(no subject)
Back from the Isle of Wight.
My B&B was a real traditional English guest house, run by a very friendly old couple. The room had a radio alarm clock that was OK until it started constantly switching itself on at random, accompanied by frantic beeping - eventually one morning I returned to find the chambermaid had disconnected it.
There was only room for athletes and officials at the opening ceremony on Ryde sea front, so for the general public it was televised on a big screen in a nearby park. They managed to make a hash of this; because the ceremony, due to start at 7.30, was running just a few minutes late, the people on the ground in the park decided to put the soca band on at 7.30. Even though the ceremony started not far behind schedule, the organisers couldn't bring themselves to ask the soca band to break up their set, and let the band play on till 8 while we all watched the ceremony without sound. The band finished in time for us to hear just the tail-end of Seb Coe's speech and all of the Lord Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight's.
Also a bit of a let-down was not seeing anyone I'd met in Åland, apart from those members of the Isle of Wight women's football team who were survivors from then - and even with them I had no real chance to socialise this time round. There were no special buses at these Games, so I had to get around on the regular buses while the IOW girls appeared to be in cars, so the special bond that comes from travelling together wasn't there. Didn't see Clare anywhere either so perhaps she's no longer involved? Shame, she was a top lass.
The Isle of Wight ladies got off to a good start with a 3-0 win over Hitra. Next up were Åland; few people gave us much of a chance as Åland were favourites and some remembered them sticking seven past us last time out. When Åland scored in the third minute most of the crowd sat back resigned to a turkey shoot. Instead we were treated to the Miracle of Brading - the Isle of Wight lasses held firm, kept the Ålanders from scoring any more, equalised through little Danni Merryfield in the 69th minute and shut out their opponents for the draw.
After that, everyone was confident that the Isle of Wight would wallop Jersey and coast into the semis. Instead, alas, the IOW girls looked lackadaisical and conceded an early goal. That sparked the IOW into action and they roared into a 2-1 lead, but Jersey equalised just before the break and 2-2 was how it ended. Most of us thought that that would be enough to make the IOW best runners-up and put them into the semis anyway. Not so. The IOW were in a four-team group, while the other two groups were of three teams each. Instead of going on points-per-game, the organisers decided that in the IOW's group, everyone's win over whipping girls Hitra would be discarded, leaving the IOW with just two points and consigning them to the fifth-place match with Saaremaa.
I was sorry not to see David, who'd fallen in love with the Saaremaa ladies in Åland, at this match (or anywhere else at these Games). Still, Anna Pold wasn't in the squad this time - maybe David knew that in advance and decided not to bother. Oh, and the IOW won 2-0 to claim fifth spot.
Went to the Jersey ladies' volleyball team's first game, but Deirdre's no longer with them and none of the others remembered me. So after that, whenever the Isle of Wight footie ladies didn't have a match I went to the athletics. You can't go to the Island Games and not meet friendly people; over the course of the week's athletics I had the pleasure of the company of the Guernsey ladies' basketball team and the Isle of Man ladies' athletics team, both great bunches of lively lasses. Whenever an Isle of Man girl won an athletics medal, when she stepped onto the podium to receive it all the others sitting in the stand would shout "Meerkat!" and the medal-winning girl would lift her hands to in front of her chest and make a twitching movement. There were also plenty of Isle of Wight locals who were happy to chat about the Games. On the last day I was sat in front of a vocal group of Shetland supporters. When their 800m runner Emma Leask was presented with her gold medal, they belted out the Shetland anthem with gusto. The only other anthem-singing I heard was from the Isle of Man lady athletes, who generally sang along with the last line of theirs.
One thing about the Island Games I love is that you can walk around and see athletes, in their official tracksuits, on the main streets, in the cafes, restaurants and pubs. On opening night, I arrived in Sandown's kebab shop to find all the Cayman Islands athletics team either eating or queueing to be served. Later in the week, on my way to get some grub after the night's athletics I saw a Bermudan girl in the street, clearly disappointed with her performance, being consoled by a male team-mate who was encouraging her to train hard and vow to do better on home turf in 2013.
On closing evening in Cowes, I waited for the farewell parade in the Vectis Tavern and sat at a table with an extended family of Geordies, supporting the Western Isles and Shetland because one of them lived in Scotland. A couple of them were keen non-league groundhoppers so we had a bit of a chat about footie. They said with regret that they wouldn't be getting to Bermuda; I said I'd try and make it, and one guy who'd been to Shetland in 2005, having booked his accommodation days after his return from the 2003 games, urged me to book quick. The TV was showing Andy Murray v Rafael Nadal and also in the pub were several of the Western Isles athletes, cheering on Murray. A group of Menorca athletes stopped outside the entrance, and I wondered if they were going to come in and start cheering Nadal, but they moved on. After the tennis ended the Isle of Wight men's football team arrived in the pub having just won the gold, singing "Championees". Two of them were in the Gents when I popped in; they recognised me as their female counterparts' supporter and shook hands with me.
Again, the general public weren't allowed into the closing ceremony at Cowes Yacht Haven, so I just pottered around outside for a while, people-watching and looking out for Isle of Man lady athletes, IOW football girls and Guernsey basketball ladies.
On the train to Ryde this morning to get the hovercraft home I mused on how holidays go too fast. Ah well, "back to life, back to reality"...
