Day 11: Last Day of Lacrosse

Scottie’s Story

Bye-bye lurgy bye-bye … For way too many days it has felt like I have been caught up in a weird game of “Symptom Bingo”, as I worked my way through a list of different lurgy symptoms on what felt like a daily basis – I am pretty sure that I could have called “house” a few times. Finally, the tedious and persistent bug waved the white flag, and I am now out & about again and back in circulation … just as the APLU Championship ends. Today is the final day, but I have managed to watch Rob in action on the live stream while I was confined to barracks.

Today I was up bright eyed and bushy tailed, for my early morning call en français with Delphine. Rob also messaged me to say that the wind was apparently gusting at 100kph, and I may want to stay home to watch the game. The wind speed was due to increase a bit as the day progressed, then drop later, but it was unfortunately going to create a bit of a nuisance for finals day. This was a real shame, as the weather had been pretty decent until now. I did brave the elements to go to watch Rob’s game and boy, was it windy.

I decided to watch the medal games back at my apartment, out of the wind, as the coverage and commentary were good and balanced and the sofa was a lot comfier than bleachers. The lacrosse part of the holiday is over, so it was time to pack, ready for checking out tomorrow. I won’t be sorry to put the last week or so behind me, but on a positive note we have a pretty full itinerary already planned for our time in South Island, so lots of fun days ahead for us. Bring it on.

Rob’s Reflections

Tournament

There is a convention in lacrosse officiating not to post on social media during events, and an absolute prohibition (we have to agree and sign to this) against commenting on decisions, results or teams. But some of the brakes are off now it is all over! I was one of a dozen referees, ably assisted by four educators/coaches/an official-in-chief who guided us. We were at the Asia Pacific Men’s Lacrosse Championship, which doubled as a qualifier for the Worlds taking place in Japan in 2027, with three places for that up for grabs. There were seven teams taking part; of those Japan had already qualified as hosts. Nine of the officials were from Asia Pacific nations: I was one of three guests – one from Canada, another from Germany and finally me representing Scotland (and the United Kingdom and European Lacrosse Federation).

These games including new rules (a shot clock) and so presented a novel challenge – one accepted and met by teamwork between us on the field and two volunteer shot-clock operators provided by the host country (Andrew and Nate.)

Over the six days I got to officiate at least one game with all my colleagues, and see all the teams – including on-field duties with all but one of them (hosts New Zealand). It was a highly enjoyable experience, helped by friendly and supportive volunteers who made the whole thing come together, despite the best efforts of the wind on the last couple of days. Gazebos needed to be disassembled, before the weather did it for us, and increasing numbers of sandbags were required to keep the goals from doing a ‘Wizard of Oz’ act and disappearing off into the distance – click your heels together three times and say “There’s no place like Oamaru”…

On a final note, the opening and closing ceremonies fulfilled the criteria for a successful wedding speech/lady’s dress: long enough to cover the bare essentials, yet short enough to be interesting. Cultural content in the opening was well received, and yet it was all done in half an hour. The closing was trickier – difficult to hear due to the weather – but overall these both set a model and standard that could constructively be followed by other lacrosse international governing bodies.

Closing banquet was barbeque food served indoors – but of course event director Catriona had that eventuality covered. I had a few beers with the zebras; chatted with Bill Hollins, and Don Blacklock, who had oh-so-unfortunately been marooned in Wellington by cancelled flights, so got to attend; and at the end had a quick word with Naofumi (Udo) Suzuki, current Japan head coach, former Glasgow player, and fellow Scotland International from way back at the Worlds in 2006: thank you very kindly for the gift of a Team Japan t-shirt. And so to bed.