Prior to the arrival of the Turku squad the Hotel accommodation had been arranged in advance with a local hotel for the travelling supporters and team coaches.  Accommodation for the team was setup with local families where two players would be looked after in order to reduce the costs for the visiting team and to allow the girls to mix with the local families and improve their English. 

The squad arrived in Wexford on Thursday evening.  At their request they were then brought to the venue which was to be used for the Saturdays match for a two hour training session.  After training refreshments were provided by the county association for the Turku squad in the local Inn.  The hosting families collected the players and brought them to their homes after they had been introduced to each other.   The adults were returned to their hotel.

A bus had been hired in advance for a sight seeing trip around the south east on the Friday.  Later that evening both squads came together in Ramsgrange for a joint training session which was taken by the Turku coaches.  Brenda Barry from Badminton Ireland and County Chairman Dick O’Rafferty were among the visitors to the venue on the night.  Brenda Barry handed over a cheque from the National Branch to Dick O’Rafferty to help towards the costs involved in staging the event.  Both squads and visitors were then treated to light refreshments in the local Inn before departing for a good night rest.   

Both teams arrived early for the representative match which was scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on the Saturday morning.  After the warm up and team meetings both squads were introduced to the county chairman Dick O’Rafferty who officially welcomed the Turku and Wexford teams and wished them well in the game.  The visitors were then also welcomed individually by the Wexford players who also had some small souvenirs trinkets to present to them which were supplied by the Wexford Badminton Association and Badminton Ireland.  In the ensuing representative match played in a noisy but delightful atmosphere the Turku district side inflicted a 10-5 defeat on Wexford in the historic 1^st ever meeting between a county selection and a team from Finland. 

In conjunction with the representative match the Wexford Badminton Association had also organised a ladies doubles tournament to coincide with the visit of the Finland squad to the region.  The round robin event was played on Saturday afternoon with two groups of five pairings competing for honours in senior and junior grades.  In an agreed cultural exchange the Wexford and Turku player’s swapped partnerships for the event resulting in all pairings being made up of Wexford and Turku players.  With every point vital all matches were fought to the last ace and the winners and runners-up in both grades were not known until the very last series of games.  The winners of the senior event were Elaine Dunne and Satu Saare with 115 points.  They had three points to spare over the runners-up Laura Lynch and Riina Makela.  The junior event was equally exciting with Aoife Bennett and Paulina Vaskikara taking the title with a maximum 120 points, but they still had only five points to spare over Clodagh Kent and Tiaa Rantalainen in 2^nd spot on 115 points.  The winner’s and runners-up medals were presented by the County Chairman Dick O’Rafferty.

Everyone then returned to their accommodation to get ready for a farewell dinner courtesy of the county association.  After few speeches gifts were exchanged and the adults then departed to save their hearing and allow the teams the freedom to communicate on their own.  The squad departed on Sunday morning for the return trip Finland.  Both sides were hopeful that it will be the start of a series of annual matches between the two associations.