Forres Area Soccer7s 2022 visit to Vienenburg
WOW!!!!!! What an amazing week we have had.
20 of our players, ranging from the ages of 7 to 16 and 12 adults made the trip to our Twinned Town of Vienenburg in Germany.
7 x Super5s (7 to 9-year-old)
8 x Junior7s (10 to 12-year-old)
5 x Senior7s (14 to 16-year-old)
The 12 adults were made up with coaches and parents.
A massive thank you to The Berry Burn Community Fund for giving Soccer7s a £4000 grant, James Jones & Sons Ltd for supplying the players with tracksuits, Thomson Tyres for supplying our Junior7s team and Lossiemouth Garage for supplying our Super5s team.
Plus, a huge thank you to everyone else who supported our trip.
The Journey
We left Grant Park at 0145 on a Kineil Coach, quick pick-up in Elgin and the 32 of us are on the coach, ready for the 11-hour journey to Vienenburg.
The journey went according to plan, which was surprising due to the cancellations and delays that had been happening all over Europe. Funny thing was, we arrived at Amsterdam Airport, got off our aeroplane and took the 30 min journey to the Airport Terminal, back through Passport Control and then back onto the same aeroplane we went off. Obviously, there must be a reason, we just found it very funny.
Met by our hosts, Martin (Mayor of Vienenburg) and Sven with 4 minibuses, we started the last leg of our journey from Hannover to Vienenburg.
Monday
Lunch/Walk around Vienenburg
We were greeted by our old friend Anni at the Youth Centre. Anni and Sven were part of the team that hosted us on our previous visit in 2017.
After some lunch at the Youth Centre and the bed spaces dished out, Anni took us on a guided tour of Vienenburg. Must have been about 28 degrees, amazing weather.
Luckily Martin had arranged for all of us to get ice cream at the ice cream shop to cool us down.
Come Together/Ice Breaker Games
For dinner on the first night, we had a BBQ at the youth Centre, where the Soccer7s players met the players from JSG Harly for the first time. We played some ice breaking games that were organised by Martin Sanger, one of the JSG Harley coaches.
Tuesday
Meet Lord Mayor of Goslar/Tour of Goslar
With everyone feeling refreshed, it was time for Day 2. Minibuses into Goslar, it was time to meet the Lord Mayor Urte Schwerdtner. She spoke with our group for about half hour before a lady called Dagmar took us on a guided tour of Goslar.
Open Air Swimming Pool
After some lovely German/Turkish Kebabs, it was time to get our swimming gear on and head to Vienenburg’s Outdoor Swimming Pool. The kids and adults loved this, although people were complaining that the ground was too hot for their feet. Haha
Dinner at Sports Pavilion with Kickabout
Another of our old friends Tina, provided our dinner for the evening at the Sports Pavilion. As JSG Harly’s football season was now finished, we were unable to use the pitch until Friday Night, so the kids got to train and play football around the outside of the pitch.
6 of the Adults got the chance to go to the Night Time Funfair. Don’t worry, it wasn’t as it sounds. Basically, the funfair is only open to adults that night. Kids get to go on Wednesday.
Wednesday
Lake/Sports Games
Another scorching day in Deutschland, after breakfast we went a half hour walk to the lake and played some games and relaxed before heading back to the Youth Centre for some Bratties on the BBQ.
Kids went to Funfair
In the afternoon, everyone got the chance to go to the Funfair. We were met at the entrance by Sven Schneider and Martin Muller from Schutzen and Volkfest Goslar who gifted our young people tickets to get on the rides as well as ice cream and candy floss.
Dinner at Sports Pavilion with Kickabout
Evening activities included dinner at the Sports Pavilion followed by more exciting football.
Thursday
Swimming at Goslar due to rain
Sadly, woke up to rain this day. We were meant to go a hike and then go to the summer toboggan run and cable cars. Unfortunately, it was too wet for this, luckily Martin managed to make a phone call and get us booked into the Indoor Swimming Pool in Goslar. A big thank you to the manager of the pool, Sascha Feier. We spent a good 3 or 4 hours in here, with the diving board getting used extremely well. They even fed us very tasty chicken nuggets and chips.
Pizza Party
Thursday Night was Pizza Party Night. It was due to get held at the Vienenburg Lake, unfortunately due to the rain, it had to be moved to the Sports Pavilion. 4 or 5 different types of Pizza, they just kept coming!! Not sure there were many pizzas left in Vienenburg. Haha
Friday
Rammelsberg Mine
Back to lovely weather on Friday. We were at the Rammelsberg Mine for 0930hrs where we got a tour of the mine by Dr Jurgen. He was a very good tour guide who had been on holiday in Scotland a few times. Luckily, we don’t go down mines in this day and age.
