INDOOR TEAM TO VIENNA : FRIDAY 18th to MONDAY 21st MARCH 2005

Gear up for some foreign travel! Our indoor VI is invited to the prestigious Vienna Wintercup tournament - see the Austrian Cricket Federation website at http://www.austrian-cricket.info/clubprof.asp?ID=1 . Here's the invitation:

"Dear Bob, Trev and Adrian,

The line-up is fixed now for the VCC Wintercup and I have been instructed to bring our three Wintercup virgins up to speed with playing conditions and information about the ball we use to assist your preparations. The playing conditions are enclosed as a .pdf document (they can otherwise be downloaded from the Vienna CC Website (vcc.austrian-cricket.info) and clicking on the Wintercup link.

Re: the ball. We use a 142 gram (5 oz) Yellow Readers PUC ball - the indoor PUC ball has a granulated cork and solid rubber centre (as opposed to the TBC which has a plastic moulded centre). If you wish to obtain some of them, Readers are the best bet for getting them - they can be reached on +44 1622 812230.

Re: the playing conditions. We play the "English" version of the indoor game (as opposed to the South African or Australian versions). Everything is pretty self-explanatory - and I should be able to answer any questions you might have on this score.

The tournament format will be as follows: 6 teams - one group of six, all versus all (5 matches) and a final for the top two.

Points system as follows: Win 8pts Loss 0pts
Bonus points: as per the enclosed

The full line up is as follows: Vienna CC (hosts), Berlin CC, Bessborough CC (UK), Failand & Portbury CC, Graz CC and Teesside Polygons CC.

If you have any guitar-playing players/supporters they are always more than welcome to bring their guitars - the Teesside Polygons are perennial entertainers and a good weekend is guaranteed for all.

Best regards,

Mike Bailey
Vienna CC / Austrian Cricket Association"

The club will be represented by (1) a playing unit of 9 players, each guaranteed to play 2 out of minimum 5 games + a scorer and (2) a supporting contingent of 93 approx. groupies, hangers on and other physically clapped out individuals, together with 14 qualified umpires. It is expected that the playing squad perform at high octane levels on the field and that the non-players will come into their own at the final-evening beer-and schnitzel-fest*.

* Wot's the Hungarian for: "Get your hand off my lederhosen, West"? (Cheesewire)

The 9 players will each immediately pay a deposit of £50 to go towards their accommodation costs (to be arranged centrally), the tournament entry fee and a one-off scorer levy, such to be paid by credit or debit card card - telephone William Humphreys 0n (07811) 368 644 email will_humphreys@yahoo.com . The playing party will therefore comprise 10 individuals.

The non-players will book and pay for their own accommodation. Suggestions as to how they might do this - e.g. details of local skip hire companies and the local railway station - will be posted here in due course.

All participants, both players and non-players, will need to book and pay for their own travel to and from Vienna direct with the suppliers.

One possible route (and the preferred one for those with extra time and money) (as at 7.1.05) is to fly from Bristol Airport to Budapest (Hungary) and then to take the direct train from Budapest to Vienna (Austria).

But the preferred route for those anxious to keep costs as low as possible is to fly Skyeurope from Stansted to Bratislava and then to train from Bratislava to Vienna. Likely total travel costs door to door are about £90.00 on present information - exact details to be posted very shortly.

Details of all currently known travel routes are as follows (as at 7.1.05) :

Easyjet flight depart Bristol 7.20 am on 18.3.05, return from Budapest 11.40 am on 21.3.05, return flight £70.96 see http://www.easyjet.com for more details [ but note that train fares Budapest to Vienna are about £65 return and the journey can take between 3 and 7 hours].

Easyjet flight depart Luton 10.45 am on 18.3.05, return from Bratislava 2.35 pm on 21.3.05, return flight £90.98 see http://www.easyjet.com for more details.

Ryanair flight depart Stansted 1.30 pm on 18.3.05, return from Graz or Linz or Klagenfeld 5.00 pm on 21.3.05, return flight £79.92 see http://www.ryanair.com/ for more details.

Air Berlin flight depart Stansted 7.45 am on 18.3.05, return from Vienna 6.00 pm on 21.3.05, return flight £95.00 see http://www.airberlin.com/site/index.php?LANG=eng&zanpid=1799200C904263122 for more details.

Eurostar train depart London arrive Vienna 15 hours later and vice versa see http://www.eurostar.com/dctm/jsp/index.jsp for more details.

Skyeirope flight depart Stansted 9.50 am on 18.5.05, return from Bratislava 11.40 a.m on 21.3.05, return flight £45.00 approx see http://www.skyeurope.com for more details [ possibly the preferred route].

Megabus from Bristol to Vienna and vice versa no doubt.

You are advised to book your transport yourself at the earliest conceivable moment. The team will absolutely certainly be there so don't worry about a change of mind!

Henry Humphreys is the squad captain and will be contacting those individuals considered up to the job of performing on the pitch in this international event. The playing squad of 10 needs to keep him informed at all times of their progress in booking travel.

Club 1st XI Captain 2005 Monty Desai has already sent his best wishes to the tour party and urged all going to maintain a can-do headset in his New Year message (see 1st XI page of this site).

"Volume is key" is to be the watchword, he has advised.

Be seeing you!

Marvin Straightjacket
7th January 2005