BUSA Nationals 2005 - Sheffield
I could bore you with a plethora of archaic prose detailing the minutiae of each match, but that would be dull, and to be fair, I can't remember half of what happened anyway. Moreover, my aim here is to convey a flavour of the events of the weekend in Sheffield, not necessarily all Korf related! This humble narrator begs your indulgence…Going up
What a drive up there! Navigate? Hmm, I could see myself having issues navigating my way out of a damp paper bag. I'm not sure how this happened, the road was there, and then it wasn't. I could put it down to a lull in my jellybean intake, but that would probably be a lie, as my co-pilot (Donna) was more than happy to keep me topped up. Maybe I had a sugar rush? Maybe I'm just stupid? Who knows!? We didn't take a wrong turning, as there were none to take. I didn't take a slip road, as there were none to slip off onto. All I do know is, we ended up in Oxfordshire, which as Grace rightly stated, isn't up north. Luckily, we made it in plenty of time to the 'Riverside Court' Hotel for a pint and time to paint my nails, so it wasn't all bad.
Saturday
Up early, a full-English for some, funky milk and cereal for others. When I say funky, I actually mean off.
The first match in our pool was against Edinburgh. This ended in a 9 - 2 defeat, with Steve and Craig scoring (Free pass & Penalty, respectively).
The next match was against Cambridge. Yet another strong team (they made it to the final), with the game ending 6 - 1 to Cambridge, Craig scoring the only goal via a penalty.
Next up were Canterbury, whilst still being a young team, did well to pull back 3 goals against our 6. First goal goes to Amy S (short), then 2 to Steve (running in), 2 running in shots to Joey and then Jack rounded the score off with a penalty.
Our match against Keele secured another victory (4 - 3), with Jack and Joey scoring running in shots, Jack scoring a penalty, and Amy S finishing off with a short shot.
So, at the end of day one, we had two wins and two defeats. We weren't in the top 8, but tomorrow was a new dawn, it was a new day, a new life? We were feeling good.
Saturday night
Liz and I decided to head to the AGM. Yes, we are both martyrs to the cause. Armed with a few beers to make the meeting a bit more tolerable (that's not a reflection of the people holding the AGM, I just don't enjoy these things), we sat and fought for a number of votes. We've got the Southern tournament (I think?) but not the Nationals. In fact, we had the Nationals but some people turned up late and didn't vote for us. Thanks Oxford, thanks a lot. Late voters, grrrrr.
After that we headed off to Cha-cha's to meet up with the others. Cha-cha's had the feel of a union, with cheap drinks, and Karaoke, but, and it was a big but… No dance floor? No dance floor! I'm sure I wasn't the only person who wanted to dance. C'mon, the place is named after a dance already! Still, we had a few drinks, a laugh, and watched Steve try to strip & sing to 'Sitting on the dock of the bay'. Probably not what Otis Redding had envisioned for this motown classic and probably not what the rest of korfball players in Cha-cha's were expecting either!
Sunday (The fight for 9th place!)
The first match on Sunday morning (9:15 am, are they mad??) was against Lancaster. I'm glad everyone playing didn't feel as rough as I did (NB: Don't mix vodka and milky coffee, it's not very nice.) as we won 6 - 2. Goals scored were, Jack (2 penalties and a running in shot), a running in shot from Joey and finally a short shot from Craig.
Our final match was against Manchester. This resulted in a 4 - 0 defeat. I got to play, but my shirt played one match more than I did, so we're not on speaking terms at the moment.
Coming home
Probably one of the funniest situations I've ever been in. If you could make a 10 episode sitcom out of it, it would be a hit! OK, maybe not that funny, but you had to be there. Coming back down from Sheffield, we had to stop for petrol. Sarah wanted some dolly mixtures, and Amy wanted some savoury meaty snack-type things. So, I wandered into the shop, only to discover they had neither of the two. Sarah has extremely good distance vision, and by holding and pointing to bags of sweets in turn through the petrol station window, I was able to discern which sweets Sarah wanted (acutally, Sarah wanted M&S mini-sausages and ketchup, but I'm no magician.). Then Amy phoned up, barely able to talk, saying Sarah didn't want them, and that she was going to explode. I paid for the petrol, walked back to the car, to find the girls in fits of laughter, with tears streaming down their faces. Okaaaay.
Further down the road, the girls thought they could spot Steve and Amy in Steve's car (both going back to 'nam). So, I accelerated up to, to have a look. It was a 'V' reg fiesta, with a blonde girl in the passenger seat, and a dark haired guy driving. Just as we pulled level, all the girls started frantically beating the windows, trying to catch their attention. I was just about to beep the horn when… It wasn't them. We stopped just in time, but due to the general fatigue levels in the car, the laughter went on for minutes. In fact, we seemed to laugh quite a lot all the way home, but that's because we were all teetering on the steep sides of the chasm of delerium.
Later we did find Amy and Steve pottering along. We decided we all needed a break and would meet at the next service station for coffee. Not only did we meet up with Amy and Steve, but the entire Korfball team was there and a group of Cardiff Uni Swimmers. Small world isn't it?
We rounded off Sunday night at Chez Sarah, with Pizza, mango, guiness, and a bottle of wine. No one else wanted any wine, ho hum.
Korfball, c'est mon raison d'être, presque!
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Give Steve a kettle, a teabag, and a cup and he's happy. |
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Hey, let's korf already! |
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Live life to the full, hug a badger. (Badger badger badger badger mushroom mushroom, it's a snake!!) |
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The Nationals team 2005. |
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Joey runs at the unnatural angle of, ummm, 45 degrees. I'm such a keen angler. |
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Something's not quite 'right' here... |
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Keeping warm inbetween matches. |
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Canterbury man's got the 'Eye of the tiger'. Hey, it's only a game. |
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Liz up's the ante in the supporting stakes by donning a donated red wig. I'll stick to the flag ta. |
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Jack tries a new tactic. Let the other team think we're going ultra commando. |
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Poised for a Canterbury free-pass. |
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Jack takes a penalty and scores the final basket of the Canterbury game. |
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"C'mon Jack" said Amy, "let him out of the corner." |
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Donna appears to be levitating. That David Blane bloke don't know nuffin. |
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Air hair lair! (Say it a couple of times, then it makes sense) |
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Donna displaying the utmost concentration, so she can.. |
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Mix a drink! |
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Sarah helpfully indicates the position of the light fitting. |
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Oh, it's so sweet! |
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At the time, this posed two questions. a) why? and b) why?? What Jack needed with a red sequined thong at a Korfball tournament we shall never know. Why he chose to put it on at that instant, well, we don't know that either. |
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The guys strike catalogue poses. |
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Amy's game of 'pull my finger' backfires badly. |
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Getting a bit of pre-match practice on Sunday morning. |