Hahnenklee Cable Cars and Toboggan Run
We went straight from the mine to the Cable Cars and Toboggan Run that we could not do the previous day. Everyone loved this, think the kids would have spent the whole day on the Taboggan Run if they could.
For lunch, we got to eat in the restaurant at Hanenklee, where some of us chose to eat an unbelievable burger. Mmmmmmm delicious.
FOOTBALL
After an extremely busy day, it was time to play all our Football Matches.
5pm was the Super5s kick off, the team was
Super5s – 7- to 9-year-olds sponsored by Lossiemouth Garage
Rory Lynch
Samuel Herbert
Josh Proctor
Verity Judd
Lucas Bain
Forbes McFadden
Olly Hizzett
Ezra Bain was the coach
A very entertaining game, 15 mins each way. Our players are not used to playing on a bigger pitch, with bigger goals. The game finished 3 – 3, with goals from Samuel, Lucas and Olly.
The video of the game is available on the Soccer7s Facebook Page.
Next up was our Junior7s team sponsored by Thomson Tyres
Junior7s 10 – 12-year-olds
Callum Kippax
Casey Thomson
Neala McFadden
Olly Milton
Jack Moore
Ayden Trevenna-Roy
Jonathan Herbert
Elliot Watt
Coach was John Ritchie
The video of the game is available on the Soccer7s Facebook Page.
Another entertaining game which was played 20 mins each way. The score line of 5 nil does not reflect the performance that the Junior7s put in. They were playing against a very good team of 11 to 13-year-olds. First half ended 2 nil, it was very close and could have gone either way. Think the fact that JSG Harley had a few more subs that the Junior7s helped them as well.
Then we had the Senior7s 14 – 16-year-olds played with the Berry Burn Community Fund logo on their shirts
Lewis Smith
Finlay Wallace
Ethan Lynch
Corin Milne
Josh MacDonald
Scottish Finn
Coach was Mike Judd
A very exciting game between the 2 teams of teenagers, Our Seniors borrowed one of the German players ‘Scottish Finn’ to make 6 a side. 20 mins each way.
The game finished 4 – 4 with goals from Ethan x 2, Scottish Finn and Josh.
The video of the game is available on the Soccer7s Facebook Page.
To finish the football off, we had our adult’s match
Mike Judd
Tommy Smith
Scott Thomson
Paul Lynch
Gary Watt
Nichola Kippax
Fiona Ettles
Ezra Bain
Jamie McFadden
John Ritchie
Coached by all Soccer7s kids.
Another entertaining match consisting of some walking football and rekindling old memories. Haha. The game ended 1 – 1 after Gary Watt put the away team in front. It stayed that way until the last minute when the home side got a very dodgy freekick that resulted in the equaliser.
Penalty kicks followed, with Forres winning 4 – 2 so we got revenge for both the penalty defeat in Forres in 2019 as well as the Europa League Final this year.
Presentation
After the football, we had our presentations, BBQ, and a few refreshments. A very good night was had by all.
Saturday
Shopping in Goslar
On Saturday, we were let loose to go shopping in Goslar for gifts for our loved ones back home. There was also football tournament for the kids in the City Centre but sadly it was on all weekend so Soccer7s could not participate in it. If our original KLM Flight had not been cancelled for Sunday Evening, the kids could have played in it.
Open Air Swimming Pool
Final chance for everyone to go swimming at the Vienenburg Outdoor Pool, the kids did not need much persuasion to return to the pool. There were some tired legs from the day before and luckily there was a very very nice Spa Bath which helped fix our muscles.
Farewell Party
Time for the Farewell Party at the Youth Hostel. A massive thank you to all our Vienenburg Friends who turned up for the Farewell BBQ. Far too many to mention everyone’s names
Sunday Return Journey
Time for the Journey home. We left Vienenburg at 0700 on the Sunday morning for our 1050 flight from Hannover to Amsterdam. 10 hours wait at Amsterdam Airport before our last flight to Aberdeen. Considering we had to spend all that time at Amsterdam Airport, the kids did absolutely amazing and always had a smile on their faces. Thank God for Pokémon Go.
After a short delay on the last flight, we arrived back at Aberdeen Airport at midnight where the Kineil Coach was waiting for us.
Funnily enough, we arrived back in Forres at roughly the same time we departed exactly 1 week before.
Summary
What an amazing week we had. We would just like to say a massive, huge thank you to Martin Mahnkopf, Silvan Knoop, Anni Probst, Svell Krull, Tim Meissner and Tina Richter as well as Julian, Martin, Susen, Thorsten, Jorg and Frank and everyone else who welcomed us so warmly.
We all had an amazing time, and the kids will remember it for a long long time. Looking forward to the return leg already.
