Cardiff goes to Sweden!
Cardiff’s first ever trip to Scandinavia. Read the report here, now with a few added vaguely amusing photos.
Aidan, James, Josh, Pam and Taff set off on the Friday, Sandy having been sent on ahead for reconnaissance work. Arrived in Stockholm on Friday evening, and apart from a guided tour of central Stockholm by a clueless cabbie for half our team nothing much happened. We met up with the other teams in a bar, chatted a bit and tried to work out precisely how extortionate our drinks prices were. Towards the end of the evening the place mysteriously transformed itself into a disco/casino, but just as Pam was beginning to pile up some winnings at Blackjack we had to go.
Saturday morning we met up with Sandy and were ready to play. We�d decided to play in Dragons shirts on Saturday and City ones on Sunday; but showing admirable loyalty to City, Sandy had co-ordinated the rest of her kit to match a blue top and had to play all day under the handicap of not thinking her outfit was just right.The other teams were de Parabool from Groningen, Supernova from London and the hosts. Edinburgh had been forced to cancel at the last minute due to poor organisation and leaving arrangements to the last minute. Thankfully this could never happen to Cardiff. As well as Dutch and National League opponents, Stockholm also had a strong looking team made up mostly of a disparate collection of ex-pats including a former Dutch u-23 international and a guy who�d been deliberately growing stubble to look intimidating. As all the teams were short of girls, most of the games were played by �Swedish rules� where all the players at one end were guys. Unsurprisingly this led to much macho showboating and chaos.
Our first game was against de Parabool. We took an early lead thanks to a Supernova ringer, but despite Parabool missing loads of chances we never looked like holding on to it, and lost 2-7. If this defeat had been due to a lack of effort or teamwork this report could have been called �The Parable of de Parabool�. But actually it was just that they were much better than us.
Against Stockholm again it was close early on and had Josh not had a goal ridiculously given as defended to stop it becoming 2-3, we might have got something from the game. Instead Stockholm pulled away to win 6-1.
For our last game, against Supernova we abandoned our policy of recruiting Dutch ringers to fill up our team and instead added James� Stockholm residing friend Amy to the side for her first ever game. This proved inspired as we proceeded to match Supernova�s play, though still struggling to find the basket. Finally Aidan put up a long shot and just as the calls of �unlucky Aidan� were on our lips, we had to choke them back as the ball dropped perfectly. Josh added a running in shot and we emerged 2-1 winners to seal 3rd place. In years to come, people will forget that only 4 teams entered and it will look a great result. Not for Taff though who finished the day scoreless after his only shot on target missed, thanks to Josh running into the post.
After Stockholm had finished securing their posts from any possible threat by stashing them under a bush in the park overnight, we had a few hours to look around Stockholm�s renowned old town before the social. Or as it turned out, we had a few minutes for a quick look at the city hall after most of the time disappeared faffing and primping.
At the social, the teams were split up in order to get us to intermingle. In another attempt to try and bring us all together, Stockholm had compiled interesting facts about the participating cities. Groningen had hosted the worlds biggest ever pillow fight, with 2,997 participants � and how dumb must the 3 people who decided to stay in bed feel now and London isn�t short of material. However, they couldn�t find anything particularly interesting about Cardiff, and we couldn�t come up with anything either. But there must be something surely. Anyone?
The social was fun, we ate loads of crumble and drank copious quantities of alcohol as it was cheap by Swedish standards. But despite Stockholm�s attempts to launch us into drinking songs and downing shots the fact that the social room closed at 12 meant we got a fairly early night. Unlike de Parabool who went off to drink a large bottle of vodka and were last seen getting attractive Scandinavians (tautology, surely) to pose for photos with them and their trophy. Bloody students, eh? Here are some photos of the social on the Stockholm site, including:
Taff demonstrates how to wow the girls
Aidan not at all affected by drink
Aidan, possibly slightly affected by drink, and Sandy
On the Sunday, we lost Sandy to an early flight home and were then divided further as the teams were randomly chosen for Sunday�s play. Inspired by this Pam, Aidan & James� team and Josh & Taff�s team both won their morning games and were poised to play each other in the final. Which was when the weather turned nasty with thunder, lightning and a fierce hail shower where the stones were the size of � well, fucking big hailstones. When this turned into a deluge of biblical proportions we decided there was little prospect of further play and marched off to eat lunch, notable mostly for Taff choosing (and then claiming to enjoy) a banana curry pizza.
