By Evan Hitchman
Over 15 hardy souls trekked out early in the morning for our Tokyo Cup ground duty. The best of the best would be meeting to decide the best amateur rugby teams in Tokyo. So of course, the games were played on a muddy field, in the middle of nowhere in Saitama, almost closer to Chiba and Ibaraki than central Tokyo!
The lads did the hard work of setting up the ground, doing the line markings, putting up tents, even filling in holes in the pitch that hadn’t been looked after by the local homeless ground steward living next to the pitch! All the important prep work was done in time for the first game and the Tokyo Cup organisers were pleasantly surprised with the dilligence and capability of the Crusaders players working under the amazing supervision of on-site foremen, Messrs Kerr and Payne whose horizontal, stationary and silent (apart from a few snores) management skills stunned the locals!
After a long day we travelled back to the Akihabara Hub to celebrate Ralphy’s birthday and discovered a new favourite round of drinks, Hub Milkshake and shots of vodka! (although Ev got a tad upset when refused to have them served in pint glasses!)
Our one ground duty out of the way, its back to the real action soon and the important business of securing promotion to the 1st Division for next year’s Tokyo Cup.
A big thanks to all who made the trip out, especially to Gen, who was Tooley for the day and did a sterling job marshalling the troops.
The lads did the hard work of setting up the ground, doing the line markings, putting up tents, even filling in holes in the pitch that hadn’t been looked after by the local homeless ground steward living next to the pitch! All the important prep work was done in time for the first game and the Tokyo Cup organisers were pleasantly surprised with the dilligence and capability of the Crusaders players working under the amazing supervision of on-site foremen, Messrs Kerr and Payne whose horizontal, stationary and silent (apart from a few snores) management skills stunned the locals!
After a long day we travelled back to the Akihabara Hub to celebrate Ralphy’s birthday and discovered a new favourite round of drinks, Hub Milkshake and shots of vodka! (although Ev got a tad upset when refused to have them served in pint glasses!)
Our one ground duty out of the way, its back to the real action soon and the important business of securing promotion to the 1st Division for next year’s Tokyo Cup.
A big thanks to all who made the trip out, especially to Gen, who was Tooley for the day and did a sterling job marshalling the troops.
