Sagawa Shiga v Sony Sendai, Sunday 30th September 2012, 1pm

October 17, 2012

There weren’t any J-league games going on anywhere close to Kyoto on the second day of our Chuseok trip. Nor were there any in the second tier J-2 League. The only option that I could find was a third division game between Sagawa Shiga and Sony Sendai in nearby Moriyama. That was good enough for me though.

Jen and I were staying at the Granvia Hotel in Kyoto Station and the concierge fella was an absolute star. All I’d wanted him to do was to write down the name of the stadium in Japanese but within ten minutes he had managed to look up the ground on the internet, print out a map and then tell us exactly how to get there. If I’d asked him nicely he could probably have got me a pair of boots and sorted out a place in Sagawa’s starting line-up.

It didn’t take us long to get there, which I suppose is one of the advantages of staying in a hotel within a railway station. A thirty minute train journey to Katata was followed by a ten minute ride in a taxi that looked like it had come straight out of the nineteen seventies.

Not the bullet train.

If anything we got there too quickly, arriving at the ground an hour and a half early for the 11am kick-off. Or what I’d understood to be an 11am kick-off. I didn’t give too much thought to the stadium being empty when we got there, I’ve seen enough third division games in Korea with virtually nobody inside ten minutes before the kick-off to worry about that.

After a few minutes a fella who had been putting up some advertising banners wandered over and told us that we’d have to leave. Fair enough, I thought, perhaps they need us to buy tickets rather than just stroll in and sit down. I asked him what time we could come back and he told us twelve o’clock. That struck me as an odd time for a game that would have started an hour earlier. Eventually we established that we’d turned up three and a half hours too soon for a game with a 1pm kick-off. I hope he was impressed with our enthusiasm.

What made our early arrival worse though was that a tropical storm was making its way across Japan and we were on the edges of it. The rain was falling steadily and the idea of standing around outside for three and a half hours wasn’t too enticing a prospect.

This hotel was next to the stadium. They have special rates for sixteen people sharing a room.

Fortunately the Sagawa Art Museum was just around the corner and we nipped inside for an hour of looking at the exhibits and a further two hours of drinking five quid coffees in their cafe. Japan is quite expensive. They had an exhibition by Churyo Sato who specialised in bronze sculptures of young women with their tits out.

Churyo Sato

As one o’clock rolled around Jen decided that another hour in the cafe was a better option than braving the wind and rain and I headed off to the game by myself. It was almost too blustery to use an umbrella as I hurried around to the stadium entrance. When I reached the gate a temporary ticket office tent had been set up and I handed over a thousand yen to get in.

The main and only stand.

There were about a hundred fans in total, most of whom were struggling to find a position within the stand where the rain wasn’t blowing in. At the far end of the only stand were the Sagawa ‘ultras’. There were five of them and it’s possible that they were all from the same family. I didn’t see or hear any away fans, perhaps they had decided to stay in the museum too.

Sagawa fans and their drum.

Sagawa Shiga were in blue with the visitors, Sony Sendai in white. It wasn’t really the weather for it, but both teams tried to play football and keep the ball on the ground. The home side went a goal up after five minutes and then doubled their lead after ten.

One of the goals. The first one, I think.

The rest of the half was fairly even and Sony Sendai were unlucky not to pull one back before the interval. They had a couple of ‘goals’ disallowed and missed a few half-chances.

Not the best day for a football game.

At half time I’d seen all that I needed to and made my way back to the museum as there’s a limit to how many five quid coffees you can expect someone else to drink by themselves. As I walked around the edge of the pitch the worsening conditions had meant that the ticketing tent had already been dismantled and the advertising hoardings were being removed before they blew away. Even the flags were being lowered.

The main stand with the Christmas hotel next to it.

I checked later to see whether or not the game had been abandoned and it had made it to full-time. Each side had managed a second –half goal with Sagawa Shiga running out three-one winners.

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Gamba Osaka v Kashima Antlers, Saturday 29th September 2012, 4pm

October 11, 2012

It’s Chuseok again in Korea. The time of year when dutiful Koreans return to their hometown to pay their respects to their ancestors and not so dutiful non-Koreans head off on holiday somewhere.

This year Jen and I went to Japan, staying in Kyoto for four nights and taking the opportunity to look around the Kansai region. As ever I made a point of seeing what sporting events were going on and as luck would have it Gamba Osaka were at home to Kashima Antlers in the J-League on our first day there.

We caught a morning Eastarjet flight from Incheon to Osaka Kansai and were in Japan by eleven o’clock. It took a while to get through immigration and then collect our Kansai Rail passes so we decided to get some lunch at the airport from a cafe called Beef Bowl. It served, as you might expect, bowls with beef in. The best bit though was that you made your choice at a vending machine by pressing the button with the appropriate photograph, inserting your money and then handing your printed ticket to the man behind the counter. As someone who speaks no Japanese it could only have been bettered if the beef bowl had been dispensed from the machine rather than a ticket.

