After my trip to Dubai i became an addict at looking for tournaments in foreign countries , i actually suggested to the Malta Pirates that i would find us some tournaments to play in ....and did i ever !!!! I contacted a fellow in Singapore named Greg Blakney and was trying to get the Malta Pirates to come with me . I have never really tried to get players from home ( Toronto) to come as it can be pricey so i have always just tried to stick with the guys that i know will go .....this does not always work .
The interest level in Malta was not too good and i was beginning to lose hope in getting a chance to play in Singapores International 4 on 4 tournament.....so i wrote to Greg Blakney in Singapore and let him know that it was not going to work and if there was any chance that any team needs a goalie to let me know ......eventually the home team was in need of a goalie and i received invite to go play for the Singapore Lions!
You see i have a girlfriend that is very caring and has no problems with me leaving to play in these tournaments but this one time we tried to make it a trip for both of us , so we went together . Planning on stopping in lovely San Francisco for the weekend prior to tournament !
so we began our travels , with hopes of nice dinners and hockey for me and shopping for her. San Fran held up its end on the dinners as we enjoyed a steak in a famous restaurant that was in the movie the Maltese Falcon ( for the life of me i can't remember the name) ,never got the chance to ride a trolley but saw many...visited Chinatown and the big bridges even though i got a pic with the wrong one LOL!
It was a great weekend but then plans did not go so well ....just a side note to anybody dating and travelling somewhere with their better halfs that do not enjoy the sport so much : DON'T DO IT ! we learned our lesson the hard way as the shopping part of our plans did not pan out so well, and the weather was not so helpful to our cause either. The biggest problem is that i am such a hockey addict and i love tournaments to bits so when i am at one i am at one ALL DAY LONG! beer in hand between games sharing stories with ex-pats from all over the world . So yeah my girlfriend saw me leave in the morning and come home late at night (after a few wobbly pops hehe) .So this travelling together for my tournaments will probably never happen again!
So back to my hockey travels, we arrive in Singapore and stayed right across the river from Brewerkz Brew Pub ( american menu, burgers and beer ) and Greg Blakney picked me up late at night to take me to the rink for our first game vs. Singapore Rusty Blades! You gotta know these guys are a group of older guys that basically drink EVERYONE under the table , pre game bottle goes around the room kinda thing !!! The Singapore Lions were basically the B team in Singapore with Eurostars having pick of crop and Rusty Blades being the life of the party . Kinda feel bad letting you all know that we pounded these guys 9-1 , but thems the breaks !
That night was an interesting evening for me as i had met a bunch of delegates from the IIHF that flew in to decide on Singapore's application for their national team . I ended up meeting the Director of Hockey for Team USA , he was in the same hotel . We went out for some drinks and ended up in some whacky afterours bar ....it was whacky because it was men singing womens vocals or at least trying to all dressed up in drag ???? to this day i still have no clue ....all i know is everyone was drinking pitchers full of straight brandy which was weirder to me than the dudes in drag .
The next morning we had to play the Seoul Rocky Mountain Chiefs , where i met this fellow named Rene Boucher ( he was living in Seoul at the time ) . ended up meeting him on the bus from the hotel . this team was another fun team with names on their back like Tall Paul or Sexi Lexi ....we took them lightly and ended up losing . I am sure some of the better players on the team were dissappointed but we all knew we took them lightly and it was our fault. On this day our game was early and was our early game so i had the chance to finally acquaint myself with some of my teammates like Matt Wheeler, and Rob Speers and Jack Riggs not to mention my favorite drinking buddy from Finland Marko Ojala !!! That whole day meeting guys was not the best feeling seeing how we lost and how i was drinking uncontrollably thanks to the help of Markos pitcher tipping technique.
So here we go now i get to play against teams that i have actually heard of .....The Gulf Scorions (formerly Abu Dhabi) played in A division in Dubai , they had this amazing goalie named Michel Giguere ( yes he is related ,his brother) and this monster beast of a Russian named Roman Lebedev whom apparently was on the Russian National team at one point in his life. This man was overweight and out of shape but wow i was scared shitless of him when i got to meet him in the slot ....first one i must have been lucky as i only think he bruised my shoulder , yeah it was like bullets coming at me . you all might think that i got smoked but it was actually my swan song of the tournament . we lost 3-2 but i stood on my head! my teammates became suddenly more receptive . game vs. Bangkok Flying Farangs ....they have this nifty little stocky guy from Toronto name Joe Doan , let me tell ya this guy would be pro if he had the size ! Well the Farangs took advantage of the fact that we played our ass' off in the earlier game and we were gassed , losing 5-2.
If i haven't explained this tournament to you i will now....you see there are 10 teams it is 4 on 4 hockey in this small rink in a mall called Jurong . top 4 play for A championship ( Singapore Cup) next 4 play for B championship ( Maple Leaf Cup) . with some crazy crossover game in between so we had a 1-3 record and had to play vs. Seoul again, this time nobody took them lightly and we whooped them 5-1 with no remorse , ending the day at 2-3 we get to next round vs . Qatar Qanucks !!!! yes the same team i lost to in Dubai Finals ....
I mentioned i was here with my girlfriend and she had to come meet me the next morning to finally watch a game , might as well come for the semi right ....wrong HAHAHA, she gets into a cab that day and asks driver to take her to Jurong , well there are 2 malls by that very same name on opposits sides of the city . To make things worse we end up showing up for our game vs. Qatar and they decide not to play us in protest of the fact that they never read rules for tournament and felt they should be playing in higher pool. For me this sucked big time as i wanted to exact my revenge on them , never got the chance but i can say my record is 1-1 against them with hopes of a future match ! After our pleasure skate i find Kathleen and we finally got to spend a bit of time together enjoying Pizza Hut ....overpriced Pizza Hut !
In the Maple Leaf Cup Final we faced the Bangkok Flying Farang Shadows ( Bangkok's B team) which i made a ton of friends from ....Nate , Rainer ( Rainman Allstars)
it was a hard fought final but we won !!!!
Celebrations were had starting at Brewerkz , which no offense but if you are not in the tournament and have to spend however much it was like i did for Kathleen then it is not worth it ....just a warning if you go in the future ! After Brewerkz most of us ended up at IndoChine which is a club there and the festivities ended up going on late into the night. I did not stay out late as i owed someone some of my time ( hehehehe) .
The next day was rainy AGAIN! and the both of us went on a river cruise and saw the Merlion and basically did whatever we could , but to be honest Singapore does not have much to do or at least on my account i never was really shown around . Playing for the Singapore Lions and winning the Maple Leaf Cup was and is an experience i will never forget . The tournament is all class at very well run and the connections i made there only led me into other tournament adventures !
So yeah we had to fly back through San Francisco and let me tell ya , travelling with a huge goalie bag and a huge stick bag through the USA is not the best idea if you are in a rush to get onto another plane ....because we had booked our flights separately we had to switch planes and clear customs and blah blah blah ....so i get to the gate to check in for my flight back to Toronto and the woman at the gate starts questioning my baggage , yeah i got asked if i had weapons in my stick bag and if i was with the army and all these super crazy things , up until the point that i was asked to empty out my bag. HA i emptied out my bag , first thing i pull out and put on the desk MY JOCK !!!!! i get the um-err stumbled language jibberish and the woman leaves, my luck has it that we are in San Fran ( huge gay population) and this man was so nice enough to take the time to understand me and cuss her out under his breath LOL. Finally on the flight back to Toronto with obvious visions of my next trip .....could it be somewhere in Africa? or Europe ? hmmm lets wait and see!
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