2009-05-09 - Glasgow Beginners Tournament
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- Team composition
Captain: Doug
Felicity, Narinder, Ali Fresh, Lesley-Anne
Doug, Dave, Rob, Colin, Dunkan, Pierre
- Photos
- Summary
SuperHands Triumph at the Glasgow Lions Beginners’ Tournament, 9 May 2009
The fact that the average rainfall in Glasgow in May is 32% higher than in Edinburgh is easy to believe, but what the statistics fail to mention is that the entirety of this 16mm falls on a s day of the month. By an unfortunate coincidence, that day in 2009 happened to the day of the second annual Glasgow Lions Beginners' Tournament.
Never a team to be put off by a bit of bad weather (we had trained on many a dark winter's evening after all), the SuperHands stepped off the train from the Far East into the drizzle in cheerful mood, looking forward to the opportunity to avenge the defeat to the Lions in the shootout stages of the Sixpack tournament a few weeks previously. A short walk later Fliss, Freshy, Narinder, Lesley-Anne, Colin, Dave, Dunkan, Pierre, Rob and Captain for the day, Doug arrived at Allan Glen's RFC in Bishopbriggs ready to do battle. As the day progressed the weather changed from drizzle, to light rain, to moderate rain, to heavy rain and back to moderate rain... yes, you get the picture. It was wet.
First up were the Flossie Posse, a beginners side from the Stirling Touch fold. The SuperHands found their rhythm quicker than the opposition and despite difficult handling were able to win reasonably comfortably. By this point everyone was soaked through, so since we had a break before the next game we headed inside to warm up eat some energy snacks and find any additional items of clothing. But, shock, horror! When Captain Doug arrived in the changing rooms several players were taking an early shower. How would we continue with such a depleted team? But no, they hadn't called it a day, they just figured that since they were wet through anyway, they might as well be warm and wet.
As a result half the team had suspicious clouds of water vapour rising off them as we ran on to face Glasgow Hellish, one of the host teams. Given the conditions it was a relatively high scoring game but neither team managed to get the upper hand. The final score was 3 all.
Next up were the Halcrow Hawks. By now there were large pools of standing water on the pitches and it was quite an unpleasant experience to be running backwards in defence and suddenly find your feet 4 inches deep in cold water. The SuperHands heads didn't drop though and we chalked up another victory.
The final group game was against Glasgow Fiendish and with numb fingers the SuperHands once again defeated the opposition, this time keeping a clean sheet in defence and scoring three touchdowns to put them through to the final against Glasgow Hellish.
The final was a close fought game of attrition as each team drove into the opposition's half only for the treacherously slippery ball to go to ground. Both sides were suffering from the cold and a few may have been in the early stages of hypothermia, but the SuperHands dug deep, kept their focus and eventually managed to put two touchdowns on the scoreboard to seal the tournament victory. Dunkan was so pleased he performed a full length dive into one of the large puddles much to everyone's amusement. Rarely has a hot shower felt so good, as the blood returned to the victors' extremities. As brains began to thaw, mental notes were made to buy skins and other such protective clothing to minimise the suffering in the future.
At the presentations, Captain Doug was very proud to accept the SuperHands’ first ever trophy on behalf of the team. The tournament's Most Valued Female Player award went to Lesley-Anne and Fliss received the SuperHands MVP award for having the superest hands of the day, having not dropped a single ball. But really, everyone’s contribution in such difficult conditions was immense. A few pints were downed and some banter had with the opposition before returning to Edinburgh for an eagerly anticipated feast to recharge the batteries at Imans washed down with a few more pints in Bennets Bar for those that still had the energy at the end of what had been a unique day of touch.