Joes's Zurich reports
Tuesday, 08-Feb-2000
...Here it is...
At 5.00 PM I arrived in Zurich, unpacked, phoned the Limmathof
to see if Robyn was in, and went on my way to her. Wendy opened the door, and we said
hello. In the short time I was there, several people came to say hello to Robyn, there
were several calls, also from the receptionist, announcing: "two persons coming
up", or "three people" or even "two ladies coming up" (who were
they? I forgot!) The man must have been counting heads so we would not get away with three
persons staying in a two bed room.
At half past seven (half seven, right Fiona?) we were all there so went on our way to the
Zeughauskeller where we had a very good dinner. After a little bit of telephone problems I
managed to get a message to Astrid and Cindy and Sofie as to where we were to meet the
Fanatics. After that we went to the Oliver Twist, to find that we would get our Tshirts
the next day, when we got together at noon. Had my first Aussie beer there, Victoria
something. Was good.
Next day, Friday 4, we invaded tram 13 to get to the Saalsporthalle. At one moment (it was
a bit after noon) Woz sat down heavily in his seat, and explained to an elderly Swiss
lady: "It was a hard day!" She nodded. She understood. When we arrived at the
tennis, we posed, with Woz taking pictures of the Fanatics group: "Come on guys,
let's get organized!" "Huh??? Organized??? What's that?" There were quite a
lot of camera's Woz needed to take a picture with: "we are going to be here till
Christmas like this!" Woz got help from a man and another man's dog. (Can someone
fill in the story here?) When he took a big camera one of the Fanatics shouted: "Have
you got a license to drive that? Careful, it's a weapon!" Some of our team came out
to see what was happening, Wayne Arthurs among others.
Inside the tennis hall we found our places (way closer to the court than in Nice! No
smoke! And as there were less people, you could hear the players' shouts) and sat down. We
must have made some impression as in the following days more and more Swiss fans got to
wear red clothes, red wigs and red facepaint with a white cross for the Swiss flag. On the
Sunday some of the Swiss even wore the little barrel the Saint Bernard dogs wear around
their necks when they are one a rescuing assignment, complete with tap, as a hat! Got a
picture of one. But the Swiss were not creative when it came to songs, imitating our songs
with their own players'names. What gave Woz the idea for this one: "You've only
goooooot one song!" chanted like "There's only ooooone Lleyton
Hewitt/Philippoussis".
The Swiss played very very well and that first day just wasn't Mark's day. Well, a 1-1 was
sure to keep the tie alive until the Sunday so that was not bad. In the evening, it must
have been after ten as play started only at 3.00 am (Why so late???) we went to a pizza
place near our hotel and had a nice dinner. "We" is the Bristol people, Melonie,
Malcolm, Fiona, Cindy, Sofie, Astrid and me. After that only the young ones of us had the
energy to go to the Oliver Twist, the rest went straight to bed. (This sounds like we are
just short of old age, but it's not that bad!)
The Saturday was the day of the Opening Ceremony, and boy, did the Swiss do their best
then! We were surprised with a band dressed in glittery green and purple that played some
well known tunes. Must have been the Carnival's band, they were beautiful. The Fanatics
quickly took their lead and we had a ball, doing a polonaise through our part of the hall,
like you sometimes do at weddings. Woz took his chance and at the end of their performance
he was seen facepainting some of the band players in our Aussie colours. They loved it!
Well, you all know what happened that day. Nobody expected this outcome, so we were all a
bit subdued when play was over. When they left court, Newcombe reminded both our doubles
players to greet us, which they duly did. During the match there was a French speaking
Swiss guy at our left ( The Voice) who shouted loudly "Allez Roger! Allez Lolo!"
(for Lorenzo Manta) When we got outside, he was standing there and teasing us in an
unfriendly way: "On a gagn?" (We have won!) And Cindy, normally the friendliest
person in the world, snapped back: "Pas demain!!!" (Not tomorrow!) Prophetic
words!
We had another lovely dinner at the Zeughauskeller, (Bristol people plus German Maria and
her man) and despite our loss the atmosphere was really animated. (Did you tell Malcolm
about the wedding ideas we had, Melonie?)
The next day, Sunday 6 we decided to go a little early in hope of seeing some practise. We
were lucky: at our arrival, what did we see but a car with Newk driving and Lleyton and
two others on their way to practise. First we watched Mark practising with Paul Kilderry.
