WHILE Huddersfield boasts thriving Polish and Ukrainian communities, there are a handful of Czechs who are flying the flag for their homeland here.

Frank and Vladena Grombir came from the Czech Republic in 2006 and have made Huddersfield their home.

The couple, who have both studied at Huddersfield University, now have a daughter Amalie, born in 2009.

Frank and Vladena, both 26, live in Fartown.

They decided to start a new life when they saw adverts in their home country for care assistants in Britain.

Frank went on to study history and politics at Huddersfield University and is undertaking a masters degree ahead of a PHD in history.

Frank, who has an interest in the history of the Eastern European community in Yorkshire, believes the Euro 2012 football championships is a chance for Huddersfield’s various communities to celebrate their roots.

“Huddersfield has large communities from the Ukraine and Poland and the football brings people together,” he said.

“Ukraine is one of the host countries and matches will be shown in their club on Edgerton Road.

“It is interesting to look at how sport, such as football, can build communities and break down the barriers between generations.

“In the case of Poles, the community is very diversified as it includes the post-war generation and their descendants as well as the new wave of migrants.”

Poland and the Czech Republic go head-to-head tomorrow in a bid to qualify from the group stages.

Frank expects Huddersfield’s Czech contingent to be massively outnumbered.

“I don’t think you could say the number of Czechs in Huddersfield amounts to a community,” he said.

“There are only a few of us around. There is a shared house in Springwood where Czechs have come and gone since we’ve been here and there are isolated pockets around the town.”

Frank said there were 150 to 200 Czech refugees, mainly Jews, who came to Huddersfield during the Second World War but they hadn’t stayed.

Now the biggest influx were business students.

Frank said he hadn’t decided where to watch tomorrow’s game.

He said he might go to the Polish Parish Hall in Fitzwilliam Street, Huddersfield, and added: “I might be the only Czech fan there. That might be interesting.”

Frank told how he and his wife were interviewed for the care assistant jobs in Prague but were told they could be sent anywhere in the UK.

“I said that was OK as long as there was a university and a social life so we ended up in Huddersfield by accident!

“We’ve been here six years and still love it.

“As to whether we’ll stay, that’s something we keep asking ourselves. And we do sometimes have an identity crisis.

“My dream is to have an academic career and Vladena wants to teach English so our ambitions may decide where we end up”.