Page 105 - Wish Stream Year of 2019

European ski resort. After bumping into one of the young prospects from my home county who has gained a scholarship there, he told me it took him about ten days to adjust to the conditions; we had about ten minutes to adjust! We played with altitude balls, of which there are three types – we were playing with the highest altitude pres- sure ball. The coach told me he would not let his team play with anything under 62 pounds string tension, which is very tight; I had mine strung at 52 before leaving. Balls were flying and returns hard to place inside the lines. It felt like we were being schooled by a load of mid-western state athletes who did not let anything phase them. There were too many funny comments to list, but they loved shouting “window” when pass- ing down the middle and would constantly keep
The Breda Games is an annual sports com- petition between the Royal Military Acad- emy Sandhurst and the Dutch Royal Mili- tary Academy. After an early start on the Friday morning, 93 OCdts from Sandhurst took the ferry across to mainland Europe with limited knowledge of what exactly they had signed up for. Despite rigidly adhering to the two-can rule, the Dutch drinking team tactically took the team into town before starting the next day with a completely fresh sporting squad!
The opening of the games witnessed an educa- tion in sport from the Dutch. Both the male and female indoor Sandhurst 5-a-side football teams lost convincingly, despite top performances from goalkeepers OCdt Shotten and OCdt Farthing.
Not known for their rugby prowess, the Dutch valiantly took to the field against an experienced Sandhurst squad in the first outdoor event of the games. At 44-0 at half time with strong perfor- mances by OCdt Smith and OCdt Evans, Sand- hurst secured their first victory. The teams were then mixed up and the result was a competitive 16-16 draw; the integration of the sides mirrored the good spirit and sportsmanship of the whole competition.
Hockey, a sport that has boasted success for the hosting nation, was pre-empted to be a chal- lenge for the visitors. At 2-0 down after the first half, a formality looked on the cards. Despite
their teammates updated with their scores, such as “break up on four”! The team huddling and chanting at the beginning had us bemused, and, while no Haka, it had us watching on in bemuse- ment. Had we adopted an arrowhead formation like England then, who knows?
From here we ended the tour with a convenient drive through Las Vegas, which was en route to LAX. We finished with a final dinner where various awards and funny moments from the two weeks were announced. Flying home, I felt extremely fortunate to have been a part of the tour and it was a great opportunity to continue forming great friendships with nine others, all from differ- ent cap badges and all of different ranks.
Breda Games
constant fresh legs for the Dutch, the Sandhurst team showed great determination and OCdt Hanson scored to level it at 2-2 with the last hit of the game. A result that would prove to be decisive for the competition.
The speed-march. Five kilometres, carrying 10kg rifles and a GPMG per team, was cer- tainly no walk in the park for the competitors. The females were unfortunate to finish in sec- ond place against a very tall, long-legged Dutch team. However, the males, led by OCdt Ware, successfully took on the Dutch champions and stretched them to a 30 second victory. Hoping for a better result outdoors, the Sandhurst foot- ball team led by OCdt Dempsey conceded early and a repeat of the indoor result looked possi- ble. However, OCdt Freddie ‘Le Tissier’ Phipps’ arrogant 20-yard chip saw the men in white take
SANDHURST 103