After lunch we took the train to Shin Osaka station, dumped our bags in the left luggage and then took an hour-long journey by subway and monorail to Gamba Osaka’s Expo ’70 Commemorative Stadium. I’d tell you the names of the subway stops but I’ve forgotten them. The lady in the Tourist Information at Shin Osaka knows though, so you can ask her.

Expo ’70 Commemorative Stadium, Osaka.

It was fairly busy outside the stadium with cheerleaders putting on a bit of a show and with plenty of people milling around the stalls selling food and merchandise. Jen and I made our way to a bar where I got some unspecified meat on a stick and a Suntory beer.

The queue to get in at the Curva Nord.

We would probably have spent a little longer at the bar but it was starting to rain and as neither of us had brought a coat we thought it better to get some tickets and make our way inside. The tickets started at 2,500 yen and went up to 5,500. We got two top-priced ones in the main stand (described as box seats) on the basis that they might have a better chance of being under cover. No chance. The small canopy covered only a small selection of local bigwigs and sponsors, everyone else in that stand and the rest of the ground found themselves exposed to the elements.

The fans in the opposite stand had all brought their coats.

Despite the weather the twenty-one thousand capacity ground was about two-thirds full. The home ‘ultras’ had the North stand to our left with the visitors taking up a decent chunk of the opposite end. Both of those sections were standing areas, the new modern kind with barriers between each row. It lent itself to a great atmosphere with both sets of fans making a racket throughout the game.

The home end.

The singing was all quite well organised with one bloke and his megaphone leading the chants. He’d generally have to just give them one line and with a couple of couple of drummers chipping in, the whole end would take it up.

“C’mon Gamba”

It was a similar situation at the Kashima end, although with fewer fans. It’s over three hundred miles from Osaka to Kashima so it was still a decent turnout. Although I suppose the bullet train might just cut the journey time a bit from what you’d expect.

The away fans.

Both sides have been struggling this season and with only a handful of games to go Gamba are in the relegation area and Kashima just outside of it, five points ahead of their hosts. A win for Kashima would probably be enough to ensure that Gamba wouldn’t be able to catch them.

After a cagey opening ten minutes the visitors took the lead through Renato Caja, much to the delight of their fans.

Tits out for the lads.

It wasn’t to last though and midway through the half Brazilian Leandro equalised for Gamba Osaka. It probably spared him from a half-time bollocking as he’d missed an absolute sitter a minute or so before.

Osaka celebrate their equaliser and a new baby for someone.

Parity didn’t last long though as Junior Dutra became the third Brazillian to score, putting Kashima back in front just before the break. There was another Brazilian on the visiting bench, Juninho. Not the real one or even the fake one who used to play for Lyon. A fake, fake one I suppose. I checked him out on Soccerway and he’s about five foot ten. That’s odd, I’d always thought that Juninho was Portuguese for ‘Shortarse’ or something. It seems an odd choice of nickname, especially in a country like Japan where he’ll be taller than most of his teammates.

At half time we took refuge from the rain and I got myself another Suntory. As in Korea, ramyeon seemed pretty popular as a snack, along with the meat on a stick that I’d eaten earlier.

Half-time snack.

The rain eased off in the second half, but with a wet pitch both teams pinged the ball about and created plenty of chances. Gamba were attacking the home end and went close on a few occasions.

Endo curls in a cross.

We headed out with five minutes to go as we had stuff to do and were keen to beat the rest of the crowd to the subway. Unfortunately that meant we missed Leandro’s injury time equaliser, his ninth goal in five games. Forty minutes later we were back at Shin Osaka station and then onwards to Kyoto.

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Doosan Bears v Hanwha Eagles, Monday 24th September 2012, 6.30pm

October 10, 2012

Baseball on a Monday? Really? Yes, really. The regular season is just about done and the teams are taking any opportunity to play the re-scheduled games that had been cancelled earlier in the year. I could see why Doosan would be keen to give up their day off as they are battling Lotte for the third place spot although I imagine that bottom placed Hanwha would have been less enthusiastic. It’s a long season and when you lose far more than you win then those Monday nights sat at home watching the telly are probably the best of the week.

Kim Seung Hee opened the pitching for Doosan. He did ok, lasting until the eighth innings and conceding just the one run.

Kim Seung Hee – Doosan Bears

Denny Bautista was the starting pitcher for Hanwha. I’d seen him pitch before, but as a closer. It surprised me at that time to see a foreign import being used so sparingly and thought it made a lot more sense for him to have a crack at the opposition right from the start. Bautista did ok as well, giving up two runs in the second innings but then surviving until the end of the seventh without conceding any more.

