Cuba (Part 3)

2 July:

After court (if you've been on a rugby tour, you'll know what I'm talking about), where our particular "badge of ignominy", which is a "yellow jersey" entitled "poof de tour" is awarded. This morning, quite unusually it was jointly "won" by two of the younger lads. The jersey, which is only laundered BETWEEN tours, has to be worn at all times by the recipient (except in bed, on the rugby pitch, or swimming). It was therefore not a surprise to see both lads in the one jersey. (The temperature was 30 C)

Later that day, we all went to Havana for a game of pub golf (don't ask!). Everybody took it very seriously, but it had the inevitable conclusion, everybody got very, very drunk. (It transpired later that there wasn't even anyone sober enough to collect the scorecards).

3 July:

There's a game scheduled today against an Havana select, KO 5.30. All the "players" are having the day off drink in preparation (the over-indulgence of the day before is really of no consequence they say .. yeah). We older guys are quietly pleased to get a chance to re-charge the not so sprightly batteries. (although you'd never get any of us to admit this).

The very high temperature (and very high humidity) and the 4 day bash the lads have been on takes it toll on the pitch and the surprisingly well organised, and fit and strong locals hold us incredibly to a 0 - 0 draw.

You don't get many of them! I'm trying to explain the game to some locals and without a score to show them, it was pretty difficult to demonstrate the point of the game, although they really appreciated the athleticism and physicality.

A full set of my pics of the tour can be found at Flikr