Tilburg

Rosemary and I got off the plane in Amsterdam in the morning.

And by the afternoon, we were in Tilburg.

And after a quick lunch, we got on the train for our first interview.

We're taking the train from Utrecht to near Eindhoven, where we're going to go be meeting with two senior executives from one of the insurance companies in the Netherlands.

several men are wounded by shrapnel through the plywood fuselages and the co-pilot of the first border regiment's hawser flown by lieutenant-colonel john place is struck in the head and killed by a splinter In all, eight horses are lost between the coast and the landing area near Wolfheese, one carrying a jeep, a trailer and four men of the 1st Air Landing Light Regiment, Royal Artillery, breaks apart under a direct hit.

Two more, carrying a gun crew from the same unit and a platoon of the 2nd South Staffordshire Regiment, come down near Tilburg, some 80 kilometres south-west of Arnhem, all reach safety over a month later with the help of the Dutch resistance.

Two others, carrying six-pounder guns of the first air-landing anti-tank battery, land short of the zone and rally late, arriving intact under their own power.

The formation continues on to the final waypoint, just north of Eindhoven, where the aircraft and gliders for the 1st Airborne Division peel north towards Arnhem, while the 82nd's transports continue east towards Grave and Grosbeek.

Um, they opened their pre-season the same weekend that we did against Rostock.

Um, on the Friday night, they lost at home to the old friends in Tilburg Trappers, um, 3-1.

It was Liam Peyton getting their only goal in that one.

And then they traveled to Hull and got a 4-3 away win, and that was sort of probably the one that stood out to me because you look at Hull and Hull are easily one of the teams to watch out for this season as well, and Leeds have gone there and they've managed to get a win at a very tough place.

... and he is absolutely dynamite as a player.

So 3-1 against the, a- against the Trappers, and they're, they're a team consistently at the top of Oberliga North.

And I was speaking to one of the, the, uh, media team from Rostock and they actually say that Tilburg, due to, like, a deal, they can't actually go higher than Oberliga North because of something to do with the, uh, the German Ice Hockey Federation.

But also as well, they su- they play really well in the regular season, when it gets to the playoffs, and because they've got so many Dutch internationals, the playoffs in German Oberliga clash when the Netherlands are playing in the IH-

oh

and i was like oh my god yeah the eagles would be sick you know that'd be amazing and the eagles because they're what 70 odd maybe 80s in their almost 80 yeah gotta be um they only did like two shows they did one in manchester at the co-op and then they did another one i think in tilburg in the netherlands so he called me up and he was like yeah yeah cool you can do those dates brilliant and then i put the phone down and i thought great i've got something And then half an hour later, he called me back going, hey, you know, I asked you to do the Eagles.

I was like, yeah.

And he goes, well, do you fancy doing Metallica instead? I was like, yeah, man.

Not- maybe do you have a university team as well, buddy?

Um, I think last year, uh, last year we had Kiev and, um, Tilburg or some- from Netherlands.

Toby Rough went to play for them.

Yeah, and it's Tilburg.

Is it Tilburg?

Yeah, that was it.

Was that them? I, I was thinking that they were, um, the, the-

I think they went, I think they went to Netherlands

Good.

To the Dutch city of Tilburg.

We played there a few weeks ago, actually.

What have these people gathered to celebrate?

...

Flores, Flores had some work, also work together with you, and we had s- we had a, uh, a show in Tilburg with...

I, uh, went with Flores to Tilburg.

Uh, we had a big show in, uh, it's a festival and, uh, in a discotheque.

It was, it was amazing.

Wow.

Yeah

... and then Bosch, and then Tilburg, Breda.

And Oberliga North, German opposition in Rostock Piranhas, home and home Saturday and Sunday.

We played an Oberliga side at the start of last season in Tilburg and those guys could skate.

And what kind of a challenge are you expecting from the Piranhas this weekend?

I look into a very similar, very fast team.

And we played Oberliga North teams the last two pre-seasons.

So we played the now defunct Essen Mosquitos two years ago.

And then last season, we welcomed the Tilburg Trappers, who are the Dutch team, but they play in the German Oberliga North.

Rostock are a very established side, quite a large following.

The International Organization for Migration says that about two million people have returned to Khartoum over the last year, out of about five million who left.

And in the Netherlands, the city of Tilburg celebrated the annual gathering of redheads this weekend.

Only about one or two percent of the world's population has red hair.

A big thank you to our newest supporters, Elizabeth in Austria, Josef in Germany, and Ewa in Poland.

Uh, so British teams had been going in every year and getting beaten and, uh, maybe the Devils before had w- in, before my time had won one game, and I think it was the first team to ever win a game in Europe.

But then the, the big moment came when we went to Tilburg.

I think it was 1994.

Um, and we went across to Tilburg, and we were playing against Tilburg plus two ex-Soviet Union sides, so equivalent of KHL sides in today's money.

Uh, so you know, on paper, no chance whatsoever.

And then [laughs] Lawless pulls out the most ridiculous masterstroke ever.