Bandung Hockey Tour 2006

 

Friday night

The night was dark and gloomy ….  Well it was after we all turned up at Chris Wren’s place only to find the bus was doing laps in the traffic and was going to take 15 minutes to get back to the front gate !

 

It was thus with a slightly disorganized rush that we leapt on the moving bus and headed for the toll road.  A supply of cold Bintang and umpteen Big Mac’s - a pre-match diet that megastars can only dream of.  Things started quietly enough with Chris and Refa drinking Matteus Rosé from plastic cups, Ken setting off at a solid pace and Eddie pensive and introspecting.

 

At the first and only piss-stop, while others queued and made peace with their screaming bladders, Chris advised BM that the Gents was now free and thus available for use.  Really Chris, the light wasn’t that bad !  Okay BM has short hair but as the only goal keeper (female), on the tour it was preferable to keep her happy, not upset her with gender ambiguity issues so early in the trip !

 

We then used that tried and true methodology of selecting a team - drawing names out of a plastic cup (who wears hats these days !).  This resulted in a pretty fair mix between the teams, albeit average age was probably against Ken’s team, and bets were laid, challenges issued and a few reputations called to question.

 

With promises that we were ‘only a few kilometers from Bandung’ everyone hung on bravely, but the new toll road is only so good and the bumpy ride eventually got the better of Cap’n Kenny who devised an ingenious theory of returning the Bintang to its original receptacle (with a barely noticeable amount of processing on the way through, and even less notice paid to act itself).

 

The Aston hotel may have overstated its readiness to receive guests by about 3 months as there were still workmen hammering and sawing away when we arrived at 10pm.  As the bus could not fit through the rear car park we had to dismount and waddle in from a few hundred meters out.  Taking all this in their stride the ISCI tribe gathered with Mike Gray in the Aston Bar where we caught up with Otong and Rere, then trooped off towards Jalan Braga and the semi-famous night life of Bandung.  The Northsea bar was bumping and grinding (and that was just the tall transvestite with the moustache that Armo liked !).  The band was ….loud, and after a while we picked out a tune, then a beat and started to dance, well, sway a little.  Ika and BM seemed to know most of the songs so the rest of us just followed them.

 

At some stage Ken decided to go home, as usual without much of an announcement, but showed up about 20 minutes later and ordered another beer.  Turns out he couldn’t find the hotel but did get to a Mini-mart and downed a Cornetto, staggered out and re-discovered the Northsea.  What was there to do but have another ale.  The story of this errant evening walk stirred the worms and Deny and Otong decide they too needed an ice-cream, so off they all went to the Mini-mart and Ken devoured another ice cream, at 3am.  Perfect preparation for a hockey tournament (your honour) !

 

Saturday

An early breakfast at the Aston Greasy Spoon and it was off for a day of hockey.  Spirits were as high as the ladies toilets at the ground, as Deny broke out the specially made, Bandung designed tour t-shirts that separated the Men (Blue) from the Boys (White).  The warm up did not look promising with everyone forgetting how to play grass hockey and Esther and Rose refusing to have a drink (to improve their hand-eye co-ordination) until lunchtime.  Suthee sleeping mouth open through what was loosely described as lunch break put most of us off our food (which consisted of Mike’s assorted nuts, and a few bolts I think).

 

Blue Team (Ken)                        White Team (Otong)

Game 1 v Unpad  2-1                        G1 v Alumni  4-0

Ichang scored 2 goals, + missed a heap more                        Rose 3 was on fire, Deny 1

 

G2 v White Team  1-3                        G2 v Blue Team  3-1

Ichang, ditto the misses Chris Wren, off a high and dangerous ball ingenuously unsighted by the myopic referee; Eddie, from a mis-hit after he waved his bat and got a lucky touch; Deny – ‘nuff said

 

G3 v Mandala  2-4                        G4 v RHC  0-2

Ken, Ichang – a bit of a shocker                        A real shocker !

 

G4 v RHC  2-5                        G4 v Mandala  2-0

Ken, Ichang ditto                        Eddie, Suthee

 

G5 v Alumni  4-1                        G5 v Unpad  3-1

Rere, Ken, Ichang, Denis                        Deny, Eddie, Otong

 

G6 v Unpad (penalties only)  4-3                        G6 v RHC  (final)  2-1

Esther x, Rere x, Armo 1, Ichang 1, Denis x                        Deny, Eddie

Sudden death - Ichang 1, Armo 1

 

The Blue Team had superior tactics, and of course, Armunanto.  Which didn’t seem to impact our performance much through the day given that Ichang had so many misses we thought he was a polygamist !  In fact the Blue team scored 15 goals to the White teams 14 goals (let’s not talk about goal difference).  The Armo factor hadn’t cut in until the final game, which was a playoff for 3rd spot.  As we had partaken of a few too many amber fluids it was unanimously decided by Ken that we would only countenance penalty flicks, for which he quickly nominated five of his less liquid team mates.  Esther pushed her flick wide with the keeper going the wrong way.  Rere played the ball exactly as she had practiced – slowly dribbling towards a stationary keeper who calmly parried.  Armo uncharacteristically slotted home, as did Ichang - scores were level, but their guy then missed.  A chance for young gun Denis the Menace to wrap up the game, but alas still a Zero and not a Hero.  So we moved into sudden death and Ichang bravely stepped forward after their first player had scored against a clearly tiring BM … and he scored.  They then missed and it was Armo who cleaned up the garlands with a well taken penalty.

 

The Cup Final seemed destined for feeble obscurity after the excitement of the penalty flicks, as both teams struggled for enthusiasm and energy, but it certainly picked up once the whistle went and a top quality game ensued.  With National players Otong and Deny opposed to National player Rudi, there were some spectacular attempts at goal and many fantastic tackles and saves by Otong in the last line of defence (Chris asked several times where Deny was playing).  But Otong’s ISCI gang stood firm and certainly finished full of running against a one man band that was outgunned.  Cabrelli’s decider had to come but was more of a self-defence mechanism as he jumped to avoid a nut-crusher and found an inside edge.

 

Poor old BM had to play nearly every game as there were only 3 goal keepers and she finished with a huge bruise on her inner thigh, which she was only too pleased to show all and sundry, from a wayward Ichang practice shot.

 

Another highlight of the day was UNJ Iwan’s (who arrived after a 4 hour moped ride from Jakarta !) job interview with Chris beside the portable bar after approximately 15 beers, and during which it was not possible to comprehend that he did not actually want to be a student at President University but would like to apply for the Sports Administrator’s job.  He went out 5 minutes later and put in 3 lovely goals from only that many touches in a wonderful display of carefree, alcohol-fueled, fun hockey.

 

Mike Gray turned up early enough to open the bar, and Etty drifted in with the KFC just as the kambing guling arrived late in the afternoon.

 

A few left straight after the game (Suthee, Ichang, Armo, and we think Iwan), but the rest headed out to sample once again the knee-slapping night life of Bandung.  Resigned to the fact that we had only enough aggregate energy between us to run one adult body at a time it was left to Ken to lead the way with a Pool demonstration for the local druggies, and a bit of dancing in the Northsea.

 

Rose perhaps had the best chance of scoring in the ‘off pitch’ games (notwithstanding Armo’s eye contact with the hairy transvestite the night before; and Chris had brought sand to the Arabs anyway), when an aging John van den Travolta tried out his best Dutch chat-up lines.  Apparently she was not exciting enough for him and he drifted off to sleep in the corner.

 

Continuing the teams penchant for late night grub, Eddie managed to find a grobak that claimed to be ‘bird-flu free’ and proceed to demolish a bowl of Nasty Boring by the side of the road at 2am.

 

Sunday

The amazing thing about a hockey tournament is you seem to need so little sleep compared to a normal working day, and so it was that everyone was up bright and sparky (possibly aided by Ken’s over-zealous reporting of the result via SMS at 8am !).  A quick trip to the FO’s then JeanStreet saw a tired threesome head for Ozone, a Jakarta based spa and massage joint.  All was going well until Eddie’s shower door would not open.  That was funny enough, but the little bathroom attendant hiking over the wall into the cubicle to get him out was even better (why he had to take all his clothes off to do that we shall never know !).

 

The journey back was uneventful with low clouds limiting the wonderful valley views (besides which Esther preferred talking Dutch into her HP than looking out the window).  Chris’ lottery style distribution of donuts enlivened proceedings almost as much as Ika almost falling down the ‘hole in the floor’ toilet.

 

A great effort by all who came along and a special thanks to Bandung for organizing a special weekend away.  Our next trip is to Hong Kong for the Easter 9’s then to Yogjakarta on 13 May for a mini tourney.  Let me know if you can make these tours.

 

The tourists were :

 

Blue team                        White team

Ken Allan                        Otong

Esther Maarten                        Deny Fahruddin

Denis Cush                        Eddie Cabrelli

Armo                        Rose

Ichang                        Ika

Rere                        Chris Wren

Ipe                        Sri Suthee

BM                        BM

Paul Noonan (dns)