For the third time in as many years, the Blues took to the road this January for a taste of European hockey and, equally importantly, beer. Lead by Captain Gino Bruni with the aid of veteran Josh Curk and OUIHC father-figure Rodderick Lubbock, a squad of 13 players brought the best of Blues hockey to the teams of Munich and Vienna - winning two games out of three - while also taking the time to stop off in Budapest in between.

The team departed from the UK in the early hours of the 6^th of January arriving in Munich with an evening to prepare before their first game against the Technical University of Munich the next day.  Despite the preparations, the match was a closely fought battle with the Blues clawing their way back from a slow start to eventually fall short by one goal with a final score of 6-5. The score notwithstanding, our Munich rivals praised this year’s squad for their tenacity. A Munich player admiringly commented that the Blues “never stopped running”. The Juggernaut jacket was awarded to assistant captain Christian Shepherd, who christened his return to playing forward by scoring the Blues’ first goal of the game.

The next day the Blues helped hasten their adjustment to the European style of play by traveling to the small town of Landshut to watch the Landshut Cannibals take on the Bietigheim Steelers in an exciting German league game. Following the game – which culminated in a penalty shoot out - the Blues put their lessons into practice, outplaying the SC Ergoldsbach rec team, lead by ex-blue Rainer Wargitsch, to gain them a decisive 13-2 victory. The competition for the Juggernaut was fierce with Adrian Haight and Chris Newman both scoring three a piece, but the eventual winner was Thomas Clayton for his four goal scoring streak.

With little time to spare, the blues immediately boarded an overnight train that would take them across two countries, and back a good few years of development, into the Hungarian city of Budapest. For two days the team recuperated in the Turkish Baths of the city, while enjoying the cheap Hungarian food and drink by night before boarding another train to take them to Vienna.

On reaching Vienna, the team immediately made their way out of town to play a game against the Totonka Kontakt University. The home team provided well for the blues, bringing a fan base of nigh on 200 students, as well as dancing girls for each intermission. However, the Blues were not distracted from their game and proceeded to play what Rodderick Lubbock described as “the best final game of tour hockey” he had ever seen. Stellar performances came from throughout the bench with the physically domineering presence of defenseman David Lewis being described by the opposition as “mountainous”, and the focused determination of keeper Ryan Berg holding the Austrian forwards at bay. The final score of the game was 8-2 to the Blues and the Juggernaut Jacket was awarded to the captain, Gino Bruni, for his relentless bombardment of the opposition’s keeper that earned him a grand total of five goals.

After their victory, the Blues took a day to celebrate and visit the famous Viennese Opera, before finally boarding a flight to return them to the UK – exhausted but jubilant and ready for the remainder of the season.

Previous Tours: 2011, 2010