forwards and centers from Bern, Vienna, Füssen and Grenoble, among others, may emerge from their sluggish starts to Season 154. But, four matches in, Lackner’s off-season regimen aimed at increasing his speed, weight and endurance and Salzburg’s single–minded desire to get to “25,” as they say to each other (imagine: 25 Tyrol Cups) have created the chart that awaits you below.
Lackner’s highest–scoring season was 2021–2022, when he claimed the Klammer Medal with an impressive 108 points. Currently, with 44 points (a confounding 11 points a game!), he is on pace to score 198!? Remember, Klammer’s scoring dipped as the season progressed – as defenses homed in on him and weather slowed play down; Lackner may slow, as well. He won’t necessarily get to Klammer’s heretofore unapproachable 144, but if anyone will ever claim a place among those top three seasons in scoring (Klammer’s 144, 141 and 137 are 1–2–3), surely it must be this prodigy of the Meadow Game.
A final note: I find it as unusual as you do, dear readers, that the names Henri Tissier, Nicolas Irmiger, Bingo Allerspach, and Ozi Mannheim are missing from this list. Beyond that, I applaud youngsters Theo Mossman, Florenz Mader and Oronzo Favro for making early arguments for inclusion in any Thaler Medal discussion that may come up, a conversation that some experts believed would feature Vienna’s Forward Johann Trimme first. Mader and Mossman may be the second scorers that prevent opponents from concentrating fully on stopping Binder and Lackner, respectively, while Cortina’s Favro has been a swashbuckling surprise, an Italian player with the dash and style of a Frenchman.
Brenner: Do you have all 64?
I have visited 58 of the 64 cities and villages whose teams currently play in the 6 Divisions of Wiesespiel, and I have therefore collected 58 official Coats of Arms – those marvelous badges which represent the history, origin and personality of the towns, and that are sewn somewhere on the jerseys of all 64 teams playing in the 6 Divisions. Beyond that, I have 13 other Coats of Arms from teams that have been relegated out of the Barrel (and are laboring to fight their way back in through the arcane methods established in the 1880s and ‘90s), plus those of several other club teams for whom I have great affection, no matter how unlikely it is that they ever reach even the Barrel League, even for a season.
Three of the Coats of Arms that I cherish most are those for the pristine Swiss hamlets of Wengen, Lauterbrunnen, and Grindelwald, whose three–way rivalry locals call “The Triangle of Hate.” Now, that is, those who reside in those Swiss towns know, a little tongue–in–cheek, but one must say that their clashes are fearsome.
My own rule is absolute: I cannot own a Coat of Arms of any town whose Wiesespiel team I have not seen play on their home Meadow. Later this season, I hope to be able to travel to Sonthofen and Altötting and work my way closer to 64. I will feel both joy and melancholy when I complete my collection.
How many do you have? I look forward to reading your texts and e-mails; tell me your stories!
