Ball Hockey Report for 6 July 2018

Written by Rich

Tonight was most definitely not the greatest day of hockey ever, no matter what revisionist history Dave Gutteridge may serve us later. It was pouring rain at the start, we couldn’t get taxis at the end and we only had one goalie. But it was a special night for me nonetheless. It was my last night as a regular player with the TSHA after 8ish years. I got a goal on a long slapshot as per normal but also found I myself running a bit more than usual and wanting to stay on the rink.

As always, the shooter tutor beat the human goalie most of the night but Masa had a brilliant couple of games, especially near the end. Colin Kozik managed to take out both the girl from the other team and their best player without apparent intent or motivation. Always good for a chuckle. Both Risa and Ines got on the board with sweet assists and goal hanger Aiko knocked in a beauty on the rush and always seemed to be backchecking
ing me so must not hang as much as I thought. Chad Goble was in good form and as usual Dennis was everywhere. Newcomer Corey couldn’t decide where he should be but ran to wherever he thought that was all night. And so on and so on. Even Michel van Ackere made an appearance.

Post hockey we took the bus to the station and had some beer and gyoza. Ines and Corey were initiated into TSHA lore. James Dennier continued gathering data for his “how do you wipe your ass?” survey. (Spoiler alert: I Iean). Twitter feed #isitchad was fed some new material. And all faced the big question “would you rather be eaten by a killer whale or a great white shark?” Ines Answer: Killer whale because they’re pretty.....

Anyway a big thank you to the TSHA members past and present who have made Sundays in Asakusa and later Fridays in Kita Senju then Musashi Urawa possible. Don’t want to leave out Edogawa or Hodogaya either. The TSHA is the first place I made friends in Tokyo who were not from work. Thank you to all of you- It’s been a blast. I’ll be in from time this time and hope to see you at the Yamato Cup.

(Editors note: Dave did later comment that it was, "the greatest day of hockey".)

Yamato Cup