Saturday 9th May 1998

Martin was AMAZINGLY the first out of bed. Alastair Skene had indicated that it would take an hour to get to John O'Groats so we set off at 7.30. It actually took only about twenty minutes (Alastair had obviously not taken into account Doug's driving!), so we had to endure Doug moaning about the lost forty minutes of sleep. The rest of us were happy, though, as it allowed us to have a serious Scottish fry-up at a nearby B+B that we had persuaded to take pity on us and cook us some breakfast.

We dumped our kit and extracted our Octopush gear, then headed off to the pool via Safeways, where we bought up the island's entire supply of bananas!! Much to Doug's surprise and delight, Martin replaced the bottle of whisky that he had demolished in Slovenia, and it was noticeable that Doug immediately stowed it away so as to not make the same mistake twice.

The pool was small but clear and the facilities were good. The pool was a full 25 metres in length, but dropped away sharply in the deep end to about nine feet, so the deep end had been placed out of bounds to avoid the difficulty of trying to get the puck up the slope and out of the trough, a la Totnes. This left an effective pitch length of approximately 17 metres, hence five-a-side instead of six-a-side.

The tournament was split into two parts: the first an inter-team tournament and the second an inter-club tournament. The inter-team tournament was divided into two groups, with an even balance of stronger and weaker teams in each group. Alastair had said that in both parts of the tournament goal average and goal difference would not be counted, so that a 1-0 win counted the same as a 10-0 win. This was an excellent idea, and meant that the stronger teams did not unnecessarily decimate and demoralise the weaker teams.

The Flying Dutchman to the rescue!

Martin gets nowhere near

Sara and Doug: "Urrghhh!"

We then went into the second phase of the inter-team tournament where we were pitched against the top two teams of the other group: "The Reservoir Frogs" (aka Edinburgh) and "The A Team". We didn't play so well in our game against Edinburgh, and poor Keith kept getting cramp, so sadly we lost, although we did have to admire Edinburgh's unique playing technique (see below). Nevertheless, we bounced back to beat "The A Team" 8-0, which made us runners-up in the inter-team tournament - much better than we had expected when both we and the Scottish teams were unknown quantities to each other.

After a short pause, the tournament restarted with a ladies match which pitched the Orkney Ladies against the Visitor Ladies. Sara played as a back for the first time in a tournament, and greatly enjoyed it. She also did a good job of it, as the visitors beat the home team 3-0.

Exhausted, we all staggered back to the Scout Hall to lay out our wet stuff, then it was on to the hotel for the evening's festivities and the presentations. It was just starting to rain as we got back to the hall, so Doug, Ed and Keith made a dash on foot. Sara and Martin, lagging a few minutes behind, had a stroke of luck when a member of the Orkney team stopped and kindly offered them a lift, so they got to the hotel somewhat drier than the rest of the team.

Alastair had warned us not to arrive late at the hotel, and although we were only five or ten minutes late we quickly saw why. The Octopush tournament was only one of eight sporting events that had taken place over the weekend under the auspices of the Orkney Sports Development Association, and the hall was now filled to the hilt with hungry competitors from all the various sports. The hotel had laid on food, but it was a totally inadequate finger buffet that disappeared as soon as it hit the table, so most people stayed hungry.

Graeme the Frog receives the Inter-Team trophy: the Royal and Ancient Orkney Peppermill

Graeme receives the Inter-Club trophy, which looks remarkably like the Slovenian winners' trophy. Who's got the Prepecenica?

The presentations were then made, with Edinburgh taking the trophies for both the inter-team and inter-club events. A favourable comment was made of the fact that we had travelled from just outside London to attend the tournament, so it was pleasing to see that our efforts had been appreciated.
Alastair, Nick Bannister of the Reef Rats, Martin & Keith		Keith and Doug with Claire of the Reef Rats

After the formalities were over, and ale had been quaffed, Sara, Doug, Ed and Keith ventured out for more substantial grub, leaving Martin to his networking and getting updates for his web site. Doug then returned to the hotel, while Sara, Ed and Keith wimped out and went back to the hall to sleep off the travelling and the tournament.

Doug's commentary from here (Martin denies all responsibility!): "Meanwhile, back at the hotel the live band and Scottish dancing was getting into full swing. This "full swing" involved the entirely mediocre band playing a varied selection from their vast repertoire of three songs. However, the Scots and Doug were all brought back to the hateful junior school memories of being forced to do "The Dashing White Sergeant" and "The Gay Gordon" by concentration-camp-guard-style teachers. This event was far more enjoyable, being lubricated as it was, by local (OK - Scottish) ale and the friendly local bunch.

Several badly-remembered (at least by Doug) dances later, the band packed up, and left to a raptuous silence and the "proper" nature of the CTDC was revealed to the local populus. Contrary to the popular belief, this does not involve the mandatory drinking of beer through a snorkel, and then stripping to any song that resembles "that one from The Full Monty"."

Several hours later, Martin and Doug returned to the hall and "silently" went to bed . . .