Oberhausen. The second division newcomer celebrates the end of the year with two away games and long journeys. A challenge for players and logisticians.
It’s going to be the weekend of long journeys. At the end of the year, badminton second division team Sterkrade-Nord will compete on Saturday at SVBrauen Berlin (1 p.m.) and Sunday at TSV Trittau (1 p.m.) in Schleswig-Holstein near Hamburg. “Yes,” says North Speaker Marius Wefers“We will also play badminton, but we will mostly sit in the car.” He knows this so well because he will be there as the fourth gentleman.
“After all, we are traveling to Berlin on Friday and spending the night there,” the people from Schmachtendorf are trying to reduce the stress of traveling around 600 kilometers. This applies to him and Linus Emmerich to those who hurt Steffen Becker and Niclas Lohau represent. But for the two top Austrian players Wolfgang Gnedt and Kai Niederhuber this does not apply.
Gnedt and Niederhuber are flying from Vienna to Berlin on Saturday
“They’re flying from Vienna to Berlin on Saturday morning, we’ll pick them up at the airport,” says Wefers, reminding us that the two of them had traveled the same route on a match day before against Lüdinghausen and were pretty exhausted and lost in the doubles. “But we are expecting something in Berlin.” Because with women Fabienne Deprez and Marie Stern are back in the game. “And because the two world ranking players Gnedt and Niederhuber are extremely strong in singles.”
So Wefers is hoping for individual victories from the top two people and another point from Deprez. That would be three and the northerners are hoping for the winning fourth from a double or through Emmerich’s talent. “I’m probably behind myself,” Wefers, who usually competes for the second team, sees himself as more of a congratulator in doubles. “But even if they play with a full band, there should be something in it for us.”
Respect also for the Sunday drive home to Oberhausen
Immediately after the game we will travel by car to Hamburg, where the northerners will spend the night in Trittau with the two Austrian guest players. With the same line-up as the day before, it will probably be much more difficult against the league leaders than in the federal capital. “They have a home game, they have strong Danes at the top, it will be tight. “That’s a board that deserves to be up there,” says Wefers, describing the difficulty of the task with respect for the front runner.
Be that as it may, he also has respect for the return journey straight after the game. Because the journey back takes the northerners first to Hamburg, where they take Gnedt and Niederhuber to the flight to Vienna and then start the return journey to Oberhausen.
“When we are back home in Oberhausen at 9 or 10 p.m., we will definitely know what we have done,” says Wefers, looking forward to the trip to Germany with mixed feelings. Because Monday morning work calls again…
