Basher Barbarians – Gaelic Football Competition

Basher Barbarians…

The Cause
– The Shanghai Gaelic Football Club’s inaugural World Cup

The Venue
– SRFC in Waigaoqiao

Pitch Report
– A football sized field with a weird combination of football goal and rugby posts

Weather Report
– A sizzling 31 degree sunshine, with an unusually low PM2.5 reading of merely ‘unhealthy’

The Squad:
–          Tom ‘Latex’ Ash*
–          Phil ‘Filthy’ Mildenhall
–          Steve ‘Tantric’ Bradley
–          Sam ‘Swahili’ Finnerty
–          Ben ‘Pope’ Collins
–          Kaylan ‘SiNbAd’ DSilva
–          Sean ‘The Korean’ Malcon
–          Paul ‘Shrek’ Turner
–          Denzyl ‘Cranky’ Allwright
–          Norm ‘Stormin’ Lau
–          Mike ‘Tubby’ Hall

Guest Appearances from:
–          Amogh Kashyap
–          The Craic
–          Fister
–          Hans Solo

Unseasonally fine weather greeted our bunch of merry men as we descended upon the Camel for the first team outing to the SRFC, and you could feel the nerves and cut the tension as we boarded the bus.

It was really happening – after much cajoling and pressure from Mrs. Stats the Bashers Barbarians had emerged to compete in the inaugural Shanghai Gaelic Football competition.

Arriving at the ground with a solid hour before the first game, we were introduced to our three ringers for the day – Fister, Craic and Hans Solo – who took a gentle training session to teach these fine specimens the finer details of Gaelic Football (soloing, fisting, points and goals etc) before heading into the first game in the Group of Death – Australia (represented by the Aussie Rules boys), Ireland (represented by fellas who have played all their lives), China (represented by several members of the Gaelic Clubs A team, plus some handy ringers) and USA (represented by the Suzhou Gaelic Football Club).

Unsurprisingly, the Bashers were unable to secure a victory – however – not once did we disgrace ourselves. We scored in every game, improved with every minute, and were within 30 seconds of causing a huge upset in our final game against Australia.

Herculean efforts from one and all, with some highlights including:

–          Tubby being threatened with a red card from the ref;
–          Filthy almost starting a fight against a member of the China team;
–          Amogh bouncing off an Irish player,
–          Plenty bouncing off Big Norm up front;
–          Sinbad scoring for the first time since his arrival in Shanghai.
–          Latex taking control of the defensive efforts
–          Tantric & Pope covering every blade of grass
–          Swahili conceding a penalty
–          Cranky mentally disintegrating the Aussie to be able to save the penalty
–          Shrek being there
–          Korean turning 40

Despite finishing a respectable 8^th (out of 8), the Bashers were able to retire to the bar at the end of the day with aching legs with pride intact – we looked the part, we drank the part, and – as always – we won the hearts and minds of the Irish Expatriate community.

Special mentions:
–          Despite playing a game that is basically exactly the same – Australia finished 7^th
–          Despite fielding a team that had never played before – England won the competition
–          As usual Geishas Galore!