This year issue of the Austrian championship took place in Sulz in the Wienerwald (Vienna forest) hills.
On Friday Frank and I met at a motorway station and then drove 9 hours to Sulz. The venue was a inn with a hotel. It’s big enough to even host a WC and its based in the middle of the Wienerwald, well known for it’s wine, applewine (called Most), forests and hills. I great area for hiking and relaxing. The tournament room was really huge and the food (various Schnitzel and steaks) was good.
After having a good meal on Friday evening it was time to have some friendlies with Helmut and Klaus, the local organizers. Both said that they trained high balls and long shots after they saw them at the last WC in Voitsberg, and the results was really astonishing. So I didn’t slept that well that night.
Saturday Frank and I played some 15 friendlies so I was good prepared. During the training, Mike and Michael from Voitsberg arrived. So we were ready to start. We decided to play the new 1.0.4 KOA version and there were no problems and everybody chose to use autofix and trapfix.
After the typical Austrian championship hardware problems with the monitor and the common “I get anther monitor from my home” action we had two Amiga systems running. We thought about playing 4 times against each other, but in the end we did 3 rounds.
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My games:
Frank 1-4, 2-7, 3-6
I was leading 1-0 in the first game and then have two double woodwork, a missed chance to beat him, cause of course he score his goals later in the game. The next one, I was tired and no chance at all. In the last game, Frank gave me two penalties, but the third was true fighting, so I was satisfied with my game in the end.
Klaus ?-?,0-4, 3-2
I forgot the first game, but I lost it. Worst memories I have on the second game. I really had no luck and Klaus used all my mistakes without mercy. Even that the last game was more or less a friendly, cause the table was not changed by the result, I was able to come back after a 0-2 and finally had my first victory against Klaus. Great fight and well deserved I would say. Klaus is the better player, but beeing concentrated I have a chance. His high balls and long shots are more dangerous than Helmuts.
Helmut 2-3, 2-1, 2-2
Each game was a great fight. Unfortunately Helmut scored the 3-2 in the last second of game one. In the end this was the key game for place 3 and 4. Helmuts long shots and high balls weren’t that effective as I thought and on the other side, my 5-3-2 tactics become better from game to game.
Michale Ma 6-3, 1-2, 2-1
The first game was a little bit uncommonly match as there were many goals, and I was in front with 2-3 goals very early. The next one was a normal Thorsten-Mike game and he deserved to win, cause I had no ideas throughout the game. So it was time to avenge. After the 1-1 I thought, that finally now I have to play some good Kick off and I did, the 2-1 was a great combination.
Michael F ?-?,?-?,6-1
I remember that I won all the games. Michael does not play that bad but in front of the goal he is to nervous and acts to fast. I remember that he was 1-0 in front in the second game, cause he scored a kick off lob.
Congratulation to Frank who did not lost one game.
In the end I scored 4th, one point less than Helmut. The result was ok and I will always remember the tournament as a nice and relaxed one. I trained playing 5-3-2 a lot and I saw, that high balls and long shots have to be trained.
After the tournament we had a great meal in a typical Austrian “Burschenschaenke”, a inn where you get more or less only cold foot like bread and cold cuts. Next we went back to the tournament location had sat down in the pub room to watch the European Championsleague final. Inter Milano was the better team in the end and won the cup, beside that, the game was good but not stunning, and cause I’m not a fan of Bayern Muenchen, I wasn’t that interested.
After the game, Mike and Michael went back home to Styria (back into the sun they said 
, and I also went to bed.
On Sunday, after having breakfast, Helmut, Klaus, Frank and I did some more friendlies. We tested some more tactics and at least Helmut did a 5-5 against Frank, the first non victory game this weekend for Frank.
Then it was time to leave. Helmut and Klaus gave us some hints to find a “famous” village where parts of the “Hinterholz 8” movie were made, and so we used this to have a 45 minutes cruising through the Wienerwald hills.
Many thanks to Helmut and Klaus for this great tournament. I really enjoyed the trip a lot and all the matches and all food and the relaxed atmosphere. I look forward for the next tournaments in Austria.
ThorN