A cup is a tournament, Aalborg is a town in Northern Jutland and RIK is a group of feisty young pups from Rungsted Ishockey Klubben. All the great hockey nations gathered for an international tournament to take home the Aalborg cup. France, Norway and of course a number of teams from Denmark drove, ferried and cross-country skied to the town of Aalborg for one monumental weekend. The French team (Le Gothique - cool name & logo) from Amiens drove over 12 hours to have their hearts broken. The Norwegian teams from Stavanger ferried across the dangerous North Sea to risk their lives and return with only a couple of victories. But the kids didn't travel this far to win a tournament - they came for the pure fun and enjoyment of hockey. The parents came to win.
International tournament featuring the "Big Three" hockey nations.
Games were played at the GIGANTIUM! Always pronounce this with a Monster Truck voice.
When you go to a tournament here, everything is provided at the rink except the "hotel" which is a classroom in a local school. Yes, I slept on a skinny mattress on the hard concrete floor at my advanced age - no problem. It's just like camping except instead of worrying about bears, I have to worry if one of the kids drew a picture of the Prophet for a school project.
Tom's coach, Alexander, gets everyone to bed, makes sure they brush their teeth and get to sleep and he even serves up the food. He's a young University student who volunteers at the club and has no kids of his own - great guy and the young players really relate to someone who knows as much about internet games as they do.
All meals for all the kids are prepared by tournament volunteers. You can go the whole weekend without spending any more money than entrance fee and overnight stay.
The Rungsted Ishockey Klub. Tom is wearing the toque on the right side of the photo.
I was cursing myself for my bad name memory and confusion until I found out that between parents and kids we had 3 Alexanders, 2 Jans, 2 Jakobs, 2 Sebastions, 2 Oscars, 2 Andreas and a Tom. The Danish book of baby names is 4 pages long.
There is no tiering system in DK, so when you enter a tournament, you can expect to get beaten by the same team that whupped you a month ago in the last tournament. RIK pulled off an unexpected tie against Hvidøvre but ended up with 2 wins, a tie, 3 losses and 2 whupp'ns. The kids had fun, blah blah blah, parents all agreed that our own kid played like an NHL prospect and the rest of the team didn't pass enough.
L'Amiens cool and funky team logo. Puissance, Emotion and Adrenaline. (Puissance? sounds like they need a doctor for that)
Did you manage not to wake the kids with your bright flashlight each time you had to get up in the middle of the night to take a pee (assuming so, given your advanced age and likely participation in a few cold ones at the end of the day)?
ReplyDeleteI wore an adult diaper. Oh sure, the kids laughed and teased, but I think it was important that they got their sleep for the morning game. Sometimes you take one for the team.
DeleteGood to hear from you Tony.