BUSA Match May 1997

From ICCC

People

• Hicksy
• Colin
• Sam
• Useless Rob
• Garth

Trip Report

It was up at the crack of dawn for the five illustrious paddlers selected from the Canoe Club to represent Imperial at the BUSA Canoe Polo Championships, held on a lake somewhere near Stratford, last weekend.

Hicksy, Colin, Sam, Useless Rob and even Garth all surprisingly made the 6.45am meet time on Saturday morning, to be met by the problem of one boxed in mini-bus. But, with luck, and possibly a little applied break-in and entry, the team had made it to the venue by the 9am start time.

First up for the slaughter were Cambridge B, who due to generally pathetic shooting, we only managed to defeat by 2 goals to 1. Both messy, testosterone induced goals came from Garth.

Bristol, last year's runners up, looked a more worthy opposition, especially their shiny boats, which mades us feel embarrassed in our technicolour plastic outfits. The first half progressed dreadfully, even when given the ball at each restart, we could find nothing better to do with it than pass it to the Bristol boys to allow them to score again. The second half saw a change (introduction?) of tactics, with Hicksy chasing the ball and trying to connect with as many Bristol players as possible. Pressure caused mistakes, and we even managed to connect the odd pass. A lovely little hand-off from Colin gave Sam a shot from near the half way line that hit the mark. Within another minute he'd done it again - a comeback in the making?. The final result, 8-2 to Bristol was upsetting, but we did dunk them more than any other team in the tournament!!

We stayed on the water to await Oxford. Something of a grudge match since a tournament in Bristol last year, they proved themselves a more coherent team, going 2 goals up rapidly. A revival started, mostly due to a long pass to Hicksy under the goal, and then another more fluid play along the wing, again finding Hicksy, drawing us level. Blind referees and fun tackles soon ended in Hicksy rolling up with a broken paddle, much to the ULU ref's enjoyment, until he realised that it wasone of their paddles we'd borrowed!! Still, you expect a lot of shafting at these events! Play resumed, but the pause allowed them to regroup, and come back with two more goals. At least they bow to our superior drinking skills.

Free BBQ and reasonbly priced beer along with paddlers from around 35 Uni's meant a loud night with traditional boat races that didn't involve kayaks and a few human pyramids that Garth provided an appropiately sized centre stone for. In keeping with the Imperial spirit, however, most of the team all retired to the tents before the bar even closed!!!

Sunday saw another defeat to Teeside, 2-0. This was the wrong result but no-one was in the mood to score, so we gave the match away, mostly through poor passing and non-existent team-play. But possibly also down to Useless Rob giving the ball to a Teeside sadboy two metres from our goal line.

Dignity was salvaged in the final match against Glamorgan. With everyone managing a goal except Useless Rob, who even felt safe enough to leave his goal and play with the team! Final Result 4-0 to Imperial.

The weekend rounded off with the bus breaking down just outside the union, but Useless Rob actually proved quite helpful by mending it after the RAC guy condemned us to Hunt's Trucks.

Serious canoe polo happens at ULU. Usually, they're a right bunch of mincing poofs, but they managed to stay in the bar longer than most of us, and beat their arch-rivals Bristol. With their mens team narrowly losing to Loughboro in the final, and their women taking the ladies bronze, they've done well this time.