Bangkok Trip Review

Hockey in Bangkok  was great, we ended up 8th out of 12, not to good in the standings but we had a great group, made up of 5 Chinese nationals, 4 from Saudi, Roman from Russia, Benzie from Shanghai and Yoko and I from Beijing.

Our first game against Tokyo was a tough one, we basically had to get use to each other, find out how each other plays and we ended up losing 7-2, second game we blew, should have one against KL, we ended up losing 6-3, then with our tourney on the line and playing for honour we had a game against Bangkok A, Tokyo offered us a case of vodka if we could score 2 goals, as this would give them a bye in the next round and Dubai needed us to win or tie for them to qualify for the A division, well we ended up in a 2-2 tie. With that we had a game set up for Bangkok B team, who really wanted to beat us to show the Bangkok A team that some of these guys should have been playing with them, but not to be, we had a great game and won 7-3, setting up our final game and 4th game in a 24 hour period against the Bangkok A team again. This was by far the best game, and with a goal redirected off a skate we ended up losing 2-1 but we showed them that we could skate with them even though we only had 2 lines, and then only 5 skaters for 13 minutes after Yoko got his 10 minute misconduct for trying to shag one of there players, who did deserve it.

Anyway, it was a blast of a tourney, everyone had a great time, we all had fun, thanks to the Saudi Guys, Dan, Toni, Mark and Ken, if Beijing ever needs players these guys should be contacted. Roman was his normal self, just awesome, Benzie surprised all of us with his ability after not playing for a year, his drinking didn't surprise anyone, the Chinese guys were solid and I think they had so much fun that they are already talking about next year, Yoko, great addition to the team, both on and off the ice.

Thanks to all the guys that made it, and to those that didn't you all missed out, it truly was fun.
Special thanks to Rob Kay, our coach who didn't make the last game, good to have you with us.

Troy