Denny Bautista – Hanwha Eagles

As far as the interesting stuff off the field goes then the highlight was probably the mid-game drinking beer competition featuring a girl fan from each team. The first one to drink a can of Cass through a straw got the glory and probably the hiccups.

Miss Doosan won.

The other point of note is that Jen and I aren’t the only people who turn up regardless of which teams are playing. There were a couple of fellas to our right who had been at the LG Twins v Nexen game the previous week. They seemed just as fervent in their support of Hanwha as they had been for the Heroes last time out.

They probably think I’m stalking them.

The introduction of the relief pitchers didn’t change the score and by nine o’clock it was all over, Doosan holding on for their 2-1 victory.

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Incheon v Wonderful Samcheok, Sunday 23rd September 2012, 4pm

October 10, 2012

I’d just finished watching a men’s handball match at the Fencing Gymnasium in Seoul’s Olympic Park and as the air-conditioning was making it a pleasurable place to be, I didn’t hurry out afterwards. Strangely enough, neither did anyone else. After a few minutes I concluded that the game we had just watched wasn’t the full extent of the afternoon’s entertainment and so I stuck around to see what would happen next.

What we got was a women’s handball game and just like the men’s match it was the second leg of the Championship play-off and the culmination of a season that had started back in February.  As with the men’s game, I had no idea of the score from the first leg and so not only was I watching a game where I didn’t have any real knowledge of the rules, I was completely ignorant as to which team were winning.

What I did know was that the team playing in red were Samcheok as they had their team name on their shirts. Not just Samcheok though, but Wonderful Samcheok. Hmm. I’ve been to Samcheok a couple of times and whilst it’s a decent enough place I’d say Wonderful is pushing it a bit. The team in blue were Incheon, just Incheon I think, rather than bigging themselves with a name like, say, Quite Close to Seoul Incheon.

“Gooaaaalllll”

Wonderful Samcheok lead for most of the game, although as I said, I’d no idea which team was ahead on aggregate. The play was just as aggressive as that of the men’s game that I’d just watched and both teams were well supported.

It was a similar atmosphere to the basketball games.

As the game drew to a close Incheon narrowed the gap and with a big contribution from the best player on the court, eleven goal striker Ryu Eun Hui, they forced a draw. I can’t remember now but I think it was twenty something all.

Ryu Eun Hui – Star of the show.

The main interest for me at this point was seeing which team had actually won. You’d think that it would have been evident from the play with perhaps one team chasing the game and the other time-wasting. It wasn’t though and I had to wait for the celebrations at the final whistle to discover that Incheon were the champions. They tossed their coach in the air, as seems compulsory at sporting events over here, and collected the trophy.

As traditional as playing ‘We Are The Champions’.

So, after forty-seven years without seeing a single handball game I’d now seen two in an afternoon. It’s not something that I’d probably hurry back to, although with the new season not starting until February it’s something I don’t have to give any thought to for a while yet.

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Choongnam v Doosan, Sunday 23rd September 2012, 2pm

October 9, 2012

I’d been to watch the tennis at the Olympic Park and as I was heading back to the subway station afterwards I noticed a few television trucks outside of the Fencing Gymnasium. There was a sign outside mentioning handball and as one of the doors to the venue was open I went inside to see if there was anything going on. I could hear noises from behind a curtain and a closer look revealed that there was indeed a handball game taking place.

Behind the curtain.

To be truthful handball isn’t a game that I’ve ever given very much thought to. I occasionally stumble across a match as I’m flicking through the tv channels, but I rarely watch for longer than the time necessary to establish that it’s, well, handball.

I’m usually quite happy to watch most sport, but handball just seems like an unnecessary version of football, albeit not so good. Sports like rugby or basketball are different enough from football to make them interesting, handball though is really just a rip-off of a game of five-a-side with your mates. The only difference seems to be that you use your hands rather than your feet.

I’ve read that it’s popular in Scandinavia, but then again, so are fermented shark burgers. It still doesn’t make it right. Curiosity trumped reticence though and I joined around five hundred other spectators. A team in red that I later discovered to be Choongnam were playing a team in blue that turned out to be a side owned by Doosan. The game was ten minutes into the second half and Choongnam were ahead by a few.

Choongnam on the attack.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with any of the rules other than you aren’t allowed to kick the ball, I’ll pass on what I spotted. If you imagine five-a-side football, but with seven players on each team that’s it. So, seven-a-side football. I couldn’t work out whether outfield players were allowed in the box or not and I’m not sure the ref knew either. Maybe the players just decide between themselves before the start, but don’t really pay much attention to it. Whatever. They’ve borrowed two minutes suspensions from ice-hockey but that’s about the only difference that I noticed.

