Silvers Build AL’s Longest Win Streak / Composers’ Sour Tunes / Math Matters
Observations & Opinions
From Harold Abrahams – Special Correspondent for TSS
And from Zino Stiles-Johnson – Correspondent for TSS
Ebensee, Austria – By Harold Abrahams – Special Correspondent for TSS
I had not traveled to Ebensee am Traunsee to see a match in almost three years, so I felt eager to step off the train on the Friday before the Salters hosted the first–place Aggsbach White Canons in an important Week 15 Wheat League contest. This close–knit community of some 7700 Austrians are united by, as much as by anything else, their love of their team. Even after several years’ absence, I remembered this quickly, for I had not walked more than 100 feet from the station before I saw a sign plastered in the window of a butcher shop: 27—0. Two doors away, in a shop selling watches and jewelry: 27—0. On a public notice board, dotted among a photo of a missing cat, an offer of guitar lessons and a flyer for a new Book Club, were many small stickers printed in the Salters’ blue and gold colors: 27—0.
Scores stay in my head. I (and 7700 residents of Ebensee) knew this particular tally – this 27—0 – was the score back in Week Nine when the Salters’ close neighbors and fierce rivals from Bad Ischl drove 12 miles up the B145 motorway, took the field against Ebensee, and were beaten off the Meadow by their unfriendly hosts. The desire for victory burns hot here, I was reminded throughout the day.
This town is defined in large part by its stunning geography; enclosed by the Salzkammergut Mountains and standing at the southern end of the miles–long Traunsee, Ebensee boasts much natural beauty. However, those mountains funnel wind across the long flat surface of the lake and, on the Saturday of Week 15, made for an insistent, never–ceasing and numbingly cold wind.
In a match that would go some ways toward determining the automatic promotion claimant and the participants in the 2-3 in three weeks, the Canons and the Salters would be battling each other as well as this frigid wind.
I found myself, an hour before the First Bell, in a mountaineering shop called Volkie buying and putting on a thick layer of long underwear underneath my more professional garb. I would like to have found out the origins of that store name, but I haven’t missed the opening of a match in 23 years, and I didn’t want to break my streak.
I arrived with minutes to spare, saw Br. Martin Eder complete his pre–match prayer, and heard the Austrian anthem. But once the match started, Aggsbach appeared unready for the battle and under–dressed for the cold. Ebensee Captain Fabian Weber led a lightning attack against an Aggsbach team that was not prepared for the speed of Schleissman Xavian Strobl and Farmhand Jens Popper, who, after Strobl’s efforts got the host team close, ran in for an early 4—0 lead. The celebration of the 4,000 fans was a bit (literally) muffled: applause was muted as thick gloves beat against each other, and cheers and songs had to fight their way through scarves and balaclavas.
But Aggsbach has been a resilient group this year, having dedicated themselves to climbing back into the Alpine League this season and into the Tyrol within the next three. Their heartfelt pledges to that effect, made before thousands of fans in the town square last October and seen by millions of viewers on the TSS website and on other internet platforms, endeared this Original Eight team to many otherwise–neutral supporters, groups that have become the Canons’ ‘Acolytes,’ as new branches of their fan club are called.
Schleissman Christian Riedl, Zino Stiles–Johnson’s Week 4 TSS ‘Player of the Week,’ seemed the first Aggsbach player to wake from whatever torpor caused their slow start, and his energy and eagerness were vital to a 3 that brought the visitors to a one–point deficit. However, Ebensee seemed the better and more desperate team throughout the 40 and deserved their 12–7 lead at the interval.
More desperate? Yes. The Salters and Sankt Moritz entered Week 15 trailing Innsbruck by 3 points (24s to 27) in the scramble to get into the 2–3, and with the Downhillers facing a middling Passau team, no Salters or Pioneers were counting on the Wolfsmiths to take points away from Innsbruck. Klagenfurt, already on 30 points, were hosting a crumbling 3–win Mulhouse team. Aggsbach were safely on 30 after last week’s 14—13 victory over Bad Ischl. So, Ebensee had to win this game: get to 27 points or potentially face a 6–point deficit in the Wheat League standings with three matches remaining. A grim prospect.
But math and desperation were not enough to stop the superior team from asserting itself in the 43. Soon after the Bell started the second stanza, Gate Andreas Ehn punched the ball out of Weber’s arms, and an alert Eder plucked it out of the cold air and sprinted in for a 4. 21—11. The 4000 fans’ nervous response soon turned to dismay as Farmhand Bastian Eisl, looking more lively with each passing minute, matched Eder with another 4 six minutes later. 15—12, White Canons.
