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In loving memory of Marc 'Shirley'
Friedman
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For all rugby clubs it’s traditional to have an
end of season tour. My rugby union club Belsize Park RFC (located in central London) has an
extraordinary touring record including North and South America, South Africa,
Hong Kong (during the time it was borrowed by Britain!), Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland, Spain, Italy and Scandinavia making us probably the most widely toured
amateur Club in the world of rugby. This year was our most ambitious tour of
all –
Being gay in
a rugby team is fairly controversial in itself, taking your boyfriend along with
you while on tour is even more so. Luckily my club is very open and has a great
bunch of lads who don’t make it an issue. Like one of the boys said
“so long as you can play good rugby, keep up with the drinking games and
give good head, it doesn’t matter!”
It’s a
whole new world out in China, a fantastic country to visit, but one with many
controversial issues due to its Communist Rule. Human rights and freedom
of speech are very poor. For example satellite TV is banned, all newspapers and
TV are government controlled, you’ll automatically get 3 months in jail
for negative political comments and you’re only allowed to have 1
child.
I believe that
Our tour of
The capital Beijing
is where we started, which plays host to the 2008 Olympic Games in August. When first getting off the
plane it seemed to be a dull misty day, however it was pointed out that the
mist was in fact smog and it was actually a very nice day for
From
From Xian we got an internal
flight (1½ hours) to
From
All in all it was a fantastic
rugby tour, a fantastic adventure in an almost alien world. For
a vacation,
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Duration 50
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Erick and I visited
Here’s some
photos and a short video from our 4 day trip:
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Hong Kong
2007 |
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Duration 12
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Well
this tour was a first for Belsize in so many ways and will live with all of us
for ever for many reasons, both tragic and great. We lost a great friend
and an embodiment of what makes Belsize such a great club, but we are the lucky
ones, the ones that knew Shirley, however briefly, and will all be the better
and richer for that.
The
match reports below are all as a result of his hard work, what he made possible
for everyone and show the results he inspired everyone to achieve. It was
an honour to be a part of such a great group of people and I'm truly grateful
for everyone's contribution; together we produced one h*ll of a tour which
everyone, especially Shirley, should be incredibly proud of.
Ice Breaker
Tournament -
The
ice breaker tournament saw the best sides in
The
second Belsize side took to the field half an hour later against the Chengdu (famous for Pandas, apparently) Black and
Whites. To be honest 10 days of touring has wiped several of the details
from my mind so highlights are likely to brief and/or affected by various embellishments
heard in the bar afterwards. This performance, particularly in the first
half, was far from the champagne rugby Belsize are capable of, with rustiness
and fatigue to the fore. Still, the forwards dominated the set-piece with
the opposition quickly choosing to play unopposed scrummages having lost
virtually all the early encounters. Despite our dominance, sterling
defence by the oppo combined with a poor final pass or catch meant we turned
around only one try ahead. However, the second half did witness a big
improvement with Belsize beginning to look quite good, Chris Geary produced his
usual bullocking runs scoring a couple, Alex Upton found a wing that was only
just bigger and stronger than him, but they were female (honestly), Murphy got
one from 10, Rob Harrison cut some good lines in the centres and even I managed
a try as we ran out winners 35 nil.
Our
second game was against a much better Chinese outfit, Beijing Loon Bang. In what proved to be a very
confrontational, physical game, not helped by a referee who appeared to lose
his whistle and have no concept of a breakdown, Belsize competed well but ended
up as the losing side. Joe Murphy's playing day was ended early after
trying to emulate his hero Johnny Wilkinson at fly-half, running from 10 he got
clattered and left as a broken heap on the deck and was forced to leave the
field. However, the highlight for most was Pete Galka spitting the dummy
at his opposite number and the ref and whining like a girl in a high pitched
Aussie accent before being binned.
This
left Belsize with a place in the semi-final of the plate against a Japanese side made up mainly of
students who had hammered their previous opponents by around 50 points playing
7's esque rugby. After a 2 hour wait for other matches to finish up and
having seized up nicely after 80 minutes of rugby in the morning, Belsize took
to the field again to face the free running students knowing they would need to
dominate up front and deny the opposition ball. Belsize started solidly
with good forward driving and quick ruck ball providing plenty of ball for Sam
Bradnock, stepping in to the 10 role and playing in Belsize colours for the
first time in a few years to control the game. Belsize scored twice early
on to the ease the pressure but were then punished when a mistake at the
set-piece gave the oppo their first piece of quality possession and the chance
to show they could run with the ball if we let them as it was fired wide for a
score in the corner. This woke Belsize up a little and we hit back with
some more good work with backs and forwards combining superbly to allow us to
run out comfortable winners by around 30 points in the end.
