The One and Only Hockey Match...

Finally succeeded in orchestrating a meeting with Tomasina, a friend I haven't seen for almost 20 years (since 1987)!!! Brought back such memories of stern teachers, notorious students, choral speaking, the stage drama that became a comedy etc. One of the highlights of these recollections was a hillarious hockey game we had to play as Form 3C1..during the Interclass Sports Tournament after the SRP exams...

Being class monitor then, I was given the task of assigning everyone to a team..no problems coming up with a chess team (being more of the..er..'nerdy' bunch)..netball went to the 'kongsi gelap'..slight hitch with badminton..even managed to scramble up the girls for table tennis..and the REST..made up the hockey team!!! In order to tackle the huge task ahead, we had to firstly learn how hockey works (only 2 out of the 11 had any inkling)...

Important lessons learnt or figured out on our own (unfortunately, we didn't have 'The Complete Guide to Hockey for Dummies' then):

• There is such a thing called 'back stick' and the referee will blow the whistle should anyone be caught using that (which happened every other minute during our games)
• If you hit the 'ball' (or puck) against an opponent's legs, it belongs to you..cos that's technically called an 'obstruction'
• You can rival gophers and develop the art of hole-digging in the field
• The hockey stick is quite sturdy to lean on when you need a rest..and decide to watch others run up and down the field instead
• It's handy to have a goal-keeper who can block half the size of the post

Alas!..No, we didn't win but we only lost 1-0 to a team that had a few school and championship players..not bad considering the odds and the severe lack of practice and experience we had! 3 cheers for 3C1 indeed..HIP HIP HOORAY!!!