Aggsbach came to Ebensee and accomplished the task facing them; they claimed their 11th win and got to 33 points. With matches at home against Bergamo and away to Passau, they seem to have a chance to reach 40 points and win the Wheat outright or be safely into the 2–3. Klagenfurt seem locked into one of those three slots as well. So, Aggsbach’s Week 18 match at fellow Original Eight rival Innsbruck will settle it all.
Vienna, Austria – By Zino Stiles-Johnson – Correspondent for TSS
Remember Champions Night – March 25, 2025. Just 11 months ago? Of course, the evening was rightly dominated by a parade of all things Bernese. They were the 17—2—0 champions and earned five Medals and held the Tyrol Cup.
But, after the Armed Bears, the team that had the finest night and, seemingly, could boast of as promising a prospect for a grand Season 154 and beyond as any other Tyrol League resident were the dashing, daring Vienna Composers. Everyone bowed to Mule Brunner and Felix Moser and company that night, but here’s a record of Vienna’s night late last March: Captain and Center Nicolas Irmiger … second to only Paul Lackner in the Steinwender Medal race and tied for 3rd with La Comete himself, Henri Tissier, in the Klammer Medal standings. Versatile and dynamic Willi Muhr, a mere lad of 22, winner of the Grexxam Medal as Best Schleissman. The Composers were runners–up for the Ringmauer Medal, second to the always formidable Cortina Riflers’ defense. And Manager Artur Hoffman claimed the Runner–Up place to Bern’s Luke Bossard, who was properly an unanimous winner of the Menger Medal.
On many Saturdays – last season – the attack led by Irmiger, Muhr and Farmhand Johann Trimme were as swift in movement and unpredictable in play as anything that Bern could produce. Eurig Frode was emerging as a Gate to rival Moser, Marcello Rinaldi or Hugo Thurner.
This team was in the Tyrol Cup Final last March and, while no observer of the match thought the Composers were ever close to forging ahead, their 15—9 loss was more than respectable and, again, pointed to a group that would contend for many years.
So … since Goose Day, what has happened? Vienna clobbered Brenta 26—12 on St. Leopold’s Day, looking like the sharp squad that played for a championship in March. Then, a loss at Zurich (which turns out, with the Tirggel having an even more profound collapse than Vienna, to be a very poor result), a loss at home to unimpressive Trento, then a demoralizing 14—0 shutout loss at home to Salzburg (the Edelweiss’ defense is superb this season … but, defend your home Meadow!) … and the season imploded.
After a lifeless 17—3 home defeat to the Grenoble Gantiers, when Tissier was a far more effective player than Irmiger – the man who matched him point–for–point last year – I sat down with Artur Hoffman, Eurig Frode, and team Captain Nicolas Irmiger (all credit to Irmiger for his resolve in joining us following a match during which he struggled in midfield and attack). After recounting and applauding their successes of last season and confirming that the players have not been suffering from unannounced injuries or some other crises, I plunged in.
ZS–J: You are 5—10—0, eliminated from the Playoff race, and much closer to relegation than the heights you reached last year. Why?
Irmiger: I have been very poor this season. I never made assumptions that we would return to the playoffs or beat these other nine extraordinary teams, and I prepared as hard as ever, but my outcomes on the field, organizing the attack, distributing the ball, scoring, have all been second–best. At best.
Frode: Nicolas is too harsh on himself. The defense – me, the other Gates, the Locks – have been in a back–and–forth battle with Füssen to see who can yield the most points in the Tyrol. We have given up 91 more points than the Edelweiss through 15 matches. Inexcusable.
Hoffman (with an ironic smile): Don’t exclude me. After that Week 4 debacle against Salzburg, I tried several moves to enliven the boys. I asked Didi Leiner, an excellent Forward who has been a Farmhand since he was playing in the Baby Leagues (there’s an old expression from an old–fashioned Wiesespiel man!), to try a few matches at Wing. He is a selfless teammate, so he tried it. You saw how that turned out. I brought Michael Schreiber’s little brother up from the Junior Team after we gave up 27 points to Cortina – Cortina never scores 27 points! I wanted to see if we could stiffen the Gate line.
Frode: Don’t fault that decision. We’d lost four matches in a row. And Wolfie is going to be excellent, and we went to Grenoble the next Saturday and smashed the Gants 24—0. I thought, THERE it is! We’re on track.
Irmiger: And then we win again in Week 7 – 26—24, and we were encouraged.
ZS–J: Thill Brenner covered that for TSS. You were his Player of the Week. You were brilliant that day.
Irmiger (waving that away): Perhaps. That was the one time this season I looked as if I belong in the Tyrol League, not the Lunchbox League; no offense to those men! They are many of our most loyal supporters.
ZS–J: Yes, the season has had some moments of success and team cohesion. But why are you – one of the more talented and promising teams in all the AL – in a fight to not drop into the Alpine League?
