A little belated I write this post about my experiences on
tour in Beijing on the week-end!
This being the first post where there is more of a story to
proceedings, I will start at the beginning: booking the week-end off.
Yes, I feel I’m in a bit of trouble when I next go into
office on Sunday. My company would not give me the Sunday off (I already have
Friday and Saturday off) so I pulled a sickie.
Feeling slightly guilty as I had to pop into the office
anyway on Friday to pick up my passport, which was badly needed on all train
rides in China, I headed to the meeting point. 3:30pm at our sponsors, the Big
Bamboo. The sponsors later on I would find, had very kindly subsidized the trip
so beer was free basically.
We took the high-speed train. Leg-room was serenely
spacious. I was sitting in with two Americans who were the medics on the tour
(a handy friendship) and Babe was for some reason showing on loop. The speed at
which it got to Beijing was a plus, as it reached speeds of over 300 km/h.
There were 56 people who went on tour, pretty mental ay!
Girls, boys, vets, the lot and we all crammed in to the Holiday Inn before
hitting up some late night McDonalds.
GAME DAY.
Quite possibly the coldest I’ve ever been on a rugby pitch.
We arrived around 12 at Dulwich College Beijing. I’m pretty sure it is a sister
school of one back home. The pitch was akin to a classic prep school pitch, it
brought back the days,
However this was the only pitch and our team (the Hermits)
had to watch as the girls (Jenny Crabs) and the first team (Hairy Crabs) played
on the pitch and unfortunately lost.
It was then our turn to play in a 10’s format style against
our Beijing hosts. The pitch was muddy, I was kicking off and the ball would
not bounce. Anyway, this is what England is famed for so I suppose I was in my
element.
We went ahead. Before the other team won a kick chase to the
try line. We were playing 4 quarters of 15 minutes each and at the halfway
stage it was 5-5. We then surged into a 17-10 lead, making a conversion on this
was honestly my greatest contribution as it had to be a drop goal, and held out
to win 17-15 bringing home a victory!
Unfortunately no showers. So all 56 of us crammed on to this
public bus and started on the bevies. This was essential as I could barely feel
half of my body.
Back home and changed we hit the Beijing Rugby teams bar. A
dive if ever I saw one. Free beer though, so many down offs were had by
captains and dicks of the day alike.
Then came the messy bit a curry house with a free buffet and
free beer (almost handed to you by the staff). Yes with grenade, shark and all
kind of rules in play this was a very messy few hours. Especially when toilets
were a good distance from this restaurant that was situated in a late night
shopping mall.
I would have liked to stay in Gangi’s. But alas the party
moved on back to the bar for the England-Fiji game, almost a blur for me. Danny
Care sinbinning and Charlie Sharples’s fine try were some of the memories I had
in the morning, and a few other things.
Back to the hotel room safely I started the next day ‘fresh’
in the clothes I finished yesterday in.
The morning dragged a bit as there was due to be some kind
of Kangaroo court, a punishment centre. I had breakfast, exchanged now awkward
conversations and played darts.
A group of us (the medics and Derrell- a Singaporean guy who
was on serious form) felt this wasn’t really Beijing. So we headed to Tianamnen
square. I knew about the student protests of 1989, but little else. I was truly
amazed. Derrel gave an expert tour, even though he had never been there before
he had studied Chinese history back in Singapore and spoke fluent Mandarin. Many
photos were taken in the square, but some what bizarrely the ones outside the
square looking in were forcibly deleted by the guards before you went through a
police screening to enter. Photo below....
We took the train back. It was a lot more eventful with
Kangaroo Court taking place where people were fined. There was a prosecutor and
a defence and there was banter, yes lots of banter.
In summary, not quite the heights of previous tours to Doxbridge.
The company was good and the deals on the hotel, beers, food, trains in the
location of Beijing were quite fantastic. I look forward to Hong Kong 7’s now
where having known the whole team a bit better it will be more of a culmination
of a season as I am still very new to the club atm.
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