February | 2013 | Trail of the Lion King

Archive for February, 2013

Seoul Thunders v Goyang Orions, Thursday 21st February 2013, 7pm

February 22, 2013

It had been getting on for three weeks since I had seen any sport with the ten days that I’d spent in the desert having caused all sorts of disruption to my plans. The annoying thing about it all was that there was very little work for me to do and whilst I was idling my days away in the middle of nowhere I could have been watching the back end of the Omani football fixtures, any number of camel racing meetings and Bradley Wiggins and his mates teararsing up and down the mountain passes in the Tour of Oman. Still, I’m back in Korea now and it’s only a few days until the football starts again.

In the meantime though it’s basketball and this week’s little treat was the mid-table clash between Seoul Samsung Thunders and Goyang Orions. Seoul are pretty crap and strike me as being flattered by their seventh position. Although I’m not sure if you can be flattered by being fourth bottom. Goyang are doing a bit better in fifth place, but if they do manage to reach the play-offs it’s hard to imagine them prolonging their season by very long.

Jen and I took the subway to Sports Complex, picked up some chestnuts from an old biddy outside of the station and then made our way across to the Jamsil Gymnasium.

That’s where you buy your chestnuts.

We bought a couple of eight thousand won tickets for seats that were quite low down and between the baskets on the bench side of the court. There were probably only around five or six hundred people in the thirteen thousand capacity arena but unfortunately almost all of them seemed to be sat where we were.

There were a couple of women behind us who screamed non-stop in the way that you might expect them to do at a Justin Bieber or Gaslight Anthem gig. At one point I was worried that someone must have been trying to steal their handbags. We stuck it out for the first quarter and then switched to the quieter and near empty seating on the opposite side. By this time Goyang had opened up a bit of a lead and were comfortably in control.

Darian Townes and Leon Williams battle it out.

Leon Williams was the star man for the visitors. He only missed about thirty seconds of the game and scored thirty points. It’s difficult to say much about his team mate Scott Merritt as he was only on court for around half a minute towards the end of the second quarter. I can report that he was tall, if that’s any help.

As for the home side, Darian Townes went a step further and played the entire forty minutes, notching twenty six points. I’m not sure what happened to the other American fella, Odartey Blanksan, although with a name like that perhaps he’d been kidnapped by the Vogons.

Gratuitous, I know.

Instead of the usual half-time nonsense involving children from the crowd, we had a wheelchair basketball game. I was quite impressed. The players put enough effort in to result in a couple of them being tipped out of their chairs head first whilst some of the lay-ups had an element of showboating that deserved a bigger crowd.

I’d watched the wheelchair rugby in the Paralympics last summer but felt that it didn’t live up to its hype. For a start, they can pass the ball forward and there’s no offside. That’s not rugby. Also, each team seemed to have a goalscrounger whose job was just to wait for a long pass and then wheel themselves over the line with it. Wheelchair basketball seems a lot more skillful, not least because you’ve got to get the ball through the hoop.

Not many slam dunks though.

Maybe all the screaming from the home fans did some good as Seoul got back into the game in the second half. With a couple of minutes left they had established a six point lead and Goyang felt the need to try for three pointers each attack. They invariably missed the shot and with five team fouls to Goyang’s name, all Seoul had to do was keep drawing the foul and nip up the other end for the free-throws.

Darian Townes and Leon Williams still battling it out.

A couple of late baskets made it look closer than it really was, but Seoul fully deserved their 73-69 victory. The win moved the Thunders up into sixth place and the play-offs with Goyang remaining one place ahead in fifth.

Posted in Basketball | 1 Comment »

Busan Horseracing, Sunday 3rd February 2013, 12.50pm

February 18, 2013

After completing my visits to all of the top-flight basketball venues the previous day, it was time to tick off my third and final Korean racecourse. I’d been to Seoul races a few times and also had a great afternoon at Jeju a couple of years ago watching grown men ride tiny horses that would have looked more at home giving kids a ride at the seaside. That just left Busan.

After the basketball I met up with my mate Alan for a curry and a few beers in the area around Sasang Bus Station. It was a lot busier than I’d anticipated and there seemed to be far more options for eating and drinking than the Texas Street area next to the KTX station where I usually find myself.