Mark wasn't happy with something. His father was standing on the court too. By that time
Lleyton was warming up with Muddy Waters, at the courtside. (I'm not sure what day it was,
but some Fanatics did the "Hey, Lleyton, give us a wave!" before a match and he
did!) Astrid and I were sitting first row during practise, and we both got a tennis ball
thrown at us, by Paul Kilderry and Tony Roche (or was it Muddy Waters? My memory is
blurred!) At one occasion Paul hit a return out of Mark's reach, right at Nick
Philippoussis' family jewels….. Tony Roche tried to protect him with his racket, but
too late. Paul apologized, but added, "it was your son's fault, really!"
By that time Robyn had arrived too and showed us a newspaper with some of us Babblers in
it. I thought: they'll be sold out by the time we get out of this hall so it's now or
never, and I took a tram back into town to get some copies. In the tram I met Wendy again
(I'd met her before in the Oliver Twist, she Australian, living in London) and she said
she had also got a ball thrown at her after a practise session and it had the mark of the
racket strings on it! Later I saw mine had, too.
Well, Lleyton won his match against Federer and we were so relieved! Well, I was, Robyn
said she had known all along Lleyton would win his two matches, but after her dream it was
Mark she was worried about. That second match kept the tension on just to the last minute
of it. It was really close, Bastle played his heart out, but it just wasn't enough to beat
Mark. Mark played brilliantly at times, with a lion's growl when he was hitting winners
and at other times like it just wasn't Mark playing there. We were so relieved to see him
get some first services in at the end of that second set, it was just in time. The Swiss
did a bad imitation of our "The roof is on fire" chant, making it: "Awoof,
awoof……" and so on. So silly. But we're still in! On to Adelaide!
The Swiss people were still friendly with us after the match, saying things like: "If
you don't make it to the final now!!!" Threatening, but with a smile.
Then after dinner we got to the Player's Party. It was a bit past midnight already, and
the streets were practically deserted, unlike the two days before, then it was really
crowded at that hour. We sang on our way to the Oliver Twist. "If you all love the
Aussies, clap your hands/stamp your feet/clap your head/turn around!" That last one
was a lot easier in the street than standing in the hall with all the bags and things at
your feet. Two young Swiss we encountered on our way pressed themselves to the wall,
acting like they were scared to death by our passing. But laughing.
We kept on singing when we entered the Oliver Twist, and were met with similar songs from
inside, only louder. We must have gone through every single song the Fanatics ever had on
their song sheet that night! The players got there not too long after us, and were
celebrated properly. It was Wayne Arthurs who changed our versions of "There's only
ooooone…." to "There's only oooooone pack of Fanatics!" A really nice
guy, he stayed on long after the other players had left.
What a night that was! Normally I hate going to bars, I'm not the outgoing type, but this
was fantastic. I wouldn't have stayed till five o'clock in the morning if it wasn't, and
with a train to catch at eight. Imagine singing "Down Under" from Men at work
with the whole Davis Cup team and all the Fanatics! Poor neighbours, I hope they had
soundproof walls……. Well, not the whole team, Newcombe and the doctor weren't
there. Tony Roche tried his luck at darting, and so did Mark and Lleyton. It looked like
they had fun, too. Of course they were asked for photographs and autograms, but after a
while everyone had what they wanted and we were just partying along. Wayne Arthurs had
written on the collar of his Fanatic shirt: "Will you please sign my shirt", so
he had a fine collection of all our autograms for a change! Mark must have been having
trouble with the temperature in the pub, (and he wasn't alone!) and pulled off his shirt
so we had a good look at the tattoo. Paul pulled his off, too. The girls kept theirs on.
Around three if I remember correctly most of the players left.
Before the matches that day, when I came back from the newspaper kiosk I had seen Muddy
Waters and asked him if he had spoken to Pat recently (only the answering machine) and how
was the shoulder. He insisted there was progress all the time and the shoulder was 85 %
now. I just thought I had heard that before, weeks ago…….. He is with Pat in
Bermuda now as I write this. And in the bar he was giving a back massage to a Norwegian
(?) girl, he was really nice! Well, they all were. It was a night I'll remember all my
life. Thanks a million Woz, to make things like this possible!!!!!
joes