s01m01 - 27/Feb/2005

Bangkok Veterans Football League
Season #1, Month #1
— Inaugural Tournament —
27/Feb/2005 • Harrow School

Date: 02/Mar/2005

I would like to thank all of you again for deciding to be part of the inaugural "Bangkok Vets League" last weekend. It was a wonderful Sunday afternoon of football in the true spirit of the game. From the feedback I got during the ensuing "beer bash", I heard all positive comments from the participating teams, so it's obvious that the aging crowd of Bangkok is still has a craving for football (against, of course, their own peers.!).

The pictures from the day for your personal archives (of glory.!) are attached at the bottom of this page. Feel free to copy them as you wish.

Here's how the day developed and ended, in favour of NIST Teachers, who threw a spanner in German plans for the top silverware:
==>

The following were certainly the clear highlights of the day:

performance of the ball-boys (noone could take a breather during the games.!)
presence of the jam-box (despite the cheesy "Michael Learns to Sing" CD!)
the new "yellow-card-sit-out-the-half" rule (there were no cards at all or late tackles!)
fair refereeing
the Harrow School venue
volume of beer (mostly due to the rapid disappearance of many from the British Club!)

I also got the following comments from different teams during the day, some of which will be implemented in future months, and some of which (marked with a "[*]" in the beginning) will be taken under advisement.!:

don't automatically seed Germans as team (A)
have trash-bins available near the benches
allocate off the proceeds a healthy tip for the ball-boys
competitions every 6 to 8 weeks would be more appropriate (rather than every 4-5)
would also be Ok to have more than 4 teams to embrace other Vet teams
arrange the schedule/timing to also play the 3rd-4th place game
allow the Captains to give speeches as they take their trophies
[*] do not allow the last place team to give speech as they take their trophy.!
[*] disallow goals that are scored from zero-degree angle.!
[*] stringently verify the ages of all goalkeepers, regardless of the colour of their hair
talk to Casual League organizers to block off the Vets League weekends in their schedule next season

In line with one of the above suggestions, I am planning to invite the French Vets as well as one of the friendly Thai teams to VFL1 Month #2, which would allow us to run a 5 or 6 team event.

Also, in line with one of the above suggestions, we will change the date of VFL1 Month #2 from Apr/2nd to after Songkran on Apr/24th (Sun.). This seems like the best date as it would be about 7 weeks apart, and the Casual League fixtures would also allow it (interestingly enough, in Casual League on Apr/23rd (Sat.) would see games between BC -vs- Vikings and French -vs- Germans, with Dubliner having to play a Sunday game — hope Adrian could still put a squad together to defend the title).

Please let me know if there are other concerns about the Apr/24th date.

Please also do contact me back if there are other suggestions or ideas that could improve the event in future months. Looking forward to welcoming you back for the same kick-around on Apr/24th (Sunday) afternoon.

Thanks, once again, for supporting the "Vets" idea that was originally floated by Chris Jolly. Bruce and I hope we can sustain it going forward.

Kind regards,
-Eralp

Photos:

Picture 1 — Getting ready to kick the day off.

Picture 2 — Germans, under the leadership of Joerg, grouping for the pre-tournament pep-talk.

Picture 3 — Germans ready to win it all.

Picture 4 — Finalists, NIST and Germans, posing for a photo-op after their entertaining Grand Final.

Picture 5 — Beers all around.!!

Picture 6 — Ashley is reminiscing on the Germans' narrowly lost championship.

Picture 7 — Matt is poised to drink the victory out of BC's BadCup!

Picture 8 — Vikings's Jesper is happy with their 3rd place finishing.

Picture 9 — A gracious looking Joerg receiving Germans' 2nd place trophy graciously.

Picture 10 — Adrian receiving NIST Teachers' championship trophy in the inaugural edition of the Bangkok Vets League.

Feedbacks:

From: Bruce
Team: Germans
Date: 28/Feb/2005, 02:12 pm

Thanks, EG, for all your hard work.

I think the best bit was completely unplanned ..... the ball boys.

According to Matt and Oliver they are thinking of doing this job at all tournaments. What an innovation.

Your booby trophy was excellent.

Bruce

From: Niclas
Team: Scandinavian Vikings
Date: 03/Mar/2005, 08:01 am

Hi EG,

Vikings had a great day, thanks!

Cheers,
Nick

From: Adrian
Team: NIST Teachers
Date: 03/Mar/2005, 10:26 am

Dear EG,

Thanks again for arranging so efficiently the Vets tournament last Sunday, we really enjoyed the afternoon.

Following on from some of the emails I have seen, I have to say that NIST would not wish to participate in a regular league, and prefers the idea of a couple of fun tournaments during the year. Although we won, you could probably tell that we were not that serious, and were really just enjoying ourselves as it provided the opportunity to get together as a team, meet some other 35+ footballers, and have a beer.

Hence, we look forward to participating in your next tournament, hopefully near the end of May.

Yours,
Adrian

Feel free to e-mail to me if you would like to voice your take on the above summary, or would like to obtain the original resolution pictures.