Shanghai Invitational Sep 2009
- Mikey
- Mon 28 Sep 2009
The Wolfhounds traveled to Shanghai at the weekend and a great time was had by all. Our first game was against Shanghai's B team and we emerged victorious after a goal each from Stephen and Chris and a few points from Bob. Next up was a feisty encounter with our old friends from Shanghai A. There was skin and hair flying in this one but the Wolfhounds never really performed. We failed to score and Shanghai gave us a good beating. In the third game we struggled past Suzhou with a last minute free from Stephen and so we qualified for the dubious honour of facing Shanghai again. We managed to put up a much better show second time around and while we never really threatened to get close to them, it was at least a bit more respectable than our first encounter.
Honourable mention must go to Angelo and Scott who made their Gaelic football debuts playing for Suzhou and also to Deborah who wowed everyone with her skills and athleticism in the girls' games.
A great night was had afterwards at the Punjabi Indian restaurant and the beer flowed freely all night. It continued to flow from about 10 am the next day and the Maglev was great fun on the way back to the airport. Tragedy threatened to overshadow the weekend when we found that the beer vending machine in the airport wouldn't accept notes. Aaron come up with the ingenious solution: another vending machine WAS accepting tenners so you could buy a packet of hankies for 2 kuai and the 8 kuai change in coins was enough to purchase a fine cool can of Qingdao. For this out of the box thinking Aaron is a worthy winner of our Wolfhound of the Weekend award. If we can all follow his example there is no way we will ever be defeated again!
Finally a massive thank you to Dec, Catherine, Dave, Geoff, Noelie and Michelle for making us so welcome and sorting out all the details. Special go raibh maith agats to our own Rosie who met us at the airport and made sure we all made it on time. Thanks also to Wayne in Brooklyn Bar who very generously fed all the returning Wolfhounds on Sunday for free. Cheers Wayne!Now it's back to Dalian for our winter training. Time to get ready for 2010!
Dalian Wolfhounds players this weekend: Mikey Farrelly, James Kenny, Peter Donelan, Keith Maher, Aaron Luo, Bob Jenkinson, Stephen Dillon, Brian Farrelly, Chris Vaughan, Tom Murphy, Levi Meadows, Angelo Alaestante, Scott Templeton, Deborah Dillon.
