And representing the Welsh Dragons in the Hungarian International Korfball Tournament – Chrissy, Eliza and Julie!!
OK so none of us are actually Welsh, and not quite a full team, but that was just detail. We were reliably informed that there were four dutch guys looking for girls to make up their number so we pressed on.
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We were a little nervous on the first day of the Tournament. We’d found our way to the venue with no major hiccups, but when we went to eat breakfast in the hall the next day we felt a little less professional than the other teams. We had managed to acquire three matching red T-shirts (after some pooling of resources) but Chrissy observed that some of the teams had matching tops (which she felt sure were Chanel), matching skirts and even matching socks. We decided to try to keep a low profile while we scoured the room for the four dutch players, all of whom I imagined to be 6 foot 4, super-fit korf stars who’d been playing since before they could walk (although the super-fit part was possibly just wishful thinking).
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With terror in our hearts, we agreed that, before heading down to the pitch, we would put on our dark sunglasses and cover up our Dragons T-shirts with jackets, so we could make a run for it if the standard was beyond our reach. However the Dutchmen were wise to us: as their captain reported later, “We saw you all sitting on the side lines in your sunglasses looking terrified, so we just walked over and asked you to play with us”. So not such a low profile after all. Perhaps it was the fleecy jackets on a 32 degree day that gave us away.
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The team were called Erasmus and they instantly became our team for two days. We soon realised our fears were unfounded when they offered us our first beers at midday, with three games left to go. We even managed to come 11th (out of 14), so not last! Not a bad effort considering that one of our dutch team mates didn’t actually make it to the pitch on sunday following a rowdy night out. We even scored some goals – mainly because our team mates kept insisting that we take the penalty shots, either out of sympathy or for amusement.
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It was a fantastic tournament. Everyone was incredibly freindly and the weather was perfect every day. We highly recommend it for next year so get it in your diaries for 2010! Finally, huge thanks and congrats to Julie who organised the whole trip from start to finish.
