In case you didn't know that Valley won the top honors in last night's grand championship, the sheer number of red polo clad celebrants gathered around the Valley Bar & Grill may have clued you in. I wonder how many of their number haven't been home is 24 hours. There was an impressive haka performed by shirtless men and the requisite number of animal costumes. I made the mistake of stopping to talk with some familiar faces as SB and I were returning home from a walk with the dogs. Tippy was snuggled against her will by a very large man while I had to suffer the embarrassment of having to extract Elsie from where she stood peering up another man's kilt on several occasions; she just kept returning for another look or sniff or whatever it was that so fascinated her.
Of the five teams that made it to grand championship finals, I saw four of them win. I didn't see if the fifth team also won but four wins is plenty. The men and women won the premiership divisions. In my opinion the best match by far was the lower Premiership A division, between Valley and Football Club. Valley won by a comfortable score margin but Football Club never stopped competing. The players' talent level and intensity made for good viewing, and there were enough mistakes and strange decisions to keep the match interesting. I felt that the premiership grand final was clinical and well executed by both Valley and HKCC, which was probably to the pleasure of the coaching staff but not as fun for the spectators. In the 79th minute of the match when it became clear that HKCC was not going to win, things became interesting. Suddenly the attack got more creative and it led to an exciting consolation try.
For my club, SCAA CWB's top team made it to the Championship grand final, which we won over Gai Wu. It was a messy match with moments of brilliance almost immediately followed by moments of disaster. It was good viewing if you were not invested in a team. I spent the waning minutes of the match in agony as our team committed penalty after penalty.
Next season will be an interesting one as we have a lot of changes ahead. Our top men's team is going to do a lot of soul searching over the summer and decide if they will remain in Championship or move up a division. I will also be doing a lot of soul searching because while I hope to remain as the mini chairman, I may return as a player...for another team. I have only ever played with SCAA CWB and I never thought that I would leave them but after a season away I don't think that I'm really ready to hang up my boots, and returning to the women's team is not an option. I've been kindly invited to join two nearby clubs so we'll see if I can actually stomach the move.
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