Hoffman: You just said it. Cohesion. That’s why the fault rests on me. Nicolas can call out signals and positions, and does so expertly, but I arrange line–ups and formations, I decide on substitutions and when someone needs to come off the field. Most of this lost year is on me.
ZS–J: How do you avoid relegation?
Hoffman: We won the Tyrol Cup in 2013. Only our 5th ever. Before that, we won in 1965. Before that … 1911. 102 years to collect 3 Cups. That ’65 team was going to win annually. The team was stocked with talent.
ZS–J: I know. Jacob Gelder, Harold Abrahams’ mentor, wrote that year that “This is the greatest team in Vienna since Wolfgang Mozart and Joseph Haydn met in the Capital City in 1781.”
Hoffman: Exactly. Every Composers fan knows that line. But, after making the Cup final in 1966, and losing to Bern, the team came apart. Two years after that, we were in the wilderness. The Alpine, then the Wheat for four years. Believe me, the weight of this franchise, 154 years of it, are not lost on the men before you.
Irmiger: How often do people who love this sport shrug and say, “that’s the Meadow Game” when something inexplicable occurs? A wild play, a surprising final score, a lost season. We are disappointed that the Game would choose us to treat so cruelly this year, but I don’t know if we can say we’re surprised that some team was chosen by the ‘fickle gods.’
Frode: But, we’ll avoid relegation. We must.
Irmiger: Let’s talk again this time next season. It’ll be a far sunnier conversation, I believe. [Editors’ Note: the ‘Lunchbox League’ comprise teams that play at lunchtime in factories and on construction sites.]
PLAYER of the WEEK:
Abrahams: Anton Trenker / Farmhand – Innsbruck. The Wheat League comes to the fore for me in Week 15. In addition to watching Ebensee host Aggsbach, my Player of the Week is Anton Trenker, a noteworthy Farmhand for Innsbruck. During the Downhillers’ 22—2 romp past the over-matched Passau Wolfsmiths, Trenker piled up 12 points – a season high for him and a scoring total that any Forward would be delighted to accumulate. This selection may be a mite slow in coming, given that it extends Trenker’s lead atop the scoring table in the Wheat League, and it will be of particular delight for Liselle Bachmann and Trenker’s cadre of fans who admire the handsome young standout. If these names are only vaguely familiar to you, go back a mere one week and read Zino Stiles–Johnson’s account of her day in Innsbruck in Week 14 and her meeting with Frau Bachmann, who opined that young Herr Trenker is a “dream.” Wolfsmiths Gates might dub him a nightmare, but either way, the Downhillers are in a strong position as the playoffs near, in no small part due to Trenker’s scoring exploits.
Stiles-Johnson:Marcello Rinaldi / Gate – Cortina. In what has been a lackluster season for the three–time winner of the Tor Medal, Rinaldi submitted a performance in Week 15 that asserted his claim to be one of the finest Defenseman of his generation. The Riflers have a negative +/- with three matches remaining, an affront to this proud Italian and the Gates he commands each Saturday. The 207 points they have surrendered are 72 more than the mere 135 allowed by Hugo Thurner and the other Edelweiss, a figure that Rinaldi admits he finds shameful. But in Cortina’s 10—0 win at Brenta, Rinaldi knocked over Bargemen as if they were bowling pins, refusing to yield a yard, let alone a point, to his Italian rivals. “This season belongs to Big Hugo,” Rinaldi said after the win, “but today our defense played like proper Riflers.”
ONE FINAL NOTE:
Abrahams: When TSS hired me in 1983, they answered a prayer I had been raising to our good God since I was 10 years old (the year my family moved to Salzburg from England, and I learned there was both a glorious sport called Wiesespiel and a Sporting Newspaper of Record that wrote the definitive articles, histories and profiles of this grand athletic enterprise). In this space today, I am paying tribute, again, as I have many times, to Jacob Gelder, who granted me access to sporting heaven by offering me a position as a Junior Correspondent, fact–checker, copyeditor and all–around dogsbody [to use an old English expression that Mr. Gelder enjoyed after I introduced him to it – even showing it to him in print in Ian Fleming’s novel Moonraker, to prove the term existed. Such was Mr. Gelder’s breadth and width of reading and scholarship that he didn’t believe that I, 23 years old and a recent University graduate, might know even a single word that he didn’t. That obscure old term was probably the only example I had to prove him wrong.]
