“When its spring again we’ll sing again, we won in Amsterdam”

Keith Maple's great attempt at summarizing a wonderful, eventful, memorable, fun and sporty bank holiday week end in Holland  for the "Girls do it better" football tour.

Our first foray into Europe and so much to say. From the funny to the suspicious and the skillful to the downright bizarre this is my take on the events that transpired in some corner of a foreign field. 

The Prologue

Long coach journey, chirpy driver, “glad we flew”, Duingalows, flumes & swimming, roller coasters, early night, early start, back on the coach, drive to the tournament, pictures with the flags “which pitch” “who are we playing? “Are we awake?”

The Tournament

Freezing cold, boiling hot, flags a flying, the Group of Death, Sadie’s goals (2), 4 clean sheets, Lola scores, Elin scores, making friends with Delta girls, the Macarena on the pitch, yellows, blues and black and whites, chips and toasties, gravy scotch eggs, good 5 minutes, poor 10 minutes, wilting in the heat, great goal by Hannah R, Kathryn’s save when 0-0, 3 wins, fifth place play off, penalty shoot out, Net makes a save, Teddington girls out.

The Next day

Proper ground, up in the stand, dressing rooms, national anthems, superb play, Lola’s Cruyff turn, Sadie goal, Sophia at the back, Elin’s miss, Elin’s wonder goal, error at the back, Elin scores again, hurricane winds, win 3-1, photos of the teams, drinks with the ref, Champions of Holland.

The Scandals

Chip gate               Slowing down the food queue so our chips arrived late

Pizza gate              Poisoning Robert with a Dutch pizza

Revenge gate       Diesel jumping out of the coach all over the driver

Penalty gate          The net keeping out our winning goal

The Referees

The Good – the one who shared a beer with us after Sunday’s game

The Bad – the one who believed a net could defy the laws of physics

The Ugly – the one who stopped the game on the other pitch because a coach told him what he thought.

The Lessons

Find out what rules we are playing before we kick off

-Short corners, easier goal kicks, and no back pass rule

Its penalties not a cross bar challenge

Dutch goal nets are made of steel

Chips two minutes before a game may not be the best way forward

When Keith shouts “don’t shoot” always do – Great goal Hannah

When those corners come across run towards them not away

The Memorable

The warmth of the hosts

Mikes luminous tracksuit

Spreading the word that we were Tottenham Hotspur

Ed challenging the girls to try to hit the cross bar (they failed)

The Macarena with the girls from Delta

Sundays “Battle of the near to airports” Heathrow 3 Rotterdam 1

The stadium with our flags flying and parents proud

The girls lining up for the National Anthem

The Dutch girls running across with massive smiles after seeing their grandparents on the sidelines

The girls playing football at the ferry port
The Team Anthem sing-along "we love you teddington we do...."

Winning four, drawing two and only losing one game.

4 clean sheets, 8 scored 5 conceded (3 due to chips)

Above all we had a fantastic time, the locals could not have been friendlier and seeing the girls line up for the national anthem brought a lump to the throat (even to those Irish amongst us). The girls played brilliantly and the way they embraced the whole experience was exemplary.

Ed and Christelle should be both pleased and congratulated.  Without them none of this would have been possible. Third in the League  this year and Champions of Holland.

The motto of the trip

The only chips in football should be those over the goalkeeper