Smashing VAlentine 2012 Eindhoven

I played the Eindhoven tournament for the fifth time this year. I usually do quite badly in tournaments, however well I feel I have been playing in the run-up to them. This year I made the second round in both singles and doubles, only level D though. I went out to Mikhail a big Russian in the singles, and he went on to make the final, surviving three matches that went to championship tie-breaks. In the doubles I played with a young German called Christian whom I had not met before, we got on well and put up a reasonable fight against the eventual winners of the torunament, one of whom was clearly a good level C player and much too strong for us.
I had been due to play doubles with my friend Oliver, but he had to pull out a few days before the tournament began as his father was gravely ill. So there was nobody else fromthe north of England there, and very few from England at all. But I saw some old acquaintances including Seamus who had just won the end-of-year GLTA Championships event in Palm Springs. Other old acquaintances there were Tony Mott, Rene Gouweleeuw, Emmanuel Dufraisse and Sylvain Longerinas.

I stayed in one of the bungalows on the 't Wolfsven holiday park and found a back route to walk in - approx 35 minutes walk.  It was very cold this year - minus 10 degrees celsius at times - but the bungalow was warm enough, and the forest was beautiful in the snow.

Medals galore

Came home from the Rotterdam Eurogames with a gold and three bronze medals! 

I should explaing. I won these mostly by simply turning up! Track and Field medals are awarded, for participants over 35, in 5-year age bands, so although I was participating at the same time as everyone else my results were ranked within just the 55-59 age range, in which there were inevitably rather few athletes. In the hammer throw, nobody else in my age range competed at all, however I still felt quite happy in achieving four shortish throws without the hammer ending up in the net around the throwing cage, and without killing any unfortunate passers-by! This secured me a gold medal despite my distance being shorter than any other participant in the other age ranges.

Similarly there were only three 55-59-year-olds in the javelin, shot putt and long jump, so I duly slotted in in last place and grabbed bronze medals.  I also had a go at the 100 metres, 200 metres and discus, but alas there were four participants in these, so I finished, as they say, "just outside the medals".

The best that can be said was that I did at least beat a couple of younger participants in a couple of events. And just actually doing all these strange events was a personal challenge for me. To some extent I was facing personal demons from awful sports days when I was a boy (I was certainly no athlete!) and exorcising them. Sport is fun even if you're no good, as long as you are able to compete in a safe and non-judgmental environment, and that's what the gay sports movement provides, and why it feels so important to me. I det my "personal bests" and maybe I'll have another go next year, and try and improve. Maybe even beat another guy in my age range next time.

Impressions of Rotterdam and the Eurogames
 - all modern architecture (the city centre was flattened by the Nazis during the war)
 - chaos outside the Central Station due to major metro construction, but good transport apart from that
 - great hosts housing me, she a community theatre director, he an artist, both kind and funny and left-leaning
 - you don't realise this is still the biggest port in Europe and 3rd biggest in the world till you do a boat trip
 - less cultural stuff seemed to be going on at these Eurogames
 - Kate Ryan's performance at the opening ceremony and those of BABY and Sister Sledge at the closing  
   ceremony were pretty good, but both ceremonies lacked atmosphere somewhat
 - briefly visited the badminton, the basketball and peeped in at the ballroom dancing

Next year - Belgrade - maybe I'll go?

Ready for the Eurogames

Four days till I arrive in Rotterdam for the 2011 Eurogames.  I am forsaking tennis this time to do Track & Field instead. More events + less competition = possible medals!

Went to the George House Trust sports day in Manchester last weekend and was delighted to get a chance to learn how to throw the hammer and the discus. I am planning to have a go at these two events plus the javelin, shot putt, 100m, 200m and the long jump! I suspect that as usual I may be a one-man Team Lancashire at these Games but that's OK.

I have hosted housing arranged with a straight couple who sound really nice.