I’m sure I had some free time after getting back from Australia, but right now I’m struggling to remember it! Preparations for Vancouver carry on relentlessly and with the European club season in full swing, it’s hard to find time to catch your breath. Last week I found myself spending a huge amount of time in my car for one reason or another.

First came a trip to Loughborough for more testing. All international squads have various batteries of tests, which they use to monitor the fitness of their athletes. From time to time, we’re also asked to participate in studies where scientists believe we can gain most from small tweaks to our equipment or pushing technique etc… Following a day at the lab, I found myself rushing straight home to pack for our second Champions League weekend in Karlsruhe, Germany.

After a seven-hour drive from Calais, we arrived to find a big screen across from the hotel showing this advert for our game with the Rebels…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO7wPtwLoJg

…It seemed that we might have a few more spectators than normal for this one!

Before the “big game”, we still had three other tough games to worry about. London’s squad was strong with the notable return of “Troye Collins” (2.5) after a three-month break. Our plan was to run our lines as much as possible and continue developing our tournament squad. Poland’s “Reds” came first followed by a depleted Koblenz side. London registered two comfortable victories, 63-32 and 55-46 respectively before having an important afternoon meeting in front of the TV for the FA Cup Final complete with German commentary!

Next morning the Austrians gave us a scare early on, punishing us for some lackadaisical play in the first four minutes. We quickly turned this around, giving our whole squad good minutes in what became a comprehensive 50-33 win. That afternoon saw the sports hall fill with a mixture of friends, family and curious onlookers ahead of the much-hyped London/Rebels clash.

After the warm up our coach “Steve Palmer” called us in and explained his aims for the game. He rightly saw this as a great opportunity to test all our lines against what we believed to be the best other club team in Europe. We had proved ourselves by winning the Europa Cup in April and now it was time to work on our bench. We knew it would be tough but there was no question that we were capable of beating the Rebels using this strategy, and also that we’d learn far more in the process.

The game was very close throughout, always keeping the crowd on the edge of their seats. The Rebels established an early lead before we clawed our way back in the middle two quarters. The German team mixed up their pressing and key defence well to make London fight for every goal and took a two-goal lead into the fourth. Again we rallied with “Artan Semanaj” (3.5) getting a valuable turnover to bring us back to within one, a valuable contribution on his debut in Europe’s premier club derby!

Despite our efforts, the Rebels were more than equal to us and managed to force a couple more turnovers as we gambled in the latter stages of the final quarter. To the delight of the home crowd they scored the last goal of the game to seal a deserved 45-42 victory. Obviously we were disappointed to lose but at the same time we gained some valuable experience for our squad, adding to our overall depth.

You can find pictures of what was a great day by going to http://frontcourt.de/ and downloading the file entitled “Ergebnisse und Bilder zum 2, Spieltag der Champions League in KA”.