Our
reward for our efforts was another 40 minutes of rugby for some already tired
bodies. Nevertheless, an hour later Belsize took to the field facing the Fijian Allstars, determined to capture
some silverware, inspired by Zack's unique team talk and supported by a vocal
touchline. We finally got to scrummage properly again and the forwards
showed the power they had as we dominated scrums and denied the opposition much
ball at all. Sam tried to control the game but found that is howitzer of
a boot wasn't built for the Chinese pitches as it went long on a few occasions
meaning a scrum back. The forwards, seeing he needed the practice kindly
stepped up and kept winning the scrums back so he could have another go and
this paid of as we pushed the Fijians backwards. Belsize began to pile on
the pressure, playing most of the rugby inside the opposition half. The
pressure finally told as Belsize got a couple of scores midway through the
first half, at least one coming from Sam. The Fijians hit back with a
score of their own to show they were still in the game and we still had a job to
do. Belsize played a great second half, controlling the game where we
needed to and attacking when we had the chance, having extended our lead we
came under increasing pressure from the Fijians, culminating in a second try
for the Fijians and a binning for Zack, which he managed to turn into a red by
politely suggesting he hadn't made the correct decision. Belsize defended
sternly and sealed the game when Chris Geary broke out with another great run,
through and over the opposition to finish a great day for the club.
Shanghai Hairy Crabs went on to win the
Cup competition from our hosts the Beijing Devils,
but both sides said they were glad they hadn't played us during the day,
particularly in the afternoon as the effects of a few drinks the night before
wore off. This was a great day of rugby enjoyed by all.
Man
of the Match: Chris Geary
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Shanghai Hairy Crabs -
After
an interesting tour of the local rice fields, dead end streets and deserted hotels
the lost coach driver finally managed to find the right place before driving
half way around the complex to before letting us of the bus to walk back to
where we came in. Still this worked in our favour, ensuring we had
minimum warm-up in true Belsize style. A minutes silence before the game
was observed by everyone and as the rain came down it reflected the
determination in the Belsize side to go out and get the win. Again
Belsize followed their traditional style of starting badly as a kick down field
was poorly chased giving the hard running fullback too much space as he went in
in the corner. No goal posts at all this time meant this was going to be
decided on try count, and Belsize knew they were up against it. After
weathering an early storm, Belsize began to dominate, again the forwards were
to the fore, with Garth, Zack and Chris punching holes in to the opposition
defence. Joe was again forced to leave the field early when left in a
heap, this time by a knee to the back, but this meant the introduction of
We
started the second half strongly, picking up where we left off with great work
by the forwards punching holes and creating space for the backs. The
reward came early in the half when Rob Harrison crossed the line to level the
scores. Belsize continued to battle and pressure the line, time and again we
went close with Chris being adjudged to have knocked on before scoring after a
dart from Rob was stopped just short. Then, hugely against the run of
play, a pass was intercepted in the centre giving the crabs a shock lead.
With 15 minutes to go Belsize were up against it, the subs continued to roll
and everyone who came on gave there all. With 4 minutes to go the crucial
breakthrough came as Sam took advantage of a distracted defence watching
handbags in the forwards to throw a dummy and stroll in under the posts (or he
would have done had there been any). With both sides fired up it promised
to be a hard fought final few minutes with the scores tied.
Belsize
continued to press with Sam probing the corners looking to mount the pressure
on the crabs, and as one kick held up on the muddy ground Alex Upton showed his
gas to get there ahead of the crabs cover, kick past the stranded fullback and
ground the ball for a great try. With a minute to play Belsize dug deep
and defended with everything they had, the final whistle arrived and Belsize
had pulled off the victory, final score 15-10. This was a truly great
game of rugby and everyone, be it on the pitch or the touchline, came together
superbly, gave it everything they had and contributed to an amazing and
bitter-sweet day.
This
was the best possible way to finish the tour, at the final whistle there was
little doubt what had driven everyone on and making Belsize the BEST TEAM IN CHINA was a fantastic tribute to a
fantastic club man
Club web site: www.BelsizeParkRFC.com
News blog: www.BelsizeRugby.blogspot.com