Friday night (14/5/99)- we set off for Dusseldorf and what a night it would be! It appeared to start so well. On the British Airways Flight over, we were plied with 7 bottles of wine (including some dodgey looking English stuff), and were literally flying by the time we were met at the airport by Sausage and his welcome supply of Schlosser Alt. It was straight off to the Knoten Bar, where we met with other Fire and Claymores fans to party all night. Until Shuggie got ill and went home that is. And then I discovered that my video camera, passport and medication (plus Shuggie's still camera) had been stolen. Not good!

Saturday morning (15/5/99) - Wake up and feel like shite! Breakfast at Hotel Sausage helps a wee bit, and then it's straight off to the electrical stores to buy a new Handycam. Except they don't take VISA! Bank of Sausage steps in. No problem! Then it's off to the police station to report the theft. It would not be our last visit to a Dusseldorf police station ...

Finally we get to the Power Party at Rheinstadion, and can put all these troubles behind us. Armed with a new improved video camera it's off to do some more filming from portable toilets etc.

So we finally hooked up with the 'other' Fire brother for a historic hat swapping event!

Pictures of more people whose faces we know, but names we forget! Apologies!

Pre-game inside the stadium. Doug's looking nervous. Either because he's standing next to Gillian, or cos he's just spotted Michael Lang's can of whoop ass enter the stadium!

Kick-off at the Rheinstadion. Apparently the score was 0-0 at this stage. It didn't last ...

What a game! What game? The game starts well with a 41 yard bomb to Yo Murphy - but the Claymores will only get 80 yards offense the rest of the way. The Fire look rejuvenated behind World Bowl MVP QB Jim Arrellanes making his first start of the season - and by halftime it's 27-0! So it's time to go party down the front!

Or in Shuggie's case - time to go say hello to his favourite Pyromaniac Ivy! Once again Ivy provides him with a cup of her very own water.

Ivy celebrates as Shuggie limps off to the toilet.

There was a new boy band in town this weekend! DJ's Scott Wilson (here cheddared) and John Collins got their first taste of the Rheinstadion, and boy it didn't taste so good!

WEEK 5 CHEDDAR AWARDS

MVP - WR Yo Murphy. His 89 yard kick return for a score was one of the few highlights. His 41 yard catch on the first play, gave him the club record for yardage.

Aussie of the week - P Jon Ballantyne makes his debut with a soaring 55 yard punt.

Clowns of the Week - DB's Joey Eloms and Lee Wiggins who combined to make a total arse-up on a play they both they coverage on. The result - a 96 yard TD ctach by Kez McCovery.

Go Jessie - RB Jessie Haynes coming off a breakthrough games nets -6 yards on 6 carries.

Missing in Action - TE Shon Bell.

Super Manny Again - Fire K Manny Burgsmuller spares further blushes by failing on a late field goal that would have given the Fire 40 points. Small mercies indeed.

After the game we hang around and try to avoid eye contact with our players. One amusing moment see the team bus leave the Rheinstadion while we are talking to a bemused GM Wil Wilson, who really should have been on it.

Back to Aldstadt on the tram - getting accosted by a bunch of girls. Dragged into some club, but nobody wants to steal anything here - so it's back to Knoten!

Back to Knoten for some more robbery action indeed (Jock "Legend" Douglas also had his wallet pinched the night before). During the course of the evening, Gill will lose the travelling mascot "Little Shuggie" which is very sad. Laura (Mrs. Ton) will also lose a wallet. This is crazy!

Big thanks to Bernd Mueller for this picture! Since we lost our still camera we were restricted to non-flash photography the whole week - probably just as well looking at the state of us here! Check out Bernd's web-site at http://www.fireabernd.de!

We take a break from the drinking and head off for some peace and quiet in the nearby pizza shop. Not a chance. About a dozen Fire players walk in, and the taunting begins! "BOOM BOOM CLAYMORES!" yells LB Jamie Baisley. OC Jon Himebauch is yelling, "We kicked your ass today" and trying to order lots of cheese pizza! (He also complains about some cheap shots from our DL, and shows us a scar to prove it. We won't name names - but he certainly did). Not deterred we sneak outside and start the cheddaring! QB Jim Arellanes is first and is good chat - not surprising after his 4TD day. Jamie follows us outside and grabs the cheddar and plunks it on his head. Then he proclaims in the absolute worst Scottish accent you ever heard "I'm here with my Scottish friends and we kicked their ass today!" (This is captured on film by Ralph Pl@net - it will be a class moment at season's end).

Then Jamie suddenly discovers, that Shuggie is in fact the guy on the World Bowl 98 tape that all the players are shown in Orlando. Then he runs over to Jim, yelling "Jim, Jim, THIS IS THE GUY!". Very funny moment. (We've heard from league officials how the players always crack up when Shuggie appears on the tape singing "Boom Boom Boom...").

We cheddar some more of the offensive line - hearing many stories about the ccheap prices of hookers in Amsterdam etc etc. The only refusal is QB Mike Cherry, who will not don the Cheddarhead. Bad sport! We guess cherries and cheese don't mix ...

Finally the night ends when the morning sun breaks over the Rhein. This is Preston and Sausage getting the taxi home sometime around 6.30am.

Monday (17/5/99) and it's off to the airport to pick up our hire car and drive out to Aachen to meet our good friends Christof and Andrea.

After a great meal at an Aachen brewery, we go out to explore the sights of Aachen at night - and what sights they were! Put it this way - there's a street in Aachen where you can do a lot of window shopping at night!

Tuesday (18/5/99) and it's time to make a wee tour to Belgium and The Netherlands, which we did - all in this picture above! At the highest point in The Netherlands all 3 countries meet. Here Shuggie and Christof are in Germany, Andrea is in The Netherlands, while Preston is in Belgium.

Christof, Andrea - thanks for the tour and letting us stay with you - we really appreciated your kind efforts!

Hooters/Teasers this way!

In the evening, it was back to Knoten in Dusseldorf for FIRETALK. Here we are making a comedy picture of Shuggie stealing a camera. Turns out the joke was on us, as our car was getting broken into in an underground car park in Aldstadt!

This unfortunate event, meant a postponement of CHEDDAR TALK which was going to happen, as the Fire players were late in turning up. Next time!

So it was back to the airport again! But it was too late for a replacement car - so we had to come back into town for a bed for the night.

Wednesday (19/5/99) and it's back to the airport again! This time we get a new car, and make the drive out to Cologne to meet up with our 2 favourite Burning Hearts, Knippi and Hansie.

Their hospitality, as always, is incredible and we have another fantastic day putting all our troubles behind us. The Claymores will get revenge on the Fire on this day, by whipping the Hearts sorry ass in both Crazy Golf and Ten Pin Bowling! But many thanks guys - you made a big difference to our mood on this day - and got us fired up again!

This year, the Hearts challenge was to climb the 509 steps of Cologne Cathedral. As you can see - it was no problem!

Thursday (20/5/99) and we make the drive down to Frankfurt.

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