Martin F, Sara, Martin R, Colin, Keith
Friday 12th February 1999
The Slovenia contingent woke up at 7.30 am, though our planned ETD of 8am went out the window as we took a while to wash and dress, pack up our kit and tidy up. Little did we know of what was unfolding back in England . . .
England: Anna arrived promptly at 6.30 am at Mark & Rob's, to be greeted by Rob who was still in the bathroom. He refused to leave without a coffee, and then proceeded to repack Anna's car.
Rob to Anna: "Buy a Volvo!"
Helen called at 7 am to find out where we had got to (one down, 5 to go!). Then Val called with news that Paul had lost his passport.
Hasty phone calls continued for the next hour and a half as Paul's passport fiasco built to the climax of a desperate race against time through passport and ticket control at Heathrow. They arrived at 08.55 precisely, only a couple of minutes after the boys had finally decided to go to the gate after breakfast.
Anna: "The trip got off to a dodgy start because Paul couldn't find his passport. But as the Slovenians are a bit lenient, they let him into the country on an old passport that had expired five years earlier.
Anna: "The question was: would they let him back into Britain? Answer to be known on Tuesday..."
Slovenia: five bodies - together with two pairs of boots and two pairs
of skis(!) - squeezed themselves into the Fiesta for the half-hour trip to the ski resort
at Kranjska Gora in the north-west of the country. The trip up there was worth it for the
views alone, as they were quite fantastic - straight out of a postcard.
|
Martin F, Sara, Martin R, Colin, Keith |
| Kranjska Gora was a nice small resort. We stopped at the first set of
shops to pick up provisions before taking the *very long* way up to the ski centre. It
actually wasn't a long way, we just *took* the long way(!), and then
finished with a phenomenally long-winded parking manoeuvre that Martin F would definitely
rather forget (but is unlikely to be allowed to!). Sara: "If that had been a woman, you'd all be giving her no end of grief about it" |
Martin R picked up a pair
of skis and boots for the day, while Sara and Colin hired sledges as Sara didn't ski. The
two Martins and Keith kitted up and were off, spoilt for choice by the maze of runs
teeming with skiers keen to try out the fresh snow. Sara and Colin followed a trail of
children to a small section of the slope cordoned off especially for sledges. Setting off
down the slope Colin veered off to the left, narrowly missing the fencing. Colin, thus
suspicious of the snow-worthiness of the sledge, offered it to an unsuspecting Sara for a
go. Sara did a classic veer right across the whole sledge run and ended up in a big heap
in the left fencing.
Colin: "Ah, I thought there was something wrong with it!"
Sara: "Hmmmmm!"
England - now underway: Liz: "The team took full advantage of the plane's supplies of beer and whisky, and Anna even got a decent veggie meal this time (no noticeable brussel sprouts!), although calamity almost struck when the stewardess missed Rob and Mark with the drinks trolley!"
Anna: "On arrival, we decided to travel to Kranj in style and took three taxis to
the University in Kranj. 
Liz & Co
had a stroke of luck in that their driver spoke English, so they were able to direct him
straight to the halls. The rest of us couldn't communicate with our drivers, so ended up
walking to the halls from the University in the town centre, slipping and sliding as we
went.
The Pust was certainly in evidence around the streets of Kranj, and the main characters
seemed to be a group of yeti with cowbells around their waists. We subsequently found an
image of them on a postcard, so they obviously have a special significance in Slovenian
history. However, we never got to find out what it was . . .
| Doug caused a few problems at the bank when his credit card's magnetic
strip stopped working, and eventually got to the halls half an hour after Liz's party had
arrived, to be greeted by four flights of stairs to our rooms!" Liz: "Liz, however, had flawlessly navigated her party straight to the halls where they proceeded to ensconce themselves in the best rooms (with balconies!) and then went in search of liquid refreshment, on the way to which they met the rest, who had had to walk from the town." Anna: "After we settled in we proceeded to the bar where Eryl began the drinking in earnest by ordering Sangria for all". Liz: "Eryl said, "It's only Sangria!" Little did he know that the Slovenians add their own twist - a range of alcoholic extras such as vodka, rum, Martini, Bacardi . . . |
After this stint at the bar, the stomachs began to rumble, so Doug and Liz led an expedition to find last year's pizzaria. Eryl's preoccupation with trying to lift boulders of snow and ice also became evident at this point!"
Anna: "Eryl began his technique that was to last the tournament: eat, drink, sleep, play Octopush - repeat".