Born on February 26, 1926, Mr. Gelder was 57 when he offered me the only job I have held since I graduated from Merton College, Oxford. He was my mentor and teacher, editor and guide until he retired from TSS in 2004, aged 78, and still my better and my role model. He could not write about Vienna, for instance, without his love and knowledge of classical music shaping his writing (and I thank Ms. Stiles–Johnson for her tip of her hat this week in her own article to Mr. Gelder’s famous line about the 1965 Vienna team). Mr. Gelder’s story deserves a book–length treatment (it’s my plan to create just that when I retire, if I ever do, from TSS); a devout Jewish man, he met Francis Schaeffer in Switzerland in 1958 at a Matterhorn versus Chamonix Meadow Cup match, stayed at Schaeffer’s Christian retreat at L’Abri for months at a time, and converted to Christianity in 1961. His gentle handling of his staff at TSS, his humble spirit and his easy laughter all formed the atmosphere at this place where I am blessed to work and serve our readers.
Surrounded by Hadassah, his wife of 65 years, his five surviving children, and most of his 22 grandchildren, Jacob Gelder passed away in peace at age 88 in Vienna, his adopted hometown.
My hero would have been 100 years old this week. God bless him.
Stiles–Johnson: A remarkable thing happened on a Meadow this past Saturday. With 32 matches contested, of course something remarkable happened. But I don’t mean a run, a pass, a kick, a tackle or a surprising outcome. I mean a gesture.
Leading 10—4 with 6 minutes remaining and Salzburg’s defense being what it is this year, the Edelweiss were easing to a comfortable if somewhat lackadaisical win at last–place Zurich. Paul Lackner, whose impeccable play this year seems destined to lead him to re–claim some of the medals he watched Leonhard Brunner win last season, took the ball from midfield, swept to his left, shouldered Gate Augustus Kleiss to the turf (… and Kleiss weighs 230 pounds), and saw an open field for a player fast enough to evade the Cookies’ other defensemen. Lackner is certainly fast enough to have done that and scored a 3 or 4 that would solidify the Flowers’ lead … and also increase his own lead in the Klammer Medal scoring table – a title he’s won three times but relinquished to the Mule 11 months ago.
However, Lackner is his teammates’ chosen Captain, and a quintessential one at that, a man determined to put those other men first. Halfway through the 43, Salzburg Manager Peter Grünwald, seeking to rest players here and there as the playoffs approach, had withdrawn Farmhand Theo Mossman and sent on young Ingo Fellner, who shifts from Wing to Forward as needed. Fellner has looked unready at times, and finds himself out of position on occasion, as Hugo Thurner’s thunderous reprimands from the Gate line have indicated. But he’s a fighter, and the Salzburg brass believe in his potential. On this occasion, he sprinted downfield to cause mayhem and make room for his Center and Captain to take the ball in. Indeed, two Zurich defenders, the 4-goal line and Paul Lackner all converged. The Field Mouse – all speed, power and momentum – must surely have scored.
But he didn’t. He pitched the ball in a soft arc to his left, letting Fellner run under the lateral at full speed, with no defenders to impede him. Fellner had not scored a point at the Senior level. Until now. His 4 resulted in the final score of 14—4.
Lackner, chasing the scoring title and on track to set a new personal single–season scoring record, gave the ball to a boy who later, proud and trying to not cry, gave the ball to his proud mother, who made no effort to hide her own tears.
That’s remarkable.
Yet, at roughly the same time that Lackner set up his teammate to score his first points, 130 miles away in Füssen, Bern were locked in a tight struggle with the Triskelions. Mule Brunner, second in the Klammer Medal scoring table, had had a fine afternoon, but not one likely to reel in the Salzburg man in that individual scoring battle. Brunner is a selfless player as well, but as the lead Farmhand on a team lacking a distinguished second- and third-scoring option, Brunner has been expected to punch in as many 3s and 4s as he can manage. So, when an injury to Schleissman Res Minnig, the team’s second–leading scorer put that talented Wing on the bench while the Bears were trailing 13—12, Luke Bossard called on an unproven youngster, Wing Alex Bodenmann, to support Mule and find the points they needed to stay in a Top 3 that will make the fast–approaching Playoffs.
With 3 minutes remaining, Brunner broke free, as he often does, and also seemed goal-bound, as Lackner had. Rarely does one man confront and stop a Mule at full speed, but as the Triskelions piled on, Brunner, within feet of the score and the glory, casually flipped the ball to his right and found Bodenmann, who was coming to help propel his mighty teammate into the 3 that awaited the Bears’ talisman. Instead, Bodenmann strolled in and claimed the points necessary to give Bern the 15—13 victory that became official two minutes later.
Doubly remarkable.
Lackner and Brunner will meet at the Champions’ Night dinner in a month or so and laugh about this. And everyone else, observers and admirers of Wiesespiel, will simply appreciate the sportsmanship and selflessness that are two more reasons the game appeals to a rapidly growing audience.