My B&B was a real traditional English guest house, run by a very friendly old couple. The room had a radio alarm clock that was OK until it started constantly switching itself on at random, accompanied by frantic beeping - eventually one morning I returned to find the chambermaid had disconnected it.
There was only room for athletes and officials at the opening ceremony on Ryde sea front, so for the general public it was televised on a big screen in a nearby park. They managed to make a hash of this; because the ceremony, due to start at 7.30, was running just a few minutes late, the people on the ground in the park decided to put the soca band on at 7.30. Even though the ceremony started not far behind schedule, the organisers couldn't bring themselves to ask the soca band to break up their set, and let the band play on till 8 while we all watched the ceremony without sound. The band finished in time for us to hear just the tail-end of Seb Coe's speech and all of the Lord Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight's.
Also a bit of a let-down was not seeing anyone I'd met in Åland, apart from those members of the Isle of Wight women's football team who were survivors from then - and even with them I had no real chance to socialise this time round. There were no special buses at these Games, so I had to get around on the regular buses while the IOW girls appeared to be in cars, so the special bond that comes from travelling together wasn't there. Didn't see Clare anywhere either so perhaps she's no longer involved? Shame, she was a top lass.
The Isle of Wight ladies got off to a good start with a 3-0 win over Hitra. Next up were Åland; few people gave us much of a chance as Åland were favourites and some remembered them sticking seven past us last time out. When Åland scored in the third minute most of the crowd sat back resigned to a turkey shoot. Instead we were treated to the Miracle of Brading - the Isle of Wight lasses held firm, kept the Ålanders from scoring any more, equalised through little Danni Merryfield in the 69th minute and shut out their opponents for the draw.
After that, everyone was confident that the Isle of Wight would wallop Jersey and coast into the semis. Instead, alas, the IOW girls looked lackadaisical and conceded an early goal. That sparked the IOW into action and they roared into a 2-1 lead, but Jersey equalised just before the break and 2-2 was how it ended. Most of us thought that that would be enough to make the IOW best runners-up and put them into the semis anyway. Not so. The IOW were in a four-team group, while the other two groups were of three teams each. Instead of going on points-per-game, the organisers decided that in the IOW's group, everyone's win over whipping girls Hitra would be discarded, leaving the IOW with just two points and consigning them to the fifth-place match with Saaremaa.
I was sorry not to see David, who'd fallen in love with the Saaremaa ladies in Åland, at this match (or anywhere else at these Games). Still, Anna Pold wasn't in the squad this time - maybe David knew that in advance and decided not to bother. Oh, and the IOW won 2-0 to claim fifth spot.
Went to the Jersey ladies' volleyball team's first game, but Deirdre's no longer with them and none of the others remembered me. So after that, whenever the Isle of Wight footie ladies didn't have a match I went to the athletics. You can't go to the Island Games and not meet friendly people; over the course of the week's athletics I had the pleasure of the company of the Guernsey ladies' basketball team and the Isle of Man ladies' athletics team, both great bunches of lively lasses. Whenever an Isle of Man girl won an athletics medal, when she stepped onto the podium to receive it all the others sitting in the stand would shout "Meerkat!" and the medal-winning girl would lift her hands to in front of her chest and make a twitching movement. There were also plenty of Isle of Wight locals who were happy to chat about the Games. On the last day I was sat in front of a vocal group of Shetland supporters. When their 800m runner Emma Leask was presented with her gold medal, they belted out the Shetland anthem with gusto. The only other anthem-singing I heard was from the Isle of Man lady athletes, who generally sang along with the last line of theirs.
One thing about the Island Games I love is that you can walk around and see athletes, in their official tracksuits, on the main streets, in the cafes, restaurants and pubs. On opening night, I arrived in Sandown's kebab shop to find all the Cayman Islands athletics team either eating or queueing to be served. Later in the week, on my way to get some grub after the night's athletics I saw a Bermudan girl in the street, clearly disappointed with her performance, being consoled by a male team-mate who was encouraging her to train hard and vow to do better on home turf in 2013.
On closing evening in Cowes, I waited for the farewell parade in the Vectis Tavern and sat at a table with an extended family of Geordies, supporting the Western Isles and Shetland because one of them lived in Scotland. A couple of them were keen non-league groundhoppers so we had a bit of a chat about footie. They said with regret that they wouldn't be getting to Bermuda; I said I'd try and make it, and one guy who'd been to Shetland in 2005, having booked his accommodation days after his return from the 2003 games, urged me to book quick. The TV was showing Andy Murray v Rafael Nadal and also in the pub were several of the Western Isles athletes, cheering on Murray. A group of Menorca athletes stopped outside the entrance, and I wondered if they were going to come in and start cheering Nadal, but they moved on. After the tennis ended the Isle of Wight men's football team arrived in the pub having just won the gold, singing "Championees". Two of them were in the Gents when I popped in; they recognised me as their female counterparts' supporter and shook hands with me.
Again, the general public weren't allowed into the closing ceremony at Cowes Yacht Haven, so I just pottered around outside for a while, people-watching and looking out for Isle of Man lady athletes, IOW football girls and Guernsey basketball ladies.
On the train to Ryde this morning to get the hovercraft home I mused on how holidays go too fast. Ah well, "back to life, back to reality"...