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An excerpt from the RTE News on Irish Television, 9th June 2008, enjoy!

On Saturday June 7th the Dalian Wolfhounds contested their third ever major tournament as they entered the All China Games in Beijing. It was an absolutely memorable weekend for all of our traveling party and we flew the Wolfhound flag proudly for Dongbei with both the guys and the girls teams bringing home silverware.

The girls, along with our friends from Shenzhen and Shanghai, played brilliantly, winning 4 games and losing just 2 on the way to winning the Bowl. The guys, despite being placed in the tougher of the two groups, also performed creditably to win three games and lose 2. They eventually triumphed in the Plate Competition.

The Mens Cup was won by a strong outfit from Shanghai with Davy Hayes winning Player of the Tournament for the second year running. They defeated Beijing A in a tight final. The Ladies Cup was won by Beijing A who saw off Shanghai in a high class final.

For all 20 Wolfhounds who wandered south to Beijing for this competition, it was a magical weekend of fun and games which will never be forgotten. Beijing put on a wonderful tournament and everyone in Dalian would like to congratulate them on the success of the whole weekend. In particular we would like to express our appreciation to Aoife and Eve for all the hard work they put into making this tournament the huge success it was. We were treated with wonderful hospitality throughout and many of our players, new to this game, are now absolutely hooked. For this we want to say THANKS BEIJING! You will never know how much your efforts are appreciated up here in Dalian..

The Dalian Wolfhounds once again joined up with our old friends Shenzhen and a couple of lassies from Shanghai to form a very successful Cobra force at the All China Games in Beijing. Whereas last year Shenzhen supplied most of the troops, this year Dalian upped its contingent to six and powered the team to glory.

The team played absolutely magnificent football all day Saturday. Edna was unanimously considered by all present to be the outstanding Goalkeeper of the Tournament (with apologies to baldy Brummies). She caught endless balls and cleared her lines brilliantly. Some of her saves were spectacular both in terms of athleticism and bravery. At midfield Laura yet again turned heads with her brilliant play – powering through for endless scores kicked off both feet. In the forwards the KK American force of Katie and Kathleen alternated all day and won lots of ball and competed tigerishly in the tackle. Portia made her bow at the great catch and kick game too and did very well. Rosie was also absolutely brilliant and was considered by many (non-Dalian) observers to be the player of the tournament. She kicked an amazing array of points from all angles in between breaks for exhaustion to keep the scoreboard ticking over at all stages.

It was by no means an all-Dalian effort though. Captain Fantastic Louise from Shenzhen was great in defence all day and Niamh at midfield was an absolute tower of strength. Throw into the mix Eimear, Prab, Vito and Maria from Shanghai and a powerful ostrigen cocktail of football beauty was concocted.

The ladies started off with a game against the strongest team in the competition, Beijing A and rattled them with some strong early attacks. Eventually however the Beijing girls’ overall power proved too much and they won well in the end. Next up was the Beijing B team and in this game the girls really started to flow. A flurry of brilliant points and goals gave us our first win of the day. Then came a titanic struggle with Hong Kong who would never have expected such a stern challenge from these unknowns from the wild north. They were stunned and despite a late comeback Dalian held on to score a memorable victory. That meant a final group game against Shanghai with the tantalizing prospect of a place in the final could Dalian / Shenzhen pull off a famous win. Alas it was not to be but the experienced team from Shanghai were given a big fright before eventually winning narrowly.

Undeterred our ladies marched on to the Bowl final where Hong Kong would be seeking revenge for their earlier defeat. There was never the slightest chance though as the Cobras were totally tuned in and scored a great 2 goals and 6 points. Amazingly Hong Kong were held scoreless – a stunning achievement for our team.

What a wonderful weekend for the girls team. Dalian has been put firmly on the map in Chinese ladies football and more importantly friendships have been created with girls from other cities that hopefully will be renewed the next time we enter battle. 1..2..3.. Cobras!!!

The All China Games Beijing 2008 have come and gone and the Dalian Wolfhounds have enjoyed their most successful and enjoyable tournament so far in their brief history. Both our mens and ladies teams – the ladies in collaboration with Shenzhen and a couple of Shanghai renegades – brought home silverware to northeast China. The men won the Plate while the Ladies won the Bowl (and the dish ran away with the spoon).

The lads kicked off the tournament against a strong Beijing A outfit in the early morning drizzle and it was definitely our worst performance of the day. We froze and never really got going but despite that were only a couple of scores behind a Beijing team that would ultimately go all the way to the Cup Final.

