Friday

OK, the Claymores are playing in Amsterdam - so we fly to Dusseldorf! And that means another night in Knoten Bar of course!

Who said the Claymores were trash? Interesting NFLE recycle bins in Altstadt + Shuggie + Motorbike

Saturday

Game Day 1 - Amsterdam!

Tailgating Trench Crew style! Please check out these guys website -

http://www.tonv.demon.nl/admirals/mainadmirals.htm

Thanks for the tailgating guys!

Cheddar and Trench Crew united! Here Ross displays off his rather fetching tartan (while looking partially sober on film - surely a first?), while Ton smiles completely unaware that the Can of Whoop Ass he just opened was upside down!

A new young Claymores fan perhaps? No - its Front Office Fester back out on the road! And buying beers! (Though Shuggie's appears to be empty). And partying with fans in the stands! And barking like hounds when we were on defense! (Though Miss Jackson's bark was little more than a tiny yelp we have to report). Had we entered some kind of parallel universe?

Kickoff at the Olympic Stadium. Did we say that we LOVE this place? To find out why see below …

Game Report ...

It was all one-way traffic in the Olympic Stadium on Saturday night as the Claymores rolled to yet another comprehensive victory, by dismantling the Admirals 42-10. And it really was "one-way", as one of the end zones was deemed unusable just hours before kickoff due to some dodgy Astroturf, so offenses had to go "one-way" all night. No problem for the Scots who logged 6 TD's in front of the ecstatic travelling fans each time!

Scoops is wide open for TD #1

On just the 3^rd play of the game, the Claymores D made their mark, when QB Ron Powlus's pass ended up in the arms of Jon "Hands" Hesse (via a helmet deflection), who rumbled all the way to the 5 yard line. (We speculate that Jon took a knee here rather than risk running into the "unsafe endzone") Then it was "all change" as the teams had to swap ends. This obviously confused the Admirals as they forgot to bring along a CB to cover Dr. Scoops who was split wide left. Kevin Daft immediately spotted this and #81 gratefully hauled in perhaps the easiest touchdown in the history of the league. Seven zip Claymores.

Donnie Sellers celebrates his 4^th TD in 3 weeks

After forcing an Admirals punt, the Claymores marched 93 yards for another score, with Daft finding Sellers three times on the drive - the last one being for a 15 yard TD - his 4^th in 3 weeks.

Aaron Stecker takes out a Sky Sports camera - that will teach them for not showing the game live!

After an exchange of punts, the Claymores D played pinball with another Powlus pass, and after Chris Ward tipped it, Blaine McElmurry caught the ball for his 4^th pick of the year. Then 3 plays later QB Marcus Crandell, now in for Daft in the 2^nd quarter, scampered round left end for a 7 yard TD behind a great Ricky Brady block.

Siran Stacy waits to get his first carry in 3 years

The Admirals finally got some offense going when Juan Johnson took a screen pass 36 yards deep into Claymores territory, but the Hounds held and the Admirals had to settle for a 28 yard FG. Any momentum was immediately lost however when Sulecio Sanford took the ensuing kickoff to the house for a spectacular 95 yard TD to make it 28-3.

And still the Claymores weren't done, as Crandell led a terrific 2 minute drill hitting Damon Gibson first for 37 yards, and then again 2 plays later for a 26 yard score. The 35 half-time points tied the league record that the Claymores had set in Berlin last season.

Blaine McElmurry got his league leading 4^th INT of the year

Any hopes of another Cardiac Kinds comeback for the Admirals disappeared in the 3^rd quarter when Aaron Stecker got loose for a 40 yard run and followed it up 3 plays later by taking a Daft swing pass 7 yards to paydirt.

Siran is back!

The Admirals did get a consolation score as Daft saw his interception streak end when CB Rico Clark picked off a pass and took it back 29 yards for a score to make it 42-10. (The touchdown was good despite it being in the illegal end zone). Then the 4^th quarter again became the "Claymores National Procession" as the likes of Rowelle Blenman and Takayuki Sunaga saw time on offense. Oh and some guy called Stacy got in for some carries much to the delight of the Claymores fans. It's good to have you back sir!

Rasheed the Hound!

So 5 and 3, but no time for complacency as next week's opponents the Fire KILLED the Galaxy on Sunday 53-14 (believe us - we were there and thar was more of a blowout than the Claymores game). A loss to the Fire could set the unwanted task of making the Week 10 game in Barcelona "Do or Die". However beating the Fire, would all but secure a WB trip given our points differential (a win plus a Dragons loss would seal it).

Steck gets ready to do the first Lambeau Leap in League History! Well Olympic Stadium Leap anyway!

He makes it no problem and gets some protective headgear for his troubles!

But what goes up, must come down!

 Everybody gets one OK?

Mrs Crandell and Mrs Stecker were both in high spirits after their men both scored TD's on Saturday!

The Admirals mascot ("It's a Duck not an Albatross!) gets Cheddar pay back from spraying us last season!

The players were great after the game. All in all our best ever experience of fan-player interaction at a road game! Well done guys!

After that, it was back to Dusseldorf to get set for the 2^nd leg of our doubleheader!

Sunday

Wake up in Dusseldorf and board the Fire buses to Frankfurt!

We were getting kinda worried when the buses set off and no beer had been loaded. But this was no problem. We just drove to the Schlosser Alt brewery, and the massive iron gates magically opened and we helped ourselves! It was like getting into Fort Knox!

BBQ time in the Waldstadion again!

Shuggie inspects it once again. These German guys must think we've never seen food before! Big thanks to www.football-fan.de among others once again!

Fire Brothers setting up!

Who is the Cheesehead now?

Oh-oh! Crazy Scottish dancing time. Cheddars go flying again. Among the many egging us on here are Marco and Petra who run an excellent web site www.touchdownfire.de - with lots of pictures from this weekend!

Now Preston don't feel so good! Or maybe he doesn't believe Christof who tells him that when Bill "Bubba" Clinton visited his hometown Aachen on Friday - he didn’t go window shopping!

Time out Shuggie!

The Galaxy may be having a losing season - but at least they have an original nickname!

A re-acquaintance of sorts with Yvonne, Vanessa and Danny. We had met these girls first in week 9, 1998 when Shuggie and some other Claymores fans "front flashed" them among others. Amazingly they captured this on film precisely, and despite a large monetary sum, Preston couldn't buy the picture off them at the World Bowl 98!

Shuggie weighs up the positives and negatives of a bucking Bronco and a hot girl! I said 'bucking'!

And decides he'll have a bit of that please! Poor Preston is left calming the boyfriend who has a careful watch of Shuggie's careless tongue!

As always huge huge huge thanks to Sausage and Fire.Pl@net for making the whole weekend happen - be it accommodation, travel, beer, game tickets, haggling with McDonalds at 3am for food or calming a bus load of Fire fans after the game who were waiting 30 minutes for the Scottish Clowns to turn up! (Sorry about that …)

Fire WR Kai-Erik Lyck scores to make it about 200-7. What a whipping this was. And we thought we won big on Saturday! FIRE 53 GALAXY 14!

After that, it was back to Dusseldorf again (eventually) for a couple of hours sleep before 'hopping' on the 7am flight to London to be in work for 10am. What a struggle … But the weekend was worth every bit of it of course!

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