It’s quite an aggressive game, or at least this one was, with players regularly getting clattered. I kept an eye on the keepers as apparently it was during Peter Schmeichel’s time as a handball goalie that he developed his famous ‘star-jump’ shot stopping technique. Both keepers spread themselves in a similar way whenever the ball was hurled towards goal but, unlike Schmeichel, rarely seemed to know where the ball was going until it either hit the back of the net or smacked them in the chops.

Interestingly, Schmeichel’s other trademark activity of bollocking the defence whenever he made a mistake didn’t seem to be something that he’d picked up from his handball days.

A Doosan player tries the ball concealment tactic known as ‘Drug-smuggling’.

Choongnam kept their lead until the end, running out 28-22 victors. Oddly though it was Doosan who celebrated, receiving a trophy, throwing their coach in the air and lining up behind a banner where one fella mixed up his V for Victory gesture with something else altogether.

Harvey Smith celebrates another win.

The mystery was solved when I discovered that this match was the second leg of the Championship play-off and so I assume that Doosan must have gone into the game with at least a seven goal advantage from the previous encounter.  I’ve no idea whether it was close or not. Doosan could have just nicked a thrilling aggregate victory or they could have strolled through a match made meaningless by the first leg. The air-conditioning was good though and that’s what mattered most.

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WTA Korea Open, Sunday 23rd September 2012, Noon.

October 5, 2012

Whilst I’ve seen plenty of tennis matches on the telly I’d never watched one in real-life, not a proper one anyway. I’ve watched mates play whilst I’ve waited my turn, sometimes on a normal court and before that, as kids, in the road where a net wasn’t seen as necessary and the differing colours of tarmac marked out the boundaries of the court.

As good as those games in which we pretended to be Connors against Nastase were, I’d always had a suspicion that the proper matches might have been of a slightly higher standard. So, when I noticed that there was a WTA tournament taking place in Seoul I was keen to go along and have a look, particularly when I discovered that the final coincided with a Sunday where I had nothing planned.

The tournament was taking place at the Olympic Park Tennis Centre which, as you might have guessed, was built for the 1988 Olympics. Tennis returned to the Olympics at Seoul and I remember that there was a fair bit of controversy over its inclusion. Some Czech fella whose name I didn’t recognise won the Mens Singles whilst in the Womens event Steffi Graff beat Gabriella Sabatini to take the gold in a year where she also won all four Grand Slam Championships.

Gabriella Sabatini – do you remember her?

It’s easy enough to get to the Olympic Park from Yeoksam and I’ve walked it in around an hour and a half before. However, a combination of a late start and the hot weather meant that I took the subway to Mongchontoseong instead.  The World Peace Gate entrance to the Olympic Park is just outside the subway and it’s then about a twenty-minute walk through the park to the Tennis Centre.

Olympic Peace Gate.

I hadn’t bothered trying to buy a ticket in advance, partly out of laziness but mostly because the main stadium at the tennis centre seats ten thousand people and I couldn’t imagine there being that much local interest in a tennis match that didn’t feature a Korean player.

I’d been right with my assumption and I had a choice between a unreserved ticket at 20,000 won or a reserved seat at 30,000. I took the more expensive option and after selecting a block along the side of the court, found myself five rows from the front. There was still half an hour to go until the start and at that point I’d reckon there were probably around five hundred people inside the stadium.

At noon the players came out to warm-up. The top seed Caroline Wozniaki was taking on Kaia Kanepi. I’d never heard of Kanepi before but I’m pretty sure that Wozniaki had been ranked number one in the world not so long ago.

Caroline Wozniaki

As the first game got underway the crowd was still below a thousand, although over the course of the match it probably doubled. This caused a few problems as so many fans were coming in at each change of ends that the re-start was invariably delayed. The problem was compounded by people nipping out for a drink or a hot dog and by the general lack of understanding of how to behave when watching tennis. I could sense the exasperation of the umpire when her success in reducing the yapping to a tolerable level merely served to make the frequent ringing of mobiles more audible. One women had even brought a crying baby in with her to liven things up.

An hour or so after the start, people were still arriving. In fact the couple in the seats next to me didn’t turn up until after the match had finished. They had missed an easy win for Miss Wozniaki, 6-1, 6-0 for those who like a bit of detail.

Game Over.

The presentation afterwards took almost as long as the match with lengthy introductions for those presenting trophies and flowers followed by speeches from sponsors that were then translated into English. Each player went home with a big cheque and an even bigger plant pot.

Ideal for keeping the car keys in.

Fortunately for those who had just arrived there was a second match to watch, the Womens Doubles Final. Americans Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears were taking on fellow American (do you say ’fellow’ when you are discussing women?)  Vania King and her Uzbeki partner Akgul  Amanmuradova.

Now, I don’t want to be unkind here, but my first thought was that the 6’3“ Miss Amanmuradova was actually a bloke. Really. The combination of her height and her choice of mens clothing meant that when they were warming up I’d assumed she was a male coach. As the starting time drew nearer and it looked more and more likely that she was playing, I genuinely wondered if the real player had been injured and that an exhibition game between the women finalists and a mixed-doubles pair had been scheduled as a replacement. Sorry Akgul.