The skiers:
Half-way through the day, Keith relieved Colin of Sara-duty and swapped his skis for
Colin's sledge. After a test run on the nursery slope amongst the toddlers, Colin headed
for one of the main runs. Considering that he hadn't skied since he left school he did
very well, though he did seem to be the only one snow-ploughing most of the way down what
appeared to be a very steep slope!
Martin F, on the other hand, was now really getting the hang of things, and was producing some very slick moves (see right).
Meanwhile, further down the mountain, Keith - not to be outsledged by his brother - did some huge runs down the sledge slope. The only problem was that, unlike Colin, he didn't keep his feet on the rungs, so when the sledge hit a soft patch or got to the very steep bit at the bottom, he fell off, which caused both Sara (who was hanging on for dear life behind him) and the sledge to land on top of him in a cloud of snow! For the second day in a row: Wipeout!!
Keith returned to the skis on Colin's return, and Sara and Colin had a hot chocolate and walked onto town to try to find a ski hat for Sara. Sara's hat covered her rapidly chilling ears but that was about it. Unfortunately, they had no success.
At half past three we all
met up at the bottom of the ski slope, and returned to the car to dump our stuff, before
making our way along the snowbound high street in search of something to eat. A
traditional-looking restaurant down the end of the high street seemed to fit the bill, so
we went inside, sat down and made our way into the establishment's beer supplies. We had
aimed to have a very quick snack and be on our way back to Bled by four, but this just
didn't happen as we completely mellowed out and followed a leisurely main meal with
leisurely desserts, and it was something after five before we even got on the way to Bled.
We had fortunately taken the precaution of getting our things together that morning, before we left for Kranjska Gora, so it was just a case of getting back to Bled, saying our goodbyes to Magda and loading up the car. Magda presented us all with tourist guides to Bled, which were just chock-a-block with fantastic photographs, and gave us a really nice way to remember our stay. We had already worked out that we had no chance of getting five bodies plus five sets of kit to Kranj in one go, so Martin F took Martin R and Keith on the first wave, with Colin and Sara to follow on the second wave.
Kranj:
Liz: "Finding last year's pizzeria was a move appreciated by all - even those who
only woke up long enough to scoff pizza (Helen and Eryl). Intense rivalry broke out
between Doug and Rob over who could be the first to finish their pizza, which resulted in
a good deal of groaning, especially from Rob, who claimed to be absolutely stuffed, only
to then promptly order another beer. Only Marion had her wits about her: she got the
proprietors to wrap the rest of her pizza so that she could eat it later!
Despite it being only about 6pm, a great deal of yawning was going on - and in Eryl's case a full blown nap - so we wandered back to see if anyone else had arrived at the halls (Eryl being propped up on the way back by Val and various others!!!)."
Anna: "We then returned to the
halls for a nap before hooking up with the rest of the party including Larry, Jan and
Andy, who had arrived in the meantime from Munich. However, still no Culvin!"
Martin R (still in his ski gear) and Keith duly arrived and claimed crash-space, while Martin F went back for Colin and Sara.
Rob: "Nice outfit, Martin, you look like Billy and Johnny!"
| Once the tail-enders had arrived and everyone had sorted out where they were sleeping, we all congregated in Doug's room to drink and natter, having evacuated the girls' room as Eryl - sound asleep, but still living up to his Slough / UK Barbarians pedigree - had dropped a fart of Mitch proportions! "He's burned a hole in my sheets!" wailed Helen. Sara then got into merchandising mode and brought out the team shirts and swimming costumes so that everyone could get "the look". |
We then got down to serious matters: that of deciding how to arrange the nineteen players
- many of them complete strangers to each other - into two teams. In the weeks leading up
to the tournament Martin R had made a proposal of an all-ladies team (with a couple of the
men to make up the numbers) and a separate men's team, but this was unanimously rejected by
all those who bothered to reply. However, when it came down to it, it was actually pretty
simple. Liz and Co had done much thrashing-out of teams on the way over, and it actually
divided itself very neatly into "those in the Chesham club team in this season's
London League matches" and "those who aren't", so that was how the
division was made. The "second" team seemed to have an edge on firepower, but
the "first" team had an advantage of knowing each other's playing styles. It
would be interesting to see which team would prevail.
What prevailed at that point was tiredness, and we retired to bed. The last thought on
Liz's mind as she went to bed was "Where is Culvin?" . . .
Web Design by Reed Consulting (UK) Limited.
Page last updated 18th July 1999. Please visit
or comment.