Balkan Squash team championships - Team Serbia is back!

Now in its second edition, the Balkan Squash Team Championships is a great little competition that sees the best teams of the Balkan region get together to determine the Balkan champion! Keep in mind that squash is more of a developing sport in this area, so while the quality is really quite good, no current professionals are playing. Last year Greece won both titles, but this year the Greek men's team are absent, so last year's finalists Slovenia are the team to beat. In the women's competition Greece look as strong as ever.

More importantly, Team Serbia are here, sporting their strongest line-up (for the men's team) - Dennis, Ivan, Dan, and Marko! The women will do well with a top 5 finish with Jelena, Anja, and Alexandra playing.

I left for the tournament on Wednesday night, staying the night in London Gatwick in the wonderful Yotel! I had a 7 square meter room rented for precisely 8h, setting me back 61GBP. That isn't exactly cheap, but the next best option had been the Hilton for 164 pounds. Yotel featured free wireless, TV, shower, virtually everything you need apart from plenty of space. Have a look at the slide-show - I can definitely recommend it if you have a stop-over in Gatwick and you feel like freshening up rather than sleeping on the bench.

Arrived in Zagreb (I hadn't been to Croatia in almost twenty years) on Thursday morning and was picked up by the tournament staff and local coach Luca (quite the chatty fella) and was taken to the club. Four Courts (Mc Will courts, so with wooden planks), large gym, nice bar and super-friendly people.

Had a hit with the number one from the Croatian team Vedran, who first told me I was the best player he had played (obviously a

lie) and then told me that I must have lost weight since the last time he saw me a year ago in Poland (thanks Vedran - I actually lost 5kgs since then). Club was pretty busy with last minute preparations - they even put up a stand for center court with about 100 seats.

After a deserved nap and I sampled the local beer - Ozujsko - had dinner, and then my first team mate Dennis arrived, with Ivan and the rest of the crew preferring to drive up early in the morning from Belgrade.