Eventually the sun came out, and although it was warm enough to add sunburn to our hailstone bruises, it didn�t exactly dry the pitch to its antediluvian state. So when play was restarted with Taff immobilised by his lunch and Josh by his lack of grip, Pam and Aidan took full advantage both scoring twice at their end to lead their team to deserved glory. James also contributed a goal at the other end.
After this we did manage to look around the gorgeous old town, and decided that melon ice cream is delicious and that hills, cobblestones and tall heels don�t go well together. Despite 20 minutes close scrutiny of a statue of St George slaying a dragon we weren�t able to decide his nationality. After that we decided to sample authentic Sweden by going to a tapas bar and then rejoining Supernova and Stockholm at an Irish pub.
Much drinking, prestidigitation and overly loud discussions of how ridiculous Gaelic spelling is (though at least we didn�t descend to arm wrestling, like Supernova) we were staggering back to the hotel. After 2 minutes kipping on the floor, Taff was particularly keen to make it to bed and when Pam paused to ask staff about breakfast kept muttering that was hours away and trying to get Aidan to take the lift up without her.
Monday was sightseeing, with Amy kindly agreeing to act as tour guide. But first we had to find her, more tricky than it sounds as we were unable to find Stockholm�s Central Station (a huge building) from the hotel (500 metres and 1 street away).
When we did locate Amy, she took us on a boat trip across the Baltic to one of Stockholm�s many islands where we admired the view from the top of the hill, then took in several buildings representing Sweden�s architectural history before finally getting to the real purpose of the trip � seeing a moose. It was part of a collection of Scandinavian animals, including a wolverine (hyper), eagle owls (statuesque), otters (cute), seals (not cute), brown bears (large) and reindeer (smelly). The male moose did seem very content with life, despite the irony that Taff noted between a moose with its reputation for looks sharing its pen with a strutting male peacock.
There was also a petting area where there were some kittens looking cute for the small children. They had loads of dummies/pacifiers dotted all around the cage � apparently this is a trick used by Swedish parents who want to wean their kids off them by persuading them to give them to the kitties. Later I mentioned this to my friend, Elin, and she told me that her (Swedish) cousin gets her kids to give their dummies to Santa one year in exchange for presents. This seems a great idea, although I�d suggest parents extend the custom to every year, getting their offspring to give their most loud and annoying toy to Santa in exchange for a new pile of loot.
After that we went to see the ship, the Vasa, which sank in 1628 on its maiden voyage and was then lifted up � very well preserved � 40 years ago. It�s a spectacular sight, a colossal size which proved its downfall as it was just too tall and heavy for its base. It didn�t even manage as much progress as the Titanic, slowly keeling over before even getting out of the harbour area. Amy said that it was particularly sad because the ship contained many wives and children of officers and dignitaries who were to be disembarked on a nearby island and replaced by soldiers. However, I think its refreshing for once that soldiers who are always getting killed for the sake of women and children got to be on the right side of the deal for once. The rest of the museum was pretty good too, some imaginative designs as well as a bit of cheesy reconstruction. I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed by the focus on how it was restored though. They should try and keep that sort of scientific mumbo-jumbo out of museums of historical interest.
Then, Aidan, James and Taff all embarked on the trip home, while Pam who was on a later flight disappeared to do some shopping. Some sources suggest that she was seen returning from the shops without any clothes or shoes, but these rumours are not seen as credible.
Anyway, thanks to Stockholm for arranging an all round splendid tournament, and especially to Robert and Frederic for putting us up. Also to Amy for showing us around and to all the people who played for or reffed our teams at some stage (ie everyone). There were thousands of photos taken, some of which will hopefully appear here at some point, but while we�re grateful for the offer, Sandy, for the last time, no we don�t want to see pictures of Gareth skinny dipping.
