Maximum effort and passion from everyone concerned in the SA v Saudi Arabia Dodgeball tournament this weekend. And a huge win for the local U21 boys in their 5 match series.
I’ve been watching and ‘togging.
It’s a fairly straightforward game, usually somewhat controlled and end to end with waves of attacks, but every so often there will be a few seconds of absolute chaos.
Like what’s happening in that photo above. I love the way that it’s all so still and calm in the image, but you can still absolutely feel the power, urgency and action.
Apparently, there’s a Level 1 wind warning out for the Western Cape today:
A Yellow Level 1 warning: Damaging winds which may result in localized problems for high-sided vehicles on routes prone to strong cross winds (especially in the N1), exposed high level roads/bridges and risk of localized runways fires are expected over the southern parts of the Northern Cape as well as the central and northern parts of the Western Cape.
See?
It’s not been that bad, but there are a few branches down here and there, an over-confidently placed shoe ended up in the swimming pool, and there has been quite a lot of ear flappery of the beagle variety.
The weather is unhelpful, as half the family is off to an outdoor concert this evening (the wind looks likely to moderate by sunset), and another quarter has outdoor dodgeball training. But before that, one of the quarters which is going to the concert has an outdoor horseriding session in a dusty arena. It’s going to be hectic. Me? I’m the final quarter and I’m just the taxi service for all these things. And that’s going to involve dashing from Hout Bay to Wynberg to Kirstenbosch to Pinelands (all the exciting places covered then) with minimal time in between.
Except…
Within a couple of moments of one another, the riding and the dodgeball were both cancelled. The former because it was “nasty” in Hout Bay (their words, not mine), and I’m not sure what the weather had to do with it, anyway; and the latter because of the risk of injury from “balls flying out of control and in different directions”. Just sounds like a good night out on Somerset Road to me.
Careful now.
And so, with the concert unlikely to be pulled (international artist, don’t you know?), the fun can continue, and the afternoon has got a little bit easier to navigate through, albeit at the expense of some equestrian entertainment and some important training.
2 days left to enter the raffle at the time of writing: click the link and buy a ticket or ten, PLEEEEASE!
So… looks like a bit of Germany v Japan in my comfy chair for me, rather than trips to Hout Bay and Pinelands.
I’m really feeling rough today, so I’ve missed out on the excitement of the final day.
Well done to the U21s, who managed their first ever point as a team. And really well done to the U21 women, who pulled off an incredible win against all the odds.
Still here watching the Dodgeball, and while the U21s haven’t got their first win yet, they are getting better with every game. There are clear signs that there is a lot of promise for the future for this young, inexperienced team.
It’s good stuff, and I’m so happy that my boy is part of it.
Off court, there are a lot of smiles and camaraderie between the nations, and the junior and U21 games have been played in great spirit.
Sadly, the same can’t be said of the senior games. There’s been a lot of chat about respect and good sportsmanship after some seriously heated moments yesterday.
Really nasty.
The differing attitudes to coaching are interesting to watch. Of course, everyone’s in it to win it, but the SA guys are also there to play fair. There are smiles, encouragement, support. The Egyptian players and coaches are the same until they don’t like something, then – without exception – it’s full on Jeykell and Hyde stuff. Kloppesque whine mode engaged: at the refs, the players, sometimes the fans, often some deity or other. It’s regularly been genuinely unpleasant.
Nah then, Mardybum.
And disappointingly, you can see it running off on some of the younger players already. A hint of arrogance, a bit of sarcasm, disputing decisions, chirping at the ref.
But then, what do you expect?
There’s a lot more to playing sport than winning. If there wasn’t, no-one would bother doing it. But there are so many life lessons you can learn from this sort of thing and it’s just really sad to see which ones seem to be getting through.
