inside - Seren - Bangor University

sport@seren.bangor.ac.uk SPORTS SEREN October 2001 23Football fansreject 6.15pmkick-offsReport byJON EWINGAU PresidentWith any luck, by the time thisgoes to print, students at the GeneralMeeting on Thursday 25thOctober will have voted in favourof the “Anti-6.15 motion.” The Antiwhat? The “Anti–kick off at 6.15on a Sunday evening motion.” OK,I’ll give you some more detail. ITVSport has decided that NationwideLeague Football games should bescreened live on a Sunday at6.15pm, and on Thursday eveningsat eight. They’ve come to this decisionwithout consulting the verypeople who give English leaguegames such a fantastic atmosphere—thetravelling fans.True dedication is when anExeter City fan gets up at 5amon a Saturday (the traditional, andinternationally approved “matchday”) ready to make the long andarduous journey north to Carlisle.According to the trusty RAC RoutePlanner, that’s a six-hour journey(M6 traffic permitting) taking inover 350 miles to watch a fixturewhich surely only die-hard Exeteror Carlisle fans could possibly findentertaining. Our man from Exetercould expect to arrive back on hisdoorstep somewhere around midnightafter the game. A reasonablehour, I suppose, when you considerthat had he been watchinga home game he’d probably havebeen pissed up in some local winebar until the wee small hours.But what happens when thepowers that be (i.e. ITV Sport)decide that Carlisle versus ExeterCity would make excellent viewingon a Sunday evening? Okay,the chances are slim, I mean, noteven ITV could possibly imaginethat this fixture would draw ina TV audience of more than afew hundred, but it could happen.Mr. Exeter won’t be crawling inbeside Mrs. Exeter until around3am Monday morning. This pissesoff several people. Mrs. Exeterdoesn’t get the attention shedeserves from her football lovingfella, who, in turn doesn’t get hisfill for the night, and Mr. Exeter’sboss is displeased at the work rateof his employee who’s only hadfour hours (at best) sleep the previousnight.It doesn’t even have to be afixture as obscure as Carlisle andExeter—supporters who have torely on public transport face analmost impossible task of travellinghome after the game (whichfinishes after 8pm), whatever thefixture. So ITV are, in effect,squeezing those without their ownform of transport out of the game.Also at a loose end are the youngerfans, the future of the game, whowill be unable to attend due toschool commitments. These arethe grass roots of the English gameand the very fans that we shouldbe trying to encourage to keepturning up at the turnstiles.By making this decision, it’s clearthat ITV Sport has produced footballfor the subscriber, not the supporter.Only two groups of peoplebenefit from showing games atthese times—fat cat TV bossesand fans that would rather stayat home and watch football fromtheir armchairs. And there doesn’tappear to be too many people whofit into that second category—apaltry 1,500 armchair fans tunedin for the game between NottinghamForest and Bradford City lastmonth. Surely ITV Sport are shootingthemselves in the foot hereas they can’t be making a profit.Another “huge” audience of 2,000tuned in to watch a recent Celticmatch on ITV Digital, swelling thefat cat coffers to an even greaterextent. Whilst Celtic, and otherScottish clubs are not directlyrelated to this motion, it’s anotherclear indication that people simplyaren’t, and hopefully never will be,ready for pay-per-view TV footballmatches.Incidentally, 1,500 is the samenumber of people who signed apetition demanding that “ITV givesfar greater consideration to theneeds of paying, travelling supporterswhen scheduling matches forlive transmission.” This petition wastabled by the football supporters’group, “Blind, Stupid and Desperate,”and if the “Anti-6.15” motionis passed, the Students’ Union willally our efforts with this group andpromote their campaign.Football is a beautiful game andan honest sport, but one that’sunfortunately being taken over bycommercialism and greed. It’s timeto do something about it.“Slaughter in the water” as two Octopush players race for the puckOctopush NationalChampionshipsChris Wheeler reports on one of the AthleticUnions’ more obscure sportsSaturday 10th March saw theBangor University’s intrepid Octopushteam travel to Liverpool forthe National Octopush Championships.Starting at 3.15pm andfinishing a little after 9.30pm,Bangor bravely pitted their skillsagainst six other University teamsfrom around the country.Now, for those of you that area bit baffled by this strange gamecalled Octopush, let me give youa brief introduction. Basically, twoteams of six with four rolling substitutesplay on the bottom of aswimming pool and, with the aidof small sticks (called “pushers”),attempt to push what can onlybe described as a lump of plastic-coatedlead the shape of anice hockey puck into the opposition’sgoal. Sounds easy, doesn’tit? Well think again. Octopushis a game that requires fish-likelungs, sprinter-sized thighs andsteel reinforced fingers acquiredby training on a Sunday eveningbetween 7pm and 8pm at Bangorpool.The tournament itself saw thepredicted favourites Aberdeenstroll away with the trophy, andthen proceed to march around Liverpoolin their bloody kilts cryingshameless lines from Braveheart. Iwas really sorry to hear that theirvan was broken into and theirlaptop stolen. Honest.As for Bangor, two teams wentOctopush is agame thatrequires fish-likelungs, sprintersizedthighs andsteel-reinforcedfingers.up and both represented the Universityvaliantly. Bangor “B” teamcame in at an unfortunate seventhplace, though they were certainlynot seen as “whipping boys.” Awell-organised team, under theleadership of club captain Reggie,came very close to offering up afew upsets: however, Lady Luckwas not on their side. Nor, for thatmatter, was the referee.Bangor’s “A” team fared a littlebit better, finishing fifth, thoughthis could quite easily have beenthird. Johnny Marriage’s team producedsome exceptional performancesbut in the end training foronly one hour a week took its toll.Chris Wheeler’s three goals frommidfield were well taken, the finalone being a full length run beatingfour players as he went through.Everyone involved had a greattime, though being dragged outfor a few beverages afterwardswas a bit annoying, but someonehad to drink it. Liverpool werealso good enough to feed all ofthe teams and so our thanks goesto them.What lessons can we learn fromour experience? Firstly, any awaytrip is a good one. Secondly, with abit of practice anyone can becomean alright Octopush player, andfinally (and most importantly), werealised that Octopush really doeslive up to its motto—”slaughterin the water.”If you’re interested in playingOctopush, training is held onSunday evenings from 7pm atBangor pool. The first session isfree.