2026 Club trip to Brussels, Belgium

The St Albans Foreign trip this year was to Brussels (Belgium) which took place between Friday 6th and Sunday 8th March, 2026. Travel was via the Eurostar service from London, St Pancras, to Brussels Midi. There were ten players in the touring team this year, eight of whom had travelled to Mechelen the previous year, with Harvey Brown and Oliver McWilliams being a welcome addition to the team.

1. Jeremy Fraser-Michell

2. Ian Gooding

3. Paul Lawrence

4. Matt Kortekaas

5. Ian Cross

6. Lubomir Botev

7. Stephen Taylor

8. Harvey Brown

9. Oliver McWilliams

10. Ray Claret

The team played two Matches, the first on the Saturday evening against the local CREB club, their venue being a 20 minute walk from the hotel. The second Match on the Saturday afternoon was against the Ixelles club, in the city suburb area of Ixelles.

Accommodation

The base camp for this year’s trip was the IBIS Hotel, off Grand Place, a modern three-star hotel. The central location in the city centre greatly simplified logistics.

Match v CREB (Saturday 7th March)

The club had played CREB in 2007 so this was a welcome return to renew our acquittance. Each player had two games of 45 minutes plus 10 second increment against the same opponent, with colours reversed in the second Round. This allowed a playing session of around three hours, but with a short break in between Rounds. St Albans tied the first round 5 – 5. CREB powered ahead in the second round, winning by 8-2. Hence CREB won the match overall with the final score 13 – 7. Eight of our hosts joined the team for a post-match meal at the “Kabuki”, a restaurant serving Japanese cuisine.

Match v Ixelles (Sunday 8th March)

The venue for the match was the café Montmartre in Ixelles. The time limit for the Match was 60 minutes per player, plus a 30 second increment. Ixelles had a comfortable victory with the score 6½ - 3½. After the match the team travelled to the Brussels Midi Eurostar hub by two taxis.