soccer teams

[Colin Wood]

Only played soccer a couple of times, the first in Cristobal Panama, against a local team. Turns out we are only the second white team to play there. The first was HMS Sheffield escorting the Queens royal tour. The game started badly when we found our captain and centre half legless. As we were 2 short we put him in goal where he had a post to hold him up. We recruited 1 local to make up the team. The crowd were very noisy and when we scored first we were looking for the nearest exit. Then we found out the crowd was on our side and relaxed. It ended up a draw but for the next week whenever any of the team was in town they were given a free beer.
The other when we spent 3 months in Bigi Creek in Malta when on the Heathmore. Wednesday was sports day and we played a few matches at Navy sports fields. Great as the bar was opened on the final whistle. Great time.

[Captain Kong]

Sometimes we played football in some strange and possinbly dangerous places,...................
.from my story of the Spice Islands voyage...................
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BORNEO..............
There was a grass clearing with a few small bamboo huts and a small bar run by the English expatriates. They were as usual, in those far flung outposts of Empire always drunk on the gin. We had a good drink with them and during the conversation one of them suggested that we could play football against the local Dayak tribe. He knew them when he went into the forests to search for suitable trees for logging. A match was arranged for Saturday morning and it was to be played on the grass clearing outside the bar. An old pickup truck falling to pieces amid a huge cloud of smoke appeared out of the forest and about twenty of these Dayaks climbed off, A fearsome looking bunch, wearing just a loin cloth and a bone necklace round their necks, and hair standing up, they play football in their bare feet and play their own rules. With the British Consul looking on, it was a real primitive outpost for him, we were told not to score any goals or we would be speared to death, we lost 16 goals to nil.
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TIKO on the Corrales...................
In Tiko in the Cameroons, we played football against a local tem of tribesmen.
Again the Consul told us Not to score any goals as on the last game a ship played, spears and rocks were thrown and he had to drive in his Land Rover onto the pitch and rescue the ship`s team,
We lost 15 to nil.
Cheers
Brian