In the second game the Wolfhounds finally showed their teeth as they comprehensively outplayed Shanghai’s B team. That left us faced with a crunch match against Hong Kong in what was undoubtedly by far the tougher of the two groups. The Wolfhounds fought hard against Hong Kong and missed a number of glorious goal opportunities before finally going under by a score of 1-7 to 1-5.

Into the plate semi-final we went where Beijing B were well beaten by a team featuring our three Chinese heroes – Song, Stone and Aaron - all playing starring roles. In the plate final Dalian comfortably defeated the Beijing Legends team with goals from Steve Hashim, Steve Rowland and two from Duane Bhasin.

All 13 members of the squad played brilliantly and everyone saw loads of game time. Andy played amazingly well in goals all day with some stunning saves allied to flawless distribution to say nothing of his graceful charge forward in the final. Over the course of the day James, Song, Mikey, Aaron and Bob all defended well and ensured that anyone who scored against us would earn the honour and get some bruises in return. Indeed Song might have revolutionized throw in tactics with his now legendary Blind Mans Buff move!

Midfield was where lots of running was done and most of it was done by Steve Hashim, Levi and Mikey. All three covered enormous amounts of ground both in attack and defence.

Our forwards performed brilliantly. Jake was always a threat. Duane bagged a whopping seven goals. Stone weaved his magic and scored a fantastic chipped goal in the semi-final. Steve Rowland grew into the game as the day progressed and by the end was making runs and kicking points like a complete natural. Emiliano returned from injury to play his part and would have scored a wonder goal if he could have figured out with which limb of his body to hit the ball.

And then there was beer….

So all round an amazing weekend for the Wolfhounds mens team. It’s fair to say we have established ourselves as a force in Chinese GAA and the hope is now that we can kick on from here and grow stronger and stronger.

11 brave souls thought nothing of the driving rain (light drizzle) at 10 a.m. Sunday morning: Mikey, James, Levi, Steve R, Steve H, Andy, Duane, Jake, Bob, Laura and Edna.

We started off with a light jog on our heavy legs around the lower section of the park, then after a quick stretch during which Duane imparted the ancient delights of the ‘Asian Golden Circle’, we were off up the steps to the Great Red Metal Snowflake in the Sky, otherwise known as the top of the steps.

Then our training session began in earnest with the Step Sprint Shuttle Session: racing up 5 flights of steps (one at a time Duane!), shouting ‘Eireann go Brea’ and ‘For the love of Gaelic’ all the while… stirring stuff indeed. We then went all the way back down again and under clear instructions from Mickey (Keep going till you’re fucked), we completed 5 runs up the whole lot, knackering all and sundry.

For a ‘warm-down’, we went for a ‘mild’ 2 km jog around the surrounding hills. If only we had known what was in store, we may well have refused on the grounds that we were planning to use our legs as a means of support and transportation for the following week. Blissful in our ignorance, we set off up the hills, which just kept on getting steeper and steeper like a broken treadmill, and just never seemed to stop. A hapless passer-by would have been forgiven for presuming he had happened upon a bizzare Turrets sufferers’ Sunday run.

Special praise goes to Steve Hashim , who never stopped running up that bastard hill and claims the coveted King of the Mountain jersey. He was closely followed by Levi ‘No more Sake’ Meadows and Steve ‘Weev’ Rowland.

After a proper stretch (including Mikey’s patented and now surely world famous ‘Star gazing trigonometry side stretch”), we called it a day, retiring to our homes to ache in the knowledge that we must surely be the fittest Gaelic team in all Manchuria!

April Fool’s day but no fools on view at another good Wolfhounds training session. 15 people were in attendance including newcomers Terry and Jack from Dalian - no relation to last week’s goalie Jack who didn’t reappear. There was a good bit of sprinting and then a very comepetitive match in which Duane put in a starring performance which earns him the coveted crown of Wolfhound of the Week! It is full steam ahead now as we prepare for the All China Games in Beijing on June 7th. It’s time to get serious!

Another excellent training session for the Wolfhounds. We had a very competitive game at the end with two full sides including goalkeepers. Notable performances came from the deadly English duo upfront - Bob and Steve - who combined very well and from the two goalkeepers - Jack (new recruit) and Andy who both performed brilliantly. 18 brave patriots in total were in attendance including after an extended hiatus Katie!! Her return to the bosom of Gaelic football, her skills undimmed, is enough to earn the fair Katie our Wolfhound of the Week award. Hope to see everyone again next Tuesday!