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    The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

    Have you hit the heights and lent more glory to the family name with a demonstration of sporting prowess recently, at all? And have you noticed nobody you mention it to really gives a fuck? Well, here's your chance to show off, and here on OTF you're bound to get some appreciative applause.

    I'll modestly start the ball rolling by showing off about doing the Maratón de Asturias (Spain)in 3:12 last week. It was a really up-and-down leg-breaker of a circuit,and the weather was atrocious for the first 25 kms, but I dug in and felt pretty good right to the finish. I had been aiming for a sub-3:15 time, as that would get me a Good-For-Your-Age place for London next year. Hurrah!

    Next objective is the San Sebastian Marathon in November, where hopefully I can go sub-3:05.

    #2
    The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

    I haven't sailed in a few years, but I once did it to semi-pro level. I was visible on Sky Sports once, doing a sail-change at the front of our boat as we rounded the second mark in the final race of the 1720* European Championships ahead of the whole fleet, a serious number of Olympians among them.

    * the class of boat, not the year

    Comment


      #3
      The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

      I have the T-Shirt to prove that my team won the 1995 College of William & Mary Intramural Men's "B" Division Floor Hockey Championship. I was the leading goal-scorer.

      My U-12 basketball team won back-to-back league titles.

      A couple of the summer lacrosse teams I was on finished top of the league (which only had four teams).

      I've made a mockery of this thread, haven't I?

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        #4
        The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

        I came last in the shot putt on sports day in the second year of secondary school. Which might not initially seem like much of an achievement, but anyone who's seen me might wonder what someone with such a slight physique (and I was even scrawnier then than I am now) was doing in the shot putt in the first place.

        Well, I'll tell you. I was only in the shot putt because our house (our school house, that is, not the place I lived) had to enter at least one competitor in every event, or be disqualified from the whole shebang. And since no fucker had the balls to put themselves forward for the shot putt, I gallantly (though a little reluctantly) stepped into the breech. And when I had my three goes, it was as much as i could to to heave that fucking canonball far enough to miss my own foot.

        Three times I had to step into that circle and undergo the humiliation of trying desperately to get the shot to the floor without it crushing my own toes, three times, just so our house didn't get kicked out the fucking competition. And did I get so much as a single thank-you from any of my classmates for helping them out so selflessly and demeaning myself in such an acute manner? Not a fucking bit of it. They just stood at the side of the fucking shot zone or whatever it's called and barely concealed their insolent laughter.

        Well, that was it. That was the last time I did anything out of the goodness of my own heart to help them out of a fucking hole.

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          #5
          The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

          I am a natural at lawn bowls, but am yet to take it up properly.

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            #6
            The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

            Sorry, re-reading my post, the mention of 'houses' makes it sound like I was on the rolling green playing fields of an exclusive public school. I wasn't, it was a fuck-hole of a comprehensive on the outskirts of Norwich.

            Just to clarify, like.

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              #7
              The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

              You're still more of a sports star than I ever was...

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                #8
                The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                I took two wickets in my first ever over of competitive cricket, aged 10.

                It's been fairly consistently downhill ever since.

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                  #9
                  The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                  Had a u14 county trial for Shropshire (where I made the mistake of trying to bowl leg-spin, having never bowled it competitively before).

                  Was u14 South-Shropshire Tennis runner-up (this is much less impressive than it sounds).

                  After 14, I discovered girls and so my sporting career came to an abrupt end, at least until I started plaing korfball (highest honours, representing Glamorgan, being an unused sub for Wales - the closest I'll ever get to international glory, and being part of a team that won the South West and Wales league in successive seasons).

                  Comment


                    #10
                    The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                    Key member of the pack that stormed unbeaten to the championship of a middle level University league when playing or Guildford College of Law.

                    Also hastened the demise of my playing days as my shoulder gave up the ghost shortly thereafter.

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                      #11
                      The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                      Won my school under16 cross country. This was a proper school too, not one where lefty teachers banned sport.

                      Some nice bits of feisty fast bowling too. Statistics are less important than the fact I hit a bloke playing for the old boys on the throat in a Speech Day game. He was batting out of his fucking crease, what was I supposed to do?

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                        #12
                        The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                        You did the only thing a gentleman could do in the circumstances: attempt to maim the cocky fucker.

                        King Mob, you can't fool us. "On the outskirts of Norwich", indeed. You went to Haileybury, and are undeniably, therefore, a posho.

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                          #13
                          The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                          Quite right.

                          I also scared Jack Davenport with my bowling. He didn't look much like the future star of a "Zeitgeisty show about the lives and loves of a group of twenty-something lawyers" when he was backing away to square leg, I can tell you.

                          I'd forgotten I won a junior golf tournament where I had 48 shots. I made a par on the last to win it, which was quite something.

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                            #14
                            The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                            Ah but the character Jack Davenport played, Miles, would have been similarly rubbish against the short-pitched stuff I reckon, so you probably helped prepare him for the role. Egg would have been a better cricketer, though I reckon bamboozled by spin a bit.

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                              #15
                              The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                              Egg was surely too obsessed with football to make a proper cricketer. Frankly I don't think there was anyone in either series of This Life who'd make a decent player.

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                                #16
                                The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                                toro toro wrote:
                                I haven't sailed in a few years, but I once did it to semi-pro level. I was visible on Sky Sports once, doing a sail-change at the front of our boat as we rounded the second mark in the final race of the 1720* European Championships ahead of the whole fleet, a serious number of Olympians among them.
                                Does this story finish "I screwed up the sail change and we finished last"?

                                It seems like very-much a half of a story.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                                  No, we did okay, we just didn't have the boatspeed, tactics, or shift-reading ability of some of the others. We finished in the top ten of about a hundred and twenty boats (I'm guessing there), and were overall in the top thirty or forty.

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                                    #18
                                    The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                                    I also scared Jack Davenport with my bowling. He didn't look much like the future star of a "Zeitgeisty show about the lives and loves of a group of twenty-something lawyers" when he was backing away to square leg, I can tell you.
                                    Fantastic. I shouldn't have been reading that while imbibing a soft drink.

                                    I was unbeaten at tennis at my secondary school, though games were only sporadic. I represented my county at chess at junior school level (if chess counts). Football wise, I once played in the semi-final of a Cambridge Uni cup tournament of some kind, but we were beaten away to a college whose tiny pitch actually detoured round a large tree in one corner. It took us too long to realise that shooting was realistic once the ball was out of your own penalty area. I once scored from inside my own half on a proper size pitch at Bisham Abbey when the showoff opposing goalie felt he'd demonstrate how little he had to do by standing in the centre circle. I'll never forget the look on his face as he turned to chase my lob forlornly.

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                                      #19
                                      The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                                      Scored a twenty-five yard screamer at a match against some school in Wertheim on German exchange.

                                