See what I mean?

As you would expect, Miss Amanmuradova had a powerful serve and her pairing took the first set. I’d moved seats between the matches to see what the view was like from behind the service line. For what it’s worth I think it’s better. It’s more like the view you get on the telly and you don’t have to move your head from side to side to follow the play.

The view from behind the goal.

The downside of my moving seats though was that I was a lot more exposed to the sun than I had been and as my knees started to burn I decided to call it a day midway through the second set, sneaking out as discreetly as I could between games. I had a look for the result later and the match had gone to three sets with Kop-Jones and Spears overturning that first set deficit to take the title.

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Goyang v Paju Citizen, Saturday September 22nd 2012, 3pm

September 28, 2012

If you like watching sport then Goyang would be a pretty good place to live. Whilst they don’t have a K-League team or a top-tier baseball side, they’ve got football teams in the National and Challengers leagues and an independent baseball team that takes on the KBO reserve teams in the Futures League. If that’s not enough there are also basketball and ice hockey teams.

The only one of all of those that I hadn’t yet seen was Goyang FC of the third-tier Challengers League. I had been to their ground before though, having briefly watched a few minutes of a Sunday League match after an ice hockey game at the SPART complex a couple of years ago.

Goyang’s ground is easy enough to get to. You take Subway Line 3 to Wondang and then come out of Exit 5, turn right in the direction of City Hall, cross the road and keep on in the same direction. You’ll pass a group of six old biddies sat on some benches.It’s probably ok to use them as a landmark as I suspect that they are always there. Not necessarily the same ones as it’s a squad game these days, but day or night there will be half a dozen of them.

Keep on straight ahead.

After about three hundred yards you turn left, in the direction of Seongsa 2(i) – dong Community Service Center, follow the road up a hill passing a few shops and restaurants. When you’ve walked for around another one hundred and fifty yards you turn right at apartment block 505 and then wander down that tree-lined road until you see the ground on your left.

There are stands down the two longer sides of the plastic pitch, one with a roof, but nothing behind either of the goals. I made a rough count of the seats and I’d estimate a capacity of two thousand, five hundred which was probably two thousand, four hundred more than was necessary. The main stand was home to about eighty people, many of them families where the small children spent most of the game hitting the even smaller children.

The Main Stand. Probably named after the Boro’s Curtis Main.

The opposite stand was home to the Ultras. Or in the case of Goyang, the Ultra. In a country were people rarely see any merit in an activity unless large numbers of others are doing it too, Goyang gloriously had one fan. He did his bit though and the only times that he stopped singing all afternoon were whenever he briefly paused to berate the referee.

Man Of The Year. Any year ever.

Paju initially weren‘t much better in terms of support, with only two supporters having made it by kick-off time. I liked the idea that both sets of fans (can you call one fan a set?) could have taunted the other with the traditional “You should have come in a taxi“ when in reality they could have shared the cab and still had room to offer a lift to the next bloke at the rank. Paju spoilt things a little when another four fans turned up ten minutes into the game.

Paju fans. Mean and moody.

Paju were in luminous green shirts, whilst Goyang were wearing what looked like American referee shirts with thin black and white stripes. Goyang are bottom of their section of the league and with the visitors pushing for a play-off spot an away win seemed the most likely outcome.

Both teams kept it tight in the opening half hour and neither keeper got his knees dirty.  Although I suppose on a plastic pitch that would have been unlikely no matter how much diving around they might have done. The closest we came to a goal was when a Goyang free-kick bounced harmlessly through to the Paju keeper who whilst attempting to catch it just under the crossbar caught one of his feet in the netting behind him and nearly conceded the sort of goal that would have made every ’cock-up’ video going.

Almost Goal of the Season.

With ten minutes to go to the break, Paju brought on a couple of subs. It’s always embarrassing to be taken off in the first half if you aren‘t limping and one fella in particular, Lee Jae Hyung, threw a right strop, hurling bits of tape to the ground and whipping off his shirt long before he reached the changing room. I wondered if the Paju coach had been expecting an easy victory and had taken the opportunity to play a couple of fringe players before being forced to revert to Plan A when they were unable to make the breakthrough.

Mean as it seemed though, it worked, and before the subbed players could even have found time to key the side of their manager’s car Paju were ahead. Centre half Jung Sung Jo had come upfield for a set piece and although the move broke down the ball fell nicely for him and his shot from fifteen yards was deflected into the net.

One – nil to Paju.

At half-time the Paju players went to the dressing room but the Goyang coach sat his players down by the touch-line and held his team-talk on the pitch. He didn‘t seem angry with them, I think it was more a case of him just enjoying the good weather. He used three water bottles to demonstrate positioning and movement, the gist of it seeming to be that one player should run in-between two of the opposition, drawing them both with him.

