SH/SZ/CH Mini Tournament ¨C Chengdu - August 4th
Chengdu (t)rip
What a success the trip to Chengdu was ............on paper, Friday 4th we all made it to the bar in Pudong international airport, well all but one, poor Declan was still designing the posts for the upcoming gaelic games, some one should have told him they could only be white!!!!!!! So onto Chengdu it was with our (t)rusty orgainiser Mick, (actually the last time Mick orgainised something was the 1982 Dunmore Bonnie Baby Piss up when he won the competion). After getting the 16 people into 4 taxi's and no one was sitting on anyone we arrived at the team hotel, the ladies pointed out the discrepancy of no red carpet but that didn't stop us from entering the salubrious Super 8 MOTEL which Mick had to stoop to all new levels to secure it from Dick. The next hour can only be described as a blib in an other wise well thought out treasure hunt, YES it was the wrong hotel....... so off we went on our treasure hunt, the prize being to find the correct hotel and whack Mick's Dick. After checking in......sorry that didn't happen, after putting our bags in some random room we went to meet the opposition, which we were beginning to think was Mick. After getting to the Shamrock Irish Bar we were greeted by the Shenzhen team and so the treasure hunt continued for the Chengdu team.......we wondered as we drank copious amounts of booze had Mick hidden them, up until Davy had to pick JB's eyes up off the ground and Noelie got offended and went home because someone asked him if he was drunk.........
Luckily we all turned up on Saturday morning and we have to send our a special thanks to Dick for not coming to the hotel at 4.30am or we would have had a lot of explaining to do about painting the town red....So off to the football on the Saturday morning via KFC to face Shenzhen and the Chengdu two. First up were the Lads against the All China Runners Up, it proved to be a tough first half with only 2 points separating the teams at half time, but the second half proved to be a bit more one sided as the marine type training that Declan, Davy and co have been putting the lads through started paying off. The ladies then played the Shenzhen ladies and with a few new comers to the ladies team they also went in at half time even Stephen, with Anna, Mica and Helen leading the way. But unfortunately Niamh from the Shenzhen ladies was on fire and Shenzhen put away a few goals in the second half.
Next up for the men were the hosts Chengdu who recruited a few lads since we arrived. The match again was a close affair up until the second half and unfortunately for the lads we lost the services of Davey Hayes due to a suspected hamstring injury over his right temple. Luckily for us we discovered there is life after Davey and Mr MVP in Mick Roche and the talented goal keeper......Hot Shot Hamish (they moved the posts). The Ladies then had another run out against the Shenzhen ladies but unfortunately the Brazilian forward for the Shenzhen ladies found her point scoring boots. Anna, who scored a scorcher of a goal, came out on top of the tussle with their star player Niamh.
The men coming from there previous two victories and sobriety kicking in decided they should have yet another game against the Shenzhen lads, for once we went in at half time comfortably up but the biased ref played 3 hours of a second half and Mick's tackles were later than Dublin Bus. We finally came out on top by 3, thanks to some determined play by Declan in midfield and dogged defending by Mr. Chairman.
Saturday night started off with a trip to the hotpot and ended up in it. A few people showed there true colours, Mick Roche's Long Island Iced tea drinking was second to none and JB is Irelands next entry to the Eurovision song contest.
The weekend was rounded off with a trip to Panda park which was a bit like looking at Noelie after being on the rip with 2 hours sleep (actually which is most days)......next week we are charging 100rmb to get a photo with the Panda Man Noel C. A special thanks goes out the guys and girls of Shanghai who travelled, the Shenzhen Posse, the Chengdu 2 and Peter, Dick and last but definitely the least amount of thanks Mick the orgainiser.......but you made it one memorable weekend.
Ronan McGuinness
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