Early January saw the Mens Blues travel to Eastern Europe for their 2009/2010 Tour. Thanks to alumnus and club historian Michael "Moose" Talbot, we knew we were following up a long tradition of OUIHC tours on the continent. Significant battles had been fought against teams in Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Vienna and throughout Switzerland in the 1920’s and 1930’s (and surely several times since). Our itinerary saw us due to land in Budapest on 10 January, but the chaotic English winter refused to play along and we were stranded for a day while our flights were rearranged to Vienna instead. From Vienna, we made our way to Bratislava and Prague, before finishing with a weekend in Berlin.

The Blues first match pitted us against a team of students from the University of Bratislava. Little did we know that they all played at a high club level and were studying at the Sports Academy ... in spite of heroic efforts by Andy Peterson, our stand-in goalie from the Vikings, we were given a lesson in how to play hockey. Two days later, we found ourselves facing off against a similar team from Charles University, Prague, with local alumnus Vojtech Chloupek (2004) joining our ranks. We had faced Charles University in the final of a European Universities tournament in Munich a year earlier, losing 4:3. But this time, playing in Sparta Prague's stadium, the Czechs had prepared better than us, and stormed to a 12:5 victory in a free-flowing, fast-paced match.

The final fixture saw us pitted against FASS eV Berlin, a grudge match against a club that we had defeated handily a year earlier. Berlin had bolstered their ranks since the year before, and it became a tight encounter. The match see-sawed back and forth, but with two minutes remaining we found ourselves down 5:3. An outstanding effort by William Bruce brought us within one, and with a minute remaining, we pulled our goalie. Berlin gained control of the puck, but a brilliant sliding save by Parker Carney prevented an empty net goal, and we carried the puck back into their end, forcing a face off. 16 seconds remained on the clock, and as we won the draw, Rob Bradbury got a shot on goal, and the rebound was promptly buried by Bruce: tie game! Ice hire time didn't allow for overtime so we went straight into a shootout, and our shooters prevailed to win the match.

It was a fitting end to an incredibly successful tour that saw the Blues play a high level of hockey, discover some of Europe's most beautiful cities, and render every bar in their path a dangerous place. We are now well primed for both this year's Varsity Match and the VM afterparty, and looking forward to even more success in the second half of the season.