May 3, 2007

  • Sporting Life

    The weekends have been filled recently
    with biking and football, so what to tell you first?

    Football

    The Tavern Premier Cup is underway, the
    Red Lions drawn in the so called Group of Death with former whipping
    boys Da An, Minchuan University (a 1st division team) and
    some other Chinese team. Minchuan University is one of the favourites
    to win the title, the top two teams of the group going through to the
    quarter finals.

    Having beaten Da An 2-1 in our opening
    game, the weekend after I returned from Slovenistan, the man of the
    match (aka Spartacus) was awarded to none other than your humble
    chronicler. Apparently a couple of saves I made early in the second
    half were the difference between 1 point and the maximum 3 we won.

    During the week I received a very cool
    mail, saying that the Singaporean national team had pulled out of the
    Seniors World Cup in Thailand, and that a scratch team was being put
    together. Although technically too young (just) still to participate,
    due to the lateness of the Singaporean team pulling out, the
    organisers were prepared to bend the rules just a tad. That was all I
    needed, and I told my friend Paul, who used to play for PSV Eindhoven
    and whose son apparently had a trial at Exeter City (COME ON CITY),
    that I was available.

    After one evening of a lot of
    excitement and build up, I was informed that they had a keeper who
    was one of the tournament organisers, and even though I was a better
    keeper than him, the chances of me getting in the squad were down
    with St Albans chances of avoiding relegation. As the Saints had
    already been relegated three weeks previously, you can guess the
    answer.

    Still, for a day I had been able to
    dream of playing against Australia, Taiwan and Iran, with a possible
    semi-final match up with Germany...with some majorly famous players
    participating in the event.

    So instead of heading to Thailand for
    the World Cup, I played in the second match of our Tavern Premier Cup
    campaign. Lions won 1-0, with the defence as strong as I have seen
    for quite some time, and your humble narrator having a very easy
    game.

    The final game came, and we still
    needed a win to assure us of top spot in the group, which we duly got
    from a solid 3-0 performance. We started off in a 4-5-1 formation,
    went to 4-4-2, and ended up 3-5-2 as the perceived threat from our
    Chinese counterparts failed to materialise.

    Exeter City has been performing rather
    well this season, and with just a couple of games of the regular
    season left, were battling for a play off place, trying to get back
    in to the league after 4 seasons in the Conference. Today - 3rd
    May – is the 4th anniversary of that epic season finale,
    where despite winning the last 3 games, we were still condemned to
    the Conference thanks (or no thanks) to other results not going our
    way.

    It got to the final day, Exeter needing
    a win against Southport, who had already been relegated. Easy peasy?
    You don't know Exeter – the team to bet on grabbing defeat out of
    the jaws of victory. But this time, after sliding to a 1-0 half time
    loss, we managed to turn the game around and won 2-1 to secure that
    final play off spot, and a 2-leg match against Oxford.

    With one of my Red Lion team mates
    being an Oxford fan there is a little banter and friendly rivalry,
    and – of course – a little wager. The supporter of the losing
    team from this play-off has to wear the colours of the winning team
    to a Red Lions game.

    "But I don't have an Oxford shirt
    for you," whined Nick.

    "No problem mucker," I
    replied, quicker than Ben Johnson after a quick steroid intake, "you
    won't need it anyway!"

    Pride comes before a fall. But hey –
    it's all in the name of humour.

    City – Oxford on Sky tomorrow... -
    we're doomed! We NEVER play well in front of the cameras – I
    support a team of fugging posers. I've been trying to find out if the
    Tavern will get coverage, despite the game being played at 3 AM here
    in Taiwan, but so far no luck. I may head down there anyway!

    Biking

    The other day I found the notes I took
    in preparation of my epic journey up He Huan Shan. Damn, I missed the
    goal by miles. This year though I will do better. I am fitter,
    leaner, and more determined to make it. I have been biking several
    times a week in order to burn off the excessive pizza and pasta that
    built up during my 2 weeks in Slovenistan. Alas, another 3 weeks in
    Europe are bearing down on me, but hopefully this time I will be able
    to sort myself out with a decent bike to tonk up those hills that
    surround the town of Nova Gorica.

    I made it again up to the top of Da Tun
    Shan, despite the humidity and heat, and as I was descending I
    wondered, should I go for a second climb of the day, up Guanyin Shan?
    I was feeling good and ready for it, until I started pedalling after
    the 10km descent. Man I was cramped up. Ok, I thought, I will leave
    that one for the moment, and wait until I am perhaps a tad fitter.

    The next time I went up Da Tun Shan I
    got lucky. I made it up to about 975 metres before hitting the cloud.
    By the time I got to the summit, the cloud had closed in, making my
    descent back towards Bei Hsin Chuang rather hazardous. Indeed, the
    cloud stayed until about 600 metres altitude, but despite this very
    dangerous weather, I was still confronted by 2 Taiwanese cyclists who
    decided to cut the corner on what is a blind bend even on a good day,
    when it is not obscured by clouds. Had a car been coming down, they
    would have been hit. Thankfully for them, it was just a wild
    Englishman on his mountain bike, singing a Bobby Brown classic song
    (I have no idea why), as he tonked down the mountain at 40 km/h.

    "Oh shit," I exclaimed as my
    song was rudely interrupted by the aforementioned cyclists, and after
    I had navigated my way between them, the medley restarted, and the
    Tenderoni was so ripe once more.

    I got back to my home, and 5 minutes
    later I could not see the river, let alone the mountain, as it was
    pissing down. I laughed a hearty laugh for the kamikaze Taiwanese
    cyclists who were that very minute getting absolutely drenched at the
    top of the mountain. Assuming, of course, that they had not completed
    their suicide mission on a blind bend.

    I'm going to get that big assed
    mountain this year, assuming I have not turned in to a pizza calzone
    by my return from Slovenistan at the end of May.

    Final words of the day:

    COME ON CITY