Thrills of The Sporting Life

In an era fraught with anxiety about climate disaster, when the White House, No. 10 Downing and other capitals are occupied by ultranationalists and extreme right-wingers, is it any wonder that a fella is sometimes inclined to go in search of the lighthearted and the uplifting?

We traveled to New Brunswick not just to give a talk about hockey-playing soldiers of the Great War, not just to travel to long-gone ghost towns obliterated to make way for CFB Gagetown but also—perhaps primarily—to watch teenagers play basketball.

Good friends Garth and Carole are the proud grandparents of Malcolm, a star player with the New Brunswick team that competed last week in the 17-and-under national championships in Fredericton.

The most exciting sporting events I ever witnessed ‘in the flesh’ were basketball games back in the mid-late 1960s, when I attended Dalhousie University. A loyal Dalhousian, I watched many a game at the old war memorial gym. Much as I hated the Saint Mary’s Huskies and Saint Francis Xavier X-Men, I reserved my greatest detestation for the Acadia Axemen—because they were the most dangerous, most feared of the Tigers' opponents. The action in the old gymnasium was electrifying, unforgettable.

The teenagers gathered in Fredericton to compete in UNB’s fine Currie sports facility revived memories of those long-gone Dalhousie days. A tournament now, aptly, 17 years old, the 17U event had never delivered a medal for New Brunswick. On August 8 NB took on British Columbia on Currie Court 2. A victory would get Malcolm and mates into the medal round, the Final-Four grouping. BC took an early lead, its fans confident that their boys were a lock for a playoff berth. Among those rallying the NB troops was Malcolm’s granddad. During a stoppage in play he was dared to run up and down the sidelines waving a New Brunswick flag. Garth took the dare. Perhaps it made the difference: New Brunswick roared back in the second half and won 67-61. The medal round was theirs.

A night later NB tipped off against Ontario. The Ontario 17-year-olds looked formidable: big, athletic, fast—and almost entirely black. They dominated the NB lads from start to finish, leading by 11 at the half and winning by 18. Watching the Ontarians outleap, outrun, outthink and outscore the NB boys I thought, wow, how can there be such a thing as a white supremacist. NB backers took consolation: there was still a bronze medal game to anticipate.

In that match, Saturday afternoon, New Brunswick, again the underdog, faced Saskatchewan. The start looked a lot like the BC game, only worse. The New Brunswick shooting was cold; by and by the lads were down by 16 points. Sixteen points is a huge deficit to overcome but in the second half the Maritimers did as they had done against BC: they stormed back. Malcolm and mates shot brilliantly defended fiercely and won going away. Bronze medal to NB. Hallelujah!

Quebec defeated Ontario for the gold medal but that didn’t count for much in the NB contingent: nothing could diminish the glow of the New Brunswick bronze. To ice the cake, Malcolm was named to the tournament all-star team.

The basketball tournament is not the only sporting event worthy of mention. Monday night saw the first annual Bigadore Invitational Table Hockey Showdown (BITHS for short). As in the good old days of the NHL this highly anticipated event featured six participants. Loyal readers of Peregrinations will be aware that identical-twin cousins Lynn and Louise are formidable players. Jan’s game has grown by proverbial leaps and bounds. Peter Goodale and Brian Wilson (no, not the Brian Wilson of Beach Boy fame) are long-time friends who spent countless hours playing table hockey way back when. They were dead keen to knock off the rust and show my hundred-pound cousins a thing or two.

In the round-robin part of the Invitational, four players wound up with identical 3-2 records. These four—Louise, Peter, myself, Lynn—would compete for the gold medal. In the result, Lynn imposed her will on Peter to take bronze. The gold medal game—Louise vs. yours-truly—went on and on. And on. Tied 1-1, then 2-2, the game seemed endless. Then Louise netted a shot from the left wing. Game over. Gold medal to Louise. The joy was universal: everyone happy to see Louise win, just as happy to see me lose.

Granted, the Bigadore table-hockey invitational is not of the same order as the 17U basketball nationals but Peter spoke for all when he observed, in the thick of the action, Nothing else matters. Nothing at all.