Half-time.

The opening twenty minutes of the second half were as cagey as those of the first with both sides passing the ball well but not creating much in the way of chances. I didn‘t notice too many occasions where a Goyang player was able to draw two of the opposition to him. It’s possibly harder to do with real people than it appears to be with water bottles.

The game came to life in the last ten minutes. Goyang captain Lee Sang Ho did fantastically well to keep a wayward shot in play, he cut in towards goal and pulled the ball back for  Park Joo Young who somehow put his shot both high and wide when it would have been far easier to score. It wasn‘t quite as bad as Kanu’s against the Boro a few years ago but he should have scored.

A couple of minutes later Park Joo Young had a shot deflected past the post, he should have scored from that one too. It didn‘t matter much though as shortly afterwards the Goyang pressure paid off when Lee Sang Ho curled a shot home from the edge of the box to make it one each.

Random action shot.

We then had a few minutes of end to end action as both teams chased a winner. Goyang had the ball in the net at one point but it was disallowed for pushing. As we entered injury time Goyang broke clear but the Paju keeper, Jang Bum Guk, managed to dash from his goal and clatter the striker, knacking one of his own knees as he did it. After a few minutes of treatment that seemed to consist mainly of someone twisting his leg to check that it was still attached to his torso, he limped off and was replaced by the sub goalie Yu Jung Hoon.

At the other end Paju could have won it with the final kick of the game when a flick on from a corner was skied over the bar from inside the six yard box. That was it though, two points dropped for Paju but a point gained for Goyang. All that was left was for both teams to jog over to their supporter(s) and show their appreciation.

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LG Twins v Nexen Heroes, Wednesday September 19th 2012, 6.30pm

September 21, 2012

Apologies for the lack of updates but I’ve been away from Korea for the last six weeks. I had a holiday in the UK sandwiched between a couple of longer than normal visits to Oman for what is ostensibly work but in reality is little more than a desert based detox.

The UK part was good though. Gig-wise, Jen and I managed to see British Sea Power close the opening evening at the Voewood Festival and Boo Hewerdine play a hospice fundraiser in a church in Cambridge. Boo was good, although he was sharing a stage with Eddi Reader and didn’t get as much time in the spotlight as I’d have liked. The only song of his that he got to sing on his own was Muddy Water. He’s written a fair bit of Eddi’s decent stuff for her and whilst she has a fine voice I prefer to hear him singing his own songs rather than accompanying someone else, particularly with something like ‘Patience of Angels’.

Ms Reader also likes to rattle on a bit between songs. Her patter was entertaining enough, although I imagine the anecdotes would grate after a while if you saw her regularly. The downside of her incessant yapping though was that it cut down the time available for music and as a result Boo didn’t get to play my favourite song of his, ‘Geography’. It wasn’t quite as annoying as last year when we saw The Wedding Present and they didn’t do ‘Kennedy’ but it could have been better.

Eddi and Boo not doing ‘Geography’ at some other gig.

BSP played at the Voewood Festival, which is at High Kelling in Norfolk and is without doubt the poshest festival that I’ve ever been to. I’d imagine that they will have been paid in Guineas and there will have been quail eggs and swan fritters provided backstage.

Whilst it’s not uncommon for me to be the scruffiest bloke in whatever company I find myself in, unless of course the company is clad in a faded Ramones tee-shirt, it was far more noticeable than normal at Voewood. I’ve been to weddings where there were fewer waistcoats and cravats.  The food and drink was good, though. They sold wine by the bottle and the on-site food was provided by a Spanish caterer that must have been tipped off in advance that we usually snack on cured ham and sheep cheese.

As for BSP’s set list, well I had to look it up afterwards, which is generally an indication that I had an excellent time.

Voewood Festival.

On the hiking front Jen and I managed a couple of days walking in The Lakes and then we fitted the forty-eight mile Norfolk Coastal Trail from Cromer to Hunstanton around the British Sea Power and Boo Hewerdine gigs. The Coastal Trail is an interesting walk in a part of England that I’ve not been to before. There aren’t many hills and it was an enjoyable four days taking a varied route of woodland and marshland sections interspersed with clifftop strolls and the odd trudge through sand dunes or along stone beaches.

This was about as undulating as it got.

I didn’t see much in the way of UK sport this time. I was there during that lull between the Olympics finishing and the Paralympics starting, there wasn’t any convenient horseracing going on and of the Boro’s five games the only one I managed to get to was the home victory over Burnley. Three long-range goals, including a late Luke Williams winner from thirty-five yards made it more than worthwhile as did a few pints with my son before, during and after the game.

