World Team Cup 2001
- Dusseldorf -
May/22/2001
by Karin
Hi everyone!
I hope all Rafterbabblers attended the WTC arrived safe back home:). We really had a great time and some funny stories with the boys. Of course they recognized us as we all were wearing our different Fanatics t-shirts! So here we go:
Maria and I arrived at the players hotel in Dusseldorf early Saturday morning. When we were checking in suddenly we heard a familiar voice "G'Day mate, how are ya doing?" We turned our head and guess who arrived and talked with a guy (can't remeber who it was): Our dearest Pat!:) What a wonderful start for us!After unpacking our stuff we went straight to the Rochusclub as there was "Open day" and we met some of the others (Ina, Helga, Astrid, Joes, Andrea etc.) We got tickets for the first game on Monday morning in Row 5 where we had a great view of the boys and the team. Of course we went to every single training during the whole week and we had a lot of fun especially with Wayne which is a real clwon. I supose I don't have to write much about the games as you all were in the chatroom. Lleyton was as shy as always but at the end of the week he even spoke with us. We all got signed our Pat books and pics which was pretty easy to do (even Lara and Kim did sign one of their pics!) One night we were waiting for Lleyton. As you all know Lleyton dosen't like to sign autographs that much and we really tried several times during the whole week. But we were lucky and enough to get it: It was around 9:45 pm and Pat, Lara, Peter, Wayne and Scotty already left when firs Darren came out. Anja asked him to sign her OZ-Flag which he did and we had a little chat with him. He is such a lovely person! He asked us if we already got Lleytons signature and I said to him: Not yet, but as you know Lleyton doesn't like to sign that much and that we already tried during the whole week and that it was almost a mission impossible to get to him. He looked all surprised to me and then he screamed: "Hey Rusty, come on over here you got to sign for those girls!" And Lleyton came with a big smile on his face (not shy at all sudenlly) and signed Anjas flag and Peggys and my pictures. We were all so surprised that we only could say: Thank you mate! But it was so funny "Hey Rusty..." After the final we all waited for the boys and first Lleyton and Kim passed. We wished them good luck for Paris and Kim signed a view thing for us. She is really a lovely person! After another hour Pat, Peter, Lara, Wayne and Tony came out and we all said goodby and wished them good luck as well. And last but not least Scotty and Darren came out. They all thanked us for our support during the whole week and said that we were fantastic:).
After our victory over Russia and after the boys headed off to the airport we went celebrating in the old city of Dusseldorf. We still were dressed in our yellow shirts and hats and we had our Skippy with us and everybody was looking at us like we were strangers. But there were a view people who recognized us. We heard plenty of comments like: Hey, the OZ's are arriving, there is Skippy from the TV, etc. There was even a man who invited us for a drink because he was so impressed like we supported our boys!
So, that was it. I would like to thank to all the babblers I met in Dusseldorf (new and old ones). We really had a great time together. Hope to see ya all next year at the same place. A special thanks goes to Horst Klosterkemper (yes girls I still know his name "lol") the Director of the tournament which was so impressed by us as well that he got us free tickets for the final! Thank you, thank you, thank you (I now that he wont read this but anyway!)
Bye everyone!