When it comes to badminton, Regensburg has seen a lot – but the best times were a long time ago. SV Fortuna’s German team title 35 years ago was probably the highlight. For a long time, the team around veteran Dieter Sichert, who has worked in a wide variety of functions far beyond Regensburg for decades and is now 75 years old, only worked in lower regions. But after three promotions in four years, SV Fortuna is back at the third highest level as a regional league team – and is back at the forefront there too.
The top four are among themselves
And so at the weekend there will be a level of badminton quality that hasn’t been seen for a long time, when groundbreaking top games take place in the Nord-Halle on Isarstrasse. On Saturday from 2 p.m., TSV Niederwürschnitz (10:4 points) from the Erzgebirgskreis in Saxony will be the last part of a top quartet. All teams behind them in the league’s field of ten have a negative point ratio. And you can’t get more top game than on Sunday from 10 a.m. when the HSG DHfK Leipzig (14:0 points), with no loss points, which is already under massive scrutiny on Saturday against third-placed TSV Neuhausen-Nymphenburg (11:3), competes at Fortuna on the ninth matchday at the end of the preliminary round in the regional league.
I’m also looking forward to the most pleasant team we’ve ever had this weekend.
The hosts are also unbeaten and have only failed to win once in seven games with a 4-4 draw at fifth-placed TV Dillingen. All six victories were clear in terms of numbers, three times 6:2 and three times 7:1, even if things were often closer on the field than the result indicated. “So far we’ve had the luck of the hardworking. That could have turned out the other way around in Neuhausen or Lohhof, for example,” says Sichert.
He, to whom Stepan Hobzda has been providing massive support in team building for years, exercised caution with a forecast before the season. He now knows that his Fortuna team can be at the very top with the best line-up as it was at the weekend. The veteran “Mister Badminton” knows only too well what it would mean if Regensburg wanted to become a second division team again and is definitely worried about whether it could be achieved. “Sure, I have a headache. Without a sponsor it wouldn’t work – and there’s no prospects at the moment,” says Sichert. “But I’m also looking forward to the games because I don’t have to say on Sunday whether we want to be promoted or not.”
“Still too nervous”
Above all, Dieter Sichert is looking forward to “the nicest team we’ve ever had. They’re great girls and boys. I’m also looking forward to good games, not the excitement. I’m still too nervous,” says Fortuna’s department head, explaining his expectations. “I do have the hope that we’ll come out of the affair well. But it would be foolhardy as a newly promoted team to say that we’ll just beat last year’s Bundesliga relegates,” says Sichert, referring to a cross-comparison: “We made a mistake against Dillingen, they wiped them out 6-2.”