So, that’s the ‘what I did on my holidays’ stuff out of the way and it’s back to Korean sport and the baseball game between LG Twins and Nexen Heroes. The regular season is into it’s dying throes with the two teams in this fixture fighting it out with Kia Tigers to determine fifth, sixth and seventh places. None of them can make the play-offs, whilst Hanwha have already made the bottom spot their own.

Jen and I were late setting off and it was already seven o’clock when we got there with Nexen leading by two runs to one. We didn’t have any trouble finding somewhere to sit with the thirty thousand capacity stadium being no more than a tenth full. Nobody likes a loser in Korea.

We hadn’t missed much.

Brandon Knight was the starting pitcher for the visitors. He’s into his second season with Nexen after previously turning out for Samsung Lions. He’s had some decent moments in his career, including starting for the New York Mets at Shea Stadium and picking up a bronze medal for the USA at the Beijing Olympics.

Brandon Knight

Lee Seung Woo was the starting pitcher for LG. As far as I know he has never played for the New York Mets, nor been to Shea Stadium, unless it was to watch a concert. He doesn’t have an Olympic medal either. I’m lead to believe that he enjoys spending his spare time growing giant leeks and completing crossword puzzles.

Lee Seung Woo

Mr. Lee didn’t have the happiest of evenings, getting the hook after three innings. It seemed a bit mean to me in a game where the result didn’t really matter, although he had pitched seventy-eight balls by that point and conceded four runs. I suppose we could have been there all night if he’d been allowed to carry on. Brandon Knight did a lot better, pitching almost all of the way through for just the two runs.

The Nexen fans seemed happy enough.

We stayed until the eighth, by which time Nexen had moved into a seven-two lead. They added one more in the ninth, sealing a victory that took them four games ahead of LG in the standings and leaving them only half a game behind fifth placed Kia Tigers.

Posted in Baseball | 14 Comments »

Chungju Hummel v Changwon City, Saturday 4th August 2012, 7pm

August 16, 2012

This was my second attempt to see a Chungju Hummel home game. I’d turned up for their fixture with Yongin City two years ago and despite the grass being cut, the nets being up and a large banner outside the ground advertising the match, it had been moved at the last minute to someone‘s back garden on the outskirts of the town.

That sort of thing is fairly common in Korean football, particularly in the lower divisions. All you can do is check as many sources as possible and hope it works out. If it doesn’t, so be it. Jen and I had quite ambitious plans for the weekend, including hiking in the nearby Sobaeksan National Park, but it’s usually better if we see the game as well rather than stare through the gates of an empty stadium.

The intention was to use Danyang as a base, visit the Gosu Caves on the Saturday and then hike the following day, after nipping in and out of Chungju for the match via the ferry that chugs up and down the lake between the two towns. Easy really.

At eight o’clock on Saturday morning we caught the bus from Dong Seoul to Danyang. It took a bit longer than it should have done, but it’s the holiday season and that’s how it works. Three hours later we were in Danyang and wandering around looking for a hotel.

It was ridiculously hot and after deciding  that I’d better buy myself a hat to try to cut down the chances of getting sunstroke we headed into an indoor market. Whilst most of the stalls sold the usual mix of tat, tat and more tat, one aisle sold nothing but garlic. I could probably describe it more thoroughly, but that’s what photos are for.

Garlic Street.

We found a barber’s shop that sold hats, which I suppose doesn‘t reflect all that well on their confidence in their haircutting abilities. Still, I was due a trim and so we went in. There was nobody around and just as it looked like I’d have to leave without a haircut or a hat, a woman came scurrying up from a shop a few doors along.

Sometimes I think it’s useful that I can‘t understand Korean and that was probably the case on this occasion. Jen told me afterwards that it wasn‘t the woman’s shop but after a brief shouted conversation with someone further along the street, she had volunteered to cut my hair anyway. Wonderful.

I knew none of this as I settled into the chair and after I’d mimed having my head shaved, she got to work. Usually I’ll be asked which guard should go on the clippers and I’ll generally go for the 3mm one. This time though, the fake barberess just got stuck straight in with the unguarded clippers. Once you’ve got that first strip of baldness then you just have to go with it. I bought a hat on the way out, as I imagine most of her customers do.

Afterwards she washed and polished my head.

We eventually found a hotel that didn‘t mind us checking in at lunchtime, but abandoned our plan to visit the Gosu caves as it was just too hot to be walking around. We did visit them the next day and they were crap. Nowhere near as cold as you want caves to be in the summer and despite going early in the morning we slowly shuffled along in lines like people filing past the Queen Mother’s coffin.

Gosu Caves

The next part of the plan was to get the ferry to Chungju and it sort of went ok. We spent twenty minutes in a taxi getting to the ferry terminal and then just before we arrived we spotted a road sign stating that Chungju was a further 52km away. It had only been about an inch on the map. A map that I now recognise as having a scale of about 70km to the inch.

Someone else’s boat.

