Easter Seeding Tournament

Lord of the Rings featured the same battles - a side with too few men against one with many vile and vicious creatures. Today we were to try our own style out with only a handful of guys against a group of teams with overweight sub-boxes. Today it was to be our Alamo. We were to be the Magnificent Seven.

Today it was the battle of Gribblehirst. Our tribe came out to fight the other tribes, many willing to die for the cause. What was the cause? It was ego. Respect. Pride. It was a battle between good and evil. And we know how that battle always ends. We just need to decide which side we are on.

We fought 6 battles, 3 with the men of war, 3 with the women joining the fray wielding screams as sharp as axes and locks of hair as long as the unstoppable warrior Samson.

The first was against the Wizards, and we had them bound for half of the game. An early try from David came as he tore through their defensive robes for an early lead. But these were oldies blessed with experience and they slowly dominated us with their magicry and launched a couple of good tries from 5 m set-pieces. The next two were soft and towards the end, as we fell onto their heels grabbing for boots but only snagging their boot marks. We lost 4-2. We also lost Sean in battle so we replaced him with Jeremy who did everything required of a fill-in (thanks!).

The second was against Flow, formally Blitz, formally KAC. Unsure of their name, they were also unsure of their attack as they dropped the ball. But their defense was a human wave, it would inspire and Chinaman fighting in the Korean War. How does one stop the fundamentalist who would give his life for his sport? Giving it all they had, they shot like fit freaks and shut us down. We scored two early ones through quickies as they lack defensive policies and rested on our lead and lived miraculously through their firing range of human bullets. But with a ball in their hand their fingers were lead and were unable to puncture through us. We didn't defend hard and just bided our time for unforced errors. We scored a couple of late tries in conjunction with two of theirs, but we can remember this game as the smart one. With their sub-bench that continously unloaded and reloaded fresh ammunition to splatter on us, we won this battle with policies and trusting each other. We won 4-2.

The third was against Jeffrey's team, as we always term them. These fellas were backyard touch players and they used their skills well. As our tired men (1 sub, Jeremy a stranger) started to cramp our old tree legs up we were very ineffective and only managed one try. We were losing the will to fight. These guys tried everything, wrapping and cutting and bouncing. They were a roller-coaster of movements and again we played it smart and shut down their bow and arrow-like plays. But we slowly broke down and they soon spilled through on a ruck for Dean (our very own defected member) to score. We missed our opportunities (that when you're tired are few and rare) and obviously a 1-0 lead is never enough to sit on. We drew with them.

Lunch then got served and we all recharged and gave thanks to free food.

The fourth was against a clearly non-Asian team. Not that we really cared, touch is a sport celebrated by all. As the writer, I spent more time putting on sun block (so I didn't get burnt) to actually watch what happened but we lost to this well-drilled team 4-1.

The fifth was against Flow, seeking revenge with their ladies to swamp us with slaps, spits, swipes and a barrel-load of aggression. They played much better with their girls and piled up a heap of points against us to win a very throrough victory. Credit to them, but we'll win the victory of having prettier girls in our team :-) As the reader can see, our team never truly loses!

The sixth and final game was a social game against ACPC and they were new to the game. We chilled out with them and gave the girls a good chance to show their wares. Jules scored one and scored a bruise on a her bum in doing so. Winning always comes at a cost. And thanks to her sacrifice we won this final one.

In summary, we played well with what we had, but we really need a fuller team - one with no pop-out shoulders, one which doesn't go to work on public holidays, one which does not play other sports like tennis. Skillfully, tactically, we can fight out the mens one we believe - we just need all the soldiers to come to do battle. In the mixed, we'll rely on our women to stun their men with beauty and gracious running and catching. Then we might win that too.