Relocation plans on ice.

Luxembourgers can breath a little easier after the Ducks announced their commitment to stay put in the little Grand Duchy - for a couple more seasons at least. Anxious fans who were crammed inside the franchise's tiny press conference room erupted in an emotional outpouring on hearing the announcement from club official Mr Koch and repeated cries of "Allez les Canards" brought a temporary halt to the proceedings. Fortunately on this occasion the police refrained from deploying tear gas as they had done in a recent visit from the Moose Jaw Giraffes where some of the hungrier home fans had attempted to storm the away team dressing room in an over zealous display of gluttony.

The decision to stay was thought to have had two crucial components. A new sponsorship deal agreed earlier in the week with an unnamed European railway company and the intervention of Grand Duke Henri himself - a known hockey fanatic who frequently attends the club's home matches at the Kockelscheuer arena. It's thought that the Duke strongly felt a continued Luxembourgish representation in such a distinguished sporting competition was imperative to restoring the dimmed lustre of his family's name. Recent incidents on overseas diplomatic visits where he had been mistaken as a waiter in Paris and even more unfortunately a male escort in a Berlin hotel understandably left the Duke privately fuming and probably acted as a catalyst for the unprecedented move into sporting affairs. Club owners in the past have resisted some of the more outlandish royal requests such as the playing of Alpine Oom-pah music after each home team goal and most notably to rename the team "Duke a l'orange" - to which GM Ronnie Pander infamously retorted "The Grand Duke?. Grand Duck more like. Maybe he should spend more time with his wife and less time loitering in Berlin hotel lobbies." Obviously relations between the two parties have improved immeasurably in recent days.

Pander himself was unavailable for comment but was said to be "relieved" as the club's short term future at least had been secured. Club spokesmen Mr Koch jokingly muttered that "He (Pander) would be found later that evening under a table somewhere with a beer in one hand and a curried crispy giraffe in the other" and that "George (Parros) will be ecstatic as the girls here can't get enough of his tache and the way it tickles their inner thighs."