I stayed in a motel across the road from the bus station. There were lots of them and I picked the V Motel, one street back from the main road. As Jen wasn’t with me I was looking forward to being able to turn the room temperature to something colder than the sauna setting that we usually have. Unfortunately the combination of all-day drinking and my lack of technical skills meant that it remained a constant twenty nine degrees Centigrade all night. If that wasn’t bad enough, I’d somehow managed to activate some flashing disco lights in the bathroom that I couldn’t turn off. It wasn’t the best night’s sleep that I’ve ever had.

The V Motel, Busan. Nice and warm.

The racecourse in Busan is over to the west of the city. I could probably have taken a taxi but I’d forgotten how to say it in Korean. There isn’t a subway at the track so it was a case of taking a bus from Jurye subway station on Line 2.

There’s the racecourse, over to the left.

There are a few free shuttle buses ferrying people to and from the races. The one I got left from Exit 8 of Jurye Station. I was quite fortunate really as I’d only been there for a couple of minutes when it arrived. I’m not sure how frequently they run although I think they are on a constant loop so perhaps it just depends upon the traffic. It was mainly old people on the bus, the odd one or two with what I presumed was a grandchild in tow. Once settled into their seats most of them got straight on with studying the form and working out their bets.

Shuttle bus to Busan Races.

It was only a fifteen minute drive to the track and then a thousand won to get in once there. It was quite similar to Seoul with a main stand that was more like an airport terminal building and then a variety of family activities towards the middle of the track.

There were six races on the card, interspersed with that day’s racing from Seoul being shown on big screens. In reality there wasn’t a lot of difference between watching the Seoul and Busan racing until the horses got into the final hundred metres or so, prior to that everyone watched the big screen anyway.

Mind you, it did strike me as a slightly strange that I’d travelled three hundred miles to watch a race on a big screen that I could have watched live twenty minutes away from my flat in Seoul.

“C’mon Dobbin”

I suppose for the Busan races you do get the opportunity to observe the horses in the flesh as they make their way around the parade ring. In the first race of the day I thought I’d make my selection based on how well they clip-clopped around before the start. It’s what all the pro-gamblers do I’m told.

Four legs good.

Having picked the likely winner I went to put my bet on. They don’t have proper bookies here, just the tote, and having chosen your horse you fill in a lottery style slip to indicate which racecourse, race, your selection, win or a place and your stake. I got everything right apart from the stake and after handing over the slip and ten thousand won I was given my betting ticket and nine thousand won change.

So, instead of the modest six quid I’d planned to risk, I’d actually bet sixty pence. Even worse when I checked the odds the horse was trading at 1.3. If it were to win then I’d make three hundred won profit. That’s about twenty pence.

I went outside to watch the race in the fresh air, or not so fresh air actually as everyone seemed to be smoking, and of course it won. When I collected my winnings the woman behind the counter seemed very pleased for me. Unfortunately I don’t know the Korean for “Don’t spend it all at once” but I’d like to think that was the gist of her comment.

The seats outside.

A couple of races later I took the opportunity to nip under the home straight and see what was going on in the middle of the track. There’s a kiddies play area and further along a park with seating for picnics, a lake and the odd bit of artwork to distract you from the horses. Whilst there were plenty of families in the first area I was the only person wandering around the inner track further away. If you like to avoid the crowds and aren’t too bothered about seeing one of the big screens then that would be a quiet place to watch the races unfold.

The view over the lake towards the grandstand.

I’m not sure how many people were at the track but it had to be a good few thousand. All the levels of the main grandstand were packed and there were plenty of people outside despite the cold. I’m surprised that more cities don’t have a racetrack. Every small town seems to feel the need to have a football/athletics stadium, sometimes more than one, despite not necessarily having an actual football team. Perhaps there aren’t enough horses to support more courses as I’m sure that there would be enough punters.

More studying of form.

My initial success was the only one that I had all day and every subsequent bet I made went down. Perhaps I need a better selection technique than peering over people’s shoulders at racing papers in a language that I can’t understand.

I think mine was the one at the back.

I called it a day straight after the penultimate race just in case there were long queues for the shuttle buses. There weren’t though and I just hopped onto the first one I saw regardless of its destination. My gamble that it would stop at a subway station paid off, although it did take about an hour from wherever it stopped for me to reach Busan KTX Station. Despite my losses it was a good day, trips to the races invariably are.

Posted in Horseracing | 1 Comment »

LG Sakers v KT Sonic Boom, Saturday 2nd February 2013, 4pm

February 15, 2013

I had thought that I’d be away in Oman this weekend but a late change of plan meant that I could take the KTX down to Changwon for a couple of days that began with the derby between basketball teams KT Sonic Boom and LG Sakers and then finished off with a trip to Busan races.

The KTX stops at two different stations in Changwon. I got off at the second one, but I don’t think it makes much difference in terms of distance if you are going to the basketball. Once I was out of the station I was able to convey my destination to the taxi driver with a pretty nifty mime of a set-shot. I’m sure it would have dropped in without touching the rim. It did cross my mind that if I had to do a similar thing the next day then pretending to ride an imaginary horse would be more likely to result in a chorus of “Oooh sexy lady“ than a journey to the racecourse.

As we approached the Changwon Arena we passed a football ground. I’m always keen to have a nose around even if there isn’t a game on and so I had a wander across. Changwon Stadium doesn’t have a team at the moment with Changwon City currently sharing the Changwon Soccer Centre with their top-flight neighbours Gyeongnam. It’s a fairly typical bowl, with a 37,000 capacity that’s far too big for Gyeongnam never mind Changwon and the newer Soccer Centre is much more appropriately sized. The pitch was covered and it didn’t look as if there was much prospect of it staging a game anytime soon.

Changwon Stadium

A little further along from Changwon Stadium I caught a glimpse of some footballers playing on a nearby pitch. Again, I couldn’t let it go just in case it was a ridiculously early pre-season friendly or maybe a local tournament for the under tens or over fifties. I know.

It turned out to be a bunch of mates having a kickabout on a school field. As it’s the best I’m going to get football-wise for a while I hung around and watched for ten minutes. No doubt they’ll have assumed that I was a scout from a top European side. Or more likely a weird old bloke who might steal all their shoes.

I could probably have joined in if I’d asked nicely.

I got back to the basketball arena just as the Sonic Boom bus was arriving. It drove across a busy square, scattering small kids who were riding bikes or flying kites and dropped the players off into a crowd of well-wishers.

The Sonic Boom bus arrives.

I picked up some cans before meeting up with a few friends. We had seats on the second tier, down the side. They were pretty good for 8,000 won although with a capacity of only six thousand it didn’t look as if there were many seats where you’d have a poor view.

We kicked off, as always, with the Korean national anthem. Usually I make a point of trying to spot the fella with the most anguished look on his face. An expression so contorted with emotion that nobody could be in any doubt as to how much the anthem affects him and how much he loves his country. The basketball is generally the best for this, perhaps because the venues are smaller than the football or baseball stadiums and peer pressure prevents people from remaining seated and yapping on to their friends or shovelling gimbap down their throats.

At this game though we had something different for a change. Instead of a recording of the national anthem we got a bunch of kids playing it on a variety of brass instruments. They did pretty well although I’m still not familiar enough with the tune to be able to spot any bum notes.

The National Anthem. And a couple of cheerleaders.

Neither of the teams is having a particularly good season, although both are on the fringes of a play-off spot. That’s not overly difficult though when six of the ten teams qualify. Mind you, I’d watched Sonic Boom beat league leaders SK Knights with ease a couple of weeks earlier so who knows what might happen if they can sneak into the post-season games.

Not bad seats at all.

Both the Americans on the home side did pretty well, Ira Clark contributing twenty-one points with Curtis Withers clocking up thirteen points from his fifteen minutes of fame.

jjjjj collects a rebound for the Sakers.

Ira Clark collects a rebound for the Sakers.

For the visitors we saw a lot less of Jasper Johnson than I’d expected. He went off early in the first quarter and I thought that he’d called it a day. He came back out though in the third and KT were a much better team with him on court. He scored twenty-six points in only nineteen minutes, missing only two shots out of the eighteen he took. His teammate Ryan Wright wasn’t quite the same scoring machine, notching just the eight points in what was a lot more game time than he’d usually get.

Jasper Johnson gets another two points.

And so, who won? Well, with thirty-odd seconds left Sonic Boom were trailing by seven. They scored a three pointer and then when the Sakers put the ball back in to play they nicked it and stole another two. That made it just the two points difference with still thirty-odd seconds left. If the Sakers didn’t score on their next possession Sonic Boom would probably get a single chance to level or win it. LG didn’t get the basket and at the other end Jasper Johnson claimed the two points that tied the score and took us into five minutes of extra time.

This kid seemed less than impressed with the tight finish.

The additional period was more than I’d planned for but there was a 7-Eleven in the concourse and so I was able to pick up another can of Hite. The momentum stayed with the visitors and they managed to take and keep the lead, eventually finishing up ahead by ninety five points to ninety two. The win kept Sonic Boom in sixth place with Sakers just outside the play-offs in seventh.

On a groundhopping note, that’s the tenth and final one of the KBL venues ticked off. It’s not quite a 92 Club achievement but it has helped to get me around the country and provided a few good days out.

Posted in Basketball, Football | Leave a Comment »

SK Knights v Wonju Dongbu Promy, Wednesday 31st January 2013, 7pm

February 12, 2013

It had been a while since I’d gone along to the Jamsil Students Gymnasium so I thought I’d take in the mid-week game between SK Knights and Wongju Dongbu Promy. If this game had taken place last season then you’d have had the visitors nailed on for a win. They finished top of the standings whilst SK slugged it out at the bottom with local rivals Seoul Thunders to determine the top dog in Seoul as well as the accolade of being the second crappiest team in the country.

This year though, it’s all different. SK Knights are miles clear at the top whilst Wonju started the season with a dismal run. They’d picked up a bit recently though and a decent winning streak had moved them up to mid-table.

I jumped the queue at the ticket office, or at least I think I did. There wasn’t anyone waiting at a window that I think was designated for those people collecting pre-booked tickets. As a foreigner you usually get cut some slack and I was able to purchase a ticket for cash whilst giving the people behind the counter an additional opportunity to practice their English. It seems a fair trade-off to me.

I got a seat in the corner, second tier.

Despite Wonju’s current form they soon fell behind and were trailing 26-12 at the end of the first quarter. I thought that they were a little unlucky to be so far adrift as everything seemed to be dropping in for the hosts whilst a lot of the Wonju shots rolled around the rim before bouncing out. Even the dunks.

Wonju on the attack.

It got a bit better for the visitors as the game went on and they held their own in the second and third quarters, bringing the deficit down to three points at one stage. Julian Sensley was their star fella, rattling in twenty four points, whilst Richard Roby contributed five points during his brief time on court.

Julian Sensley and Courtney Sims.

Aaron Haynes was top scorer for SK with eighteen points whilst their second string foreigner Courtney Sims got a bit more game time than usual toward the end. He picked up eleven points in his twelve minutes of top-class goal-scrounging beneath the basket.

Aaron Haynes scores another one.

In the battle of the ‘Half-Koreans’ former Globetrotter Shanghai was his usual busy self, playing the entire game for Wonju whilst Kim Min Soo, who in a former life was an Argentinian known as Julian Fernadez, took home the Man of The Match award for his seventeen points.

The win kept SK clear at the top and halted Wonju’s rise up the table.

Posted in Basketball | 1 Comment »

Udo Island hiking, Sunday 27th January 2013.

February 10, 2013

Whenever Jen and I take a trip to Jeju we usually end up walking a section or two of the Olle Trail. It seems to get bigger every time we go though as each part of the island does it’s best to attract the hikers and their cash.

This time we thought we’d visit Udo Island and hike Section 1-1. I’d looked Udo up on the internet and it’s over to the north-east of Jeju, a couple of miles out to sea. Apparently it’s two and a bit square miles in size and less than two thousand people live there. I also learned that it’s known as Cow Island due to it being the same shape as a cow. I’m not sure how correct the information on the size and population was but the only way that it could be said to resemble a cow would be if the animal had undergone some sort of steam-roller related mishap.

You get there via a ferry from Seongsan Port which is fifty minutes and a thirty-five thousand won taxi ride from Jeju City. We got lucky and arrived just a few moments before the ferry sailed.

That's the ferry with Udo Island in the background.

That’s the ferry. It might be Udo Island in the background.

I’ve no idea if the schedule changes at different times of the year but even on a Sunday in January there were plenty of crossings scheduled. It takes around fifteen minutes to cover the couple of miles between the two islands.

Seongsan to Udo timetable.

When we got off at the other side, everyone else got into their car or on to a tour bus despite the island hardly seeming big enough for anyone to feel the need to be driven around. There’s a tourist information office near the jetty but there wasn’t much in the way of information. I got talking to a young copper who was able to point us in the direction of the Olle Trail. Thinking about it afterwards, it occurred to me that he might be the only copper. Maybe the youngest Chief of Police in Korea.

We had a look at the map and the Olle Trail pretty much just follows the coast with the odd minor excursion inland. By frequently doubling back on itself the distance had somehow been stretched to fourteen and a half kilometres. It’s possible that the route is still under development though as I’ve seen it described as over sixteen kilometres in other places.

See, nothing like a cow.

We walked the trail in a clockwise direction, starting off on narrow roads next to the sea and occasionally being directed through fields or along lanes leading to farms and houses. Some of the routing seemed unnecessarily complicated and there were times where after ten minutes of meandering through fields we would rejoin the coastal road no more than fifty yards from where we’d left it.

Just in case you were wondering what a field looks like.

We didn’t see many other people in the early part of the walk, despite passing by plenty of houses. Although I suppose it was a Sunday morning. There wasn’t much wildlife either, apart from the odd dog.

He was friendly enough.

As on the main Jeju Island the Olle Trail looks to have provided the Udo locals with opportunities to take their share of the tourist spending. We passed pensions, restaurants, cafes and scooter hire shops. None of them were particularly busy but I imagine that they would be in the summer.

Formerly a bus, now a cafe.

Halfway around we stopped for a fish stew lunch. I’m not sure what type of fish it was but we watched it being netted from the tank outside. A few slices turned up fried as part of the side dishes with the remainder being cooked at our table on one of those little gas canister stoves.

Better than taking a packed lunch.

We got lost when we started walking again. I’m not sure how, as the trail is well signposted with ribbons and arrows spray painted on walls and the road. It wasn’t such a bad thing though as we stumbled across a football ground. It looked as if it belonged to an adjacent school, but with a couple of small stands down one side it wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Challengers League.

Just in case you were missing the lower league football reports.

For those of you who are missing the lower league football reports.

It wasn’t too difficult to find the trail again as you just really need to look for the coast, but the long lunch and the detour meant that we had to pick up the pace a bit if we were to catch the three o’clock ferry. As we neared the port the route took us up Udo’s big hill. Big in Udo terms anyway at 113m. The Olle Trail doesn’t actually go to the summit but took us to within about ten metres of the top. That was good enough for me though and we got decent views of the surrounding area.

Some graves near Udo’s big hill.

We made the boat. Just. It would have been another hour if we’d had to wait for the next one and once you’ve circled the island I think you’ve just about seen it all. I spent most of the crossing back to Seongsan throwing pieces of doughnut to the seagulls. I’m sure Cantona had a theory about that sort of thing.

I didn’t have any sardines.

Winter probably isn’t the best time to visit Udo. On one hand we had the benefit of having the Olle Trail to ourselves but later in the year there would be a lot more places open and the seafront walking would be better without the icy winds and hailstorms. Still, it was an enjoyable day and it’s one more place that we’ve seen.

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Trail of the Lion King

Archive for February, 2013

Seoul Thunders v Goyang Orions, Thursday 21st February 2013, 7pm

Busan Horseracing, Sunday 3rd February 2013, 12.50pm

LG Sakers v KT Sonic Boom, Saturday 2nd February 2013, 4pm

SK Knights v Wonju Dongbu Promy, Wednesday 31st January 2013, 7pm

Udo Island hiking, Sunday 27th January 2013.

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