The boat trip was worth doing though despite us being behind glass. It took an hour and twenty minutes to get to Chungju and we passed through some spectacular scenery. I think most of the people on the boat had probably arrived at the ferry terminal in their own cars and were doing a round trip that didn’t necessarily involve visiting either Danyang or Chungju.

Some passengers caught up on their sleep.

On arrival at Chungju Ferry Terminal we shared a taxi into town with an elderly Korean couple. The meter fare came to 16,000 won and the robber of a taxi driver took 13,000 won from both them and us.

Chungju Ferry Terminal

All of the changes to the plans meant that we arrived at the stadium a couple of hours before kick-off. No problem, we had a couple of bottles of wine with us and there is a park next door to Chungju’s ground that I’d drank in last time I’d been there. Or at least I’d thought it was a park. Jen helpfully pointed out that it was actually a school for ten to fourteen year old girls and maybe not the best place to sit slugging back cabernet sauvignon.  You’ve got to be somewhere though and with it having benches it was worth the risk of arrest.

As kick-off approached we headed into the stadium. Chungju were wearing Jeonbuk strips and Changwon were near enough AC Milan. The pretend Jeonbuk even had a number twenty, Lee Gon Hue, playing up front for them.

“Tonight Matthew, we are going to be Lee Dong Gook and Paulo Maldini”

There were about two hundred fans watching. There are nearly always two hundred fans. Perhaps it’s a National League rule. I saw some that might have been from Changwon but then again they might just have wandered in for a sit-down and a fag.

Some people at the match.

Changwon looked the better side early on but as we reached half-time it was still goalless. Jen went for more drink and some fried chicken and came back with a selection of things on sticks, most of which the local kids seemed happy to take off our hands.

They ate more than we did.

There was more good defending in the second half and the game finished goalless. As we were far too late for a return ferry journey or a bus, we took an hour long taxi ride back to our hotel in Danyang. On reflection, I think that if you are going to watch a game in Chungju then it’s probably best to stay slightly closer than seventy kilometres away.

Posted in Football, Haircuts | 6 Comments »

LG Twins v Hanwha Eagles, Tuesday 31st July 2012, 6.30pm

August 14, 2012

I’m conscious that when I write about a baseball game at Jamsil these days there is very little new that I can say. In fact, when I googled one of the starting pitchers in this fixture it took me to my own blog and I discovered that I’d watched him three months earlier in a game at this stadium and between the two same teams. I’d even sat in the same area of the stand.

However, I like the idea of writing about every single sporting event that I’ve attended in Korea and even if the blog is getting more and more like Groundhog Day, so be it.

As usual, Jen and I got there at about seven o’clock and just like all the other times there was no need to rush. It wasn’t too busy outside and there wasn’t much of a queue at either of the ticket offices.

Sometimes it’s a bit more hectic.

There was a threat of rain in the air so we got tickets for Section 331, which is in the covered main stand and to the left of the plate. Hanwha had brought quite a few fans with them but there was still plenty of space around us.

Kim Hyuk Min was the starting pitcher for Hanwha. All that I can tell you about him I’m afraid is that he isn’t famous enough to have his own Wikipedia page.

Kim Hyuk Min – Hanwha Eagles

Kim Kwang Sam was chucking them down for LG. He doesn’t have a Wiki page either and a photo of him from this blog is about as much as a Google search turns up. He’ll have two photos now, bless him.

Kim Kwang Sam – LG Twins

Looking around the crowd, the highlight was probably the section in the outfield seats that was full of office workers on some sort of team-building outing. They enthusiastically cheered LG on and waved their inflatable sticks but when I zoomed in on their faces more than the odd one looked like they would rather be somewhere else. At home with their families would be my best guess, although if they had to spend the evening team-building then I suspect that most of the fellas would rather be in a room salon having a splash of Coke added to their eighteen year old Chivas Regal by a fawning girl not much older than their drink.

Hooray for LG and unpaid overtime.

As we tend to do these days, Jen and I didn’t bother with fried chicken but had our usual baseball picnic of some Spanish sheep cheese and chorizo with a baguette. In a rare addition to the menu we had some Wensleydale that I must have inadvertently dropped into my suitcase on my last trip to the UK. Once again, we washed it down with a couple of bottles of screw-top Merlot.

If we’d fancied a bit of a change we could have bought crisps or dried squid from one of the ladies who wanders around the crowd with a box of food on her head.

You won’t go hungry even if you don’t bring your own cheese.

And the game? Well, it didn’t really matter. Hanwha are bottom of the table with LG Twins one place above them and that’s where they’ll finish. By the time we left in the eighth it was three each. I stuck the telly on when we got home to see who won but it had already finished. I didn’t care enough to look online. The  teams will play each other again at Jamsil before long anyway, so I can watch it all another time.

Posted in Baseball | 1 Comment »

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