Shambles Football Team

"Form is temporary. Class is permanent. The Shambles just is (are?)."

Chengdu, Sichuan, China. A club with expats and Chinese players with a variety of levels of skill and athleticism. One or Two 90-minute games every weekend on full size astro-turf or grass pitches, nearly always against local teams. Reasonable standard, with some excellent players, some less excellent.
We welcome new members - no need for a try-out to join us and play football every week! FREE FOOTY at Sichuan Uni: Wednesday 6 to 7:45 pm. Call Joel on 13547914427, or just turn up - on East pitch.

Google Earth locations of pitches: www.randomstuff.biz, and click on Chengdu info, Stuff to do in Chengdu and choose Sporty, Active stuff.

JOIN US - WHY?
The main advantage of membership is having footy games organised for you - you just sign up via email and then turn up to play, and pay 20 Rmb per game to cover the pitch fee. For that lack of hassle, you pay an annual membership fee of just 200 Rmb (discounts for under-18s). Any extra money is saved up to pay for tournaments and tour games.

CONTACT US
If you are in the area and like to play football (soccer), then please drop us a line (peter@bikechina.com or editor@randomstuff.biz), or pop into the Shamrock in Chengdu (www.shamrockinchengdu.com - directions are there)

DEFEAT US, HUMILIATE US
If your team wants a game or to take part in tournaments we organise, please get in touch. We also play the occasional game of rugby, cricket and American football. There's an annual golf tournament around Christmas.

CRICKET
If you want to play cricket, the Chengdu Cricket Club plays once in a while.   Call Des on 13981960796 or Mark on 13689009441 for more details.

RUGBY
The Chengdu Rugby Football Club is an active sporting and social club, and will be challenging for the 2010 China Cup.
Get in touch with us, or check out their website on www.chengdurugby.com for details.

There's physical activity all over the place nowadays.

Here's another reminder that you can do American footy and touch rugby if
you like - all levels of (in)ability welcome.
It's good fun, so give it a go.

If you're interested, contact Simon at simond@ace-edu.com

His message was as follows:

We're running midweek non-contact American footie and rugby sessions
regularly now in Sichuan Uni. We've been getting a small but consistent
group of experienced and non-experienced players along... but it'd be better
if we had more.

We play at the single pitch (with the running track) near the lake and in
front of the foreign languages building.

Mondays 5:30 - 6:30 pm - Sprint and Fitness Train

Tuesdays: 6.15-7.30pm - Rugby Skills Training
Thursdays: 6.15-7.30pm - Touch Rugby

Saturdays: Noon - 2pm, Touch and Contact Practice and games

 Call Emily (152 2828 2047) or Peter (1388 2266 575) for more info

Hope to see some more people there (oh, by the way, it's free to play, except Sat!)

Hi there, so far the players who have signed up to play in the Shambles team for the tournament/Festival of Football, are... Jackie Jason Jim A. Joel John M. Luis Mark A. Mark W. Peter Please let me know if I've forgotten you. Mark http://www.randomstuff.biz/shambles

Hello all and everyone, Fernando, staunch midfielder and party man, is coming to Chengdu from August 10th to August 24th '06 and should be turning up to play for the Shambles again. Big shame Big Norm is leaving - it is not half as much fun scoring own goals against other goalkeepers. Let's hope a lot of us make it to the pub on Sunday, just to make sure he is actually leaving, ha ha! Jon Newsham was back recently, and it was great to see him giving some no-nonsense treatment to the opposition, and Franz has returned, nauseatingly tanned and chilled, too. OK, it's good to see him, too. It's nice that people come back to the warm and welcoming bosom of the Shambles when they are back in town. As long as they don't drink much of the free beer, we don't mind too much. Also substantial thanks to Mr Wheeler for getting people to go along to the Chengdu Blades. I thought we were sending a technical coaching team, but it seems our guys are just on a scouting mission. We're lucky to have a guy in the club who (a) has a van (b) can drive without killing the passengers, bystanders, or road transport officials (c) is willing to ferry us ungrateful louts around (d) has a calm and relaxed on-field temperament [***delete as appropriate***]. Oh, and thanks to my landlady - she treats our cats nicely.

The team at 2pm was Norm Fox Jim Jon Mark A Joel Mark G Arnaud Rob Kevin Giggs Francois SH Mike Sadly Mike injured his left wrist again. Many temporary Shambles goalkeepers have not bothered using their hands, so it's obvious Mike is a bit classy. Norman, having slammed one emphatic goal in in the first half, then took over the heavy burden of goalkeeping in the 2nd half, when we ended up losing 6-5. We would normally be happy to blame Norman, but since he scored in the first half, and quite a few people could not be bothered to run (something to do with 35 deg C temp and 897% humidity, and 956% unfitness) we can't do it this time. The good-natured 11-goal thriller came to a close and most of the team stayed on for the second game at 4pm. Yours truly was going to stay, but the wife called and so I strolled off to the swimming pool, much to the disgust of the swimmers. Joel's last game for a month and he celebrated by (a) playing left back, and (b) losing. The 8-a-side tournament was pretty successful, given that it was put together in 6 days. The team known as The Kalebs was easily the best for elan, team spirit, that sort of thing, and they had the best support. Needless to say, the Shambles did not win, but we came 3rd, quite astonishing for the ragtag crew that came along (no offence, lads?). The sports students pipped the Nepalese Doctors at the post, winning 2-1, I think. A tiring day for all, but lots of footy played and a good atmosphere. Next one in September, when we hope all teams will remember to bring money with them. Oh, and I might remember to buy trophies next time, too...