Slow progress

As my regular visitors will have noticed, I'm not making any progress to speak of. I promise to make amends, but don't expect any real fireworks before the months of May and June. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

The wonderful world of cricket

Since last week I have been following the World Cup of Cricket in the West Indies (a group of former British colonies in the Caribbean), and what I have been seeing has exceeded all of my expectations! Murder, surprise results (the two could be connected)... Nothing quite so interesting has ever happened in soccer's version of the World Jamboree.

I don't get to see a lot of the action. I don't have digital TV, so all I have to go by is an hour early in the morning or late at night on the BBC, but it's good stuff. Dutch TV aren't even involved in any way, as cricket is simply not an item in this country, and with good reason. Our national team have qualified for the tournament, but they are far from competitive. They have beaten Scotland, so they won't go home without a win, but that's it.

Many people are saying that us minnows shouldn't have a place in the world cup, and I must agree with them.On the other hand, it might be the minnows who have played a major part in what sets this tournament apart.

Last Saturday for instance, on Saint Patrick's Day, minnows Ireland were pitted against giants Pakistan, and won. The defeat meant Pakistan were out of the tournament, which was a huge shock, and the next morning their English coach,

KV Club Brugge 4, KAA Gent 0

When I was younger my dad used to work for the Dutch Railroad Company (Nederlandse Spoorwegen), which meant I everyone in my family had a railroad pass which was good for free travel throughout the Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg). I used it pretty excessively, but I used it only once for a football match in Belgium.

My 17th birthday was on August 4, and just like every other year since my 12th birthday I got a wad of cash. I prefer presents, but money would have to do. At night I watched the Belgian news, and on it there was an item about a new law in Belgian football: if there was a certain risk of fans rioting during a game, tickets would no longer be available on gameday itself. They also said that the first high-risk game would be Club Brugge (Bruges) at KAA Gent (Ghent).

My brother immediately suggested going to the game, which sounded like a great idea to me, and the next morning we set out to buy tickets. In the Netherlands football tickets are available at every lottery sales point, but not so in Ghent. We must have asked in over 20 shops, before we had the sense to ask in the visitor information center. They told us that we had to go to the stadium on trolley line 22.

The trolley took us to a Ghent suburb with the appropriate name of Gentbrugge, where we had no problems finding the Jules Otten Stadium. We discovered that tickets were sold in a separate building, and that we were two hours early. We killed some time drinking some local brew at a nearby pub, and returned to the stadium with half an hour to spare.

By that time the parking lot was getting crowded, as hundreds of Brugge fans were trying to get tickets as well. A very tricky situation if you ask me, but they all got their tickets. If I remember correctly, our tickets, which placed us near the halfway line, cost about 450 francs each, and the scarf I bought another 500 francs, which was pretty cheap.

The game itself was on Saturday, August 9. We left home well after 2 PM, but the game didn't kick off until 7, so we were well in time. We again took the trolley to the stadium, and I was quite surprised to find that my brother and I were the only ones who went all the way to the end of the line, near the stadium.

As we approached the stadium however, we were submerged in a crowd of thousands of fans. Even though there were many mounted police around, and we saw several hidden riot police vans, getting into the stadium was easy enough. A strip was torn off our ticket, but we weren't searched in any way.

The stadium was boring, gray, and ugly. It'll be replaced very soon, if it hasn't already happened. There were no concession stands, of any kind, there was a vast shortage when it came to washrooms, etc. Also, no effort had been made to separate the two groups of fans, and I estimate that the visiting fans outnumbered the home fans 70 to 30, so I decided to be careful about what I was going to shout.

The game was pretty good. Bruges beat Ghent 4-0, which was probably for the better, with their fans outnumbering the Ghent supporters. Croatian striker Robert Spehar scored three goals and was sold to French giants AS Monaco four days later.

On the way out of the stadium, some Brugge fans discovered that we were Dutch, and threatened to kill us over it, but in the melee they soon faded from sight. My aversion toward Club Brugge has been uneclipsed eversince, however.

Edmonton Cracker-Cats 3, Winnipeg Goldeyes 5

In August, 2006, I stayed with a friend, Marilyn, in Winnipeg, Canada. On August 15, we went to a baseball game (yay, my first post isn't even about the beautiful game).

During the day I had brought up the word baseball, probably after a baseball item on the radio, and Marilyn suggested going to a game. The local team, the Winnipeg Goldeyes (a goldeye is a kind of salmon), who play in the independent Northern League, were in town and hosted the Edmonton CrackerCats that night.

Around 5 PM we got tickets at a Ticketmaster desk inside CanadInns hotel and the game started at 7PM. Because the game was almost sold out (the Goldeyes being one of the best drawing teams in indy baseball), we could only get tickets for section A, the section farthest away from home plate. Priced at $7.00 the tickets were pretty cheap, though.

We arrived at the stadium about half an hour before the game, and coming out of Europe's football culture I was amazed at how easy it was to get inside. One man, well in his sixties, looked at my ticket, tore off a strip, said how nice it was to have someone from Holland (I was wearing an orange t-shirt that said Holland), but other than that there was no visible security. I got myself a programme and a yearbook, and the two of us walked over to our seats.

The stadium itself was in tip top shape, with no obvious signs of wear and tear. The 8,000+ seats were spread along the foul lines, and the rest of the field was lined with a fence and a great many commercial signs. There was a wide variety of concession stands, with something for every appetite. There's even a fully fledged Asian restaurant, Hu's on Second, but I had eaten some Korean food before the game, so I didn't use any of it.

I don’t remember much of the actual game. The Goldeyes did jump to a 5-0 lead by the sixth inning, before the CrackerCats homered in 3 points. The ball went over the wall right before my eyes though, which was a memorable moment.

Most of my attention was caught by a group of Toronto Bluejays fans who were participating in Canada’s national rugby championship tournament. They had taken up the task of teaching Winnipeg fans a thing or two about what Toronto fans shout during games. They mostly targeted players over their names. A guy named Terrence McClain got it the most (Terrence & Phillip from the South Park animated series), but there was also a white player named Will Smith (”You’re not Will Smith! I know what Will Smith looks like!”), a guy named Fehlandt Lentini, and someone remembered that a certain Stubby Clapp had been in the Major Leagues for a few years (”You don’t forget a name like Stubby Clapp!”).

A thing that irritated me was the North American habit of singing the national anthem before baseball games. I’m glad there was no American team involved, otherwise both would have been performed.

It really diminishes the importance of national anthems to play them before just any sports game... I know the Canadian anthem by heart in both French and English, as well as all four stanzas of The Star-Spangled Banner but I can't bring myself to singing it before sports games of little international importance. I did join in the singing of Take Me out to the Ballgame, during the 7th inning stretch, though. I think that's a good, solid, baseball tradition.Another thing I didn’t like, was that there was a woman constantly trying to get a wave started in our section (A). For the first two hours the wave never got past section D, sections running from A thru T in CanWest Global Park, and only as the game wound down we got the entire stadium along.

The woman also went up and down our section between innings throwing free stuff at the fans. I got a magnet with addresses where old motor oil can be brought to, and a thing that dispenses a flowery scent. A very funny moment was when two really small children (5 or so) finally got something, and it turned out to be dental floss.

At the end of the game there was a really great fireworks show, that lasted about five minutes. Imagine around two minutes from the Times Square fireworks, smeared out over five minutes.

A picture I took during warming up. The players in white and red are the local team, in the far background, there are also a few Cracker-Cats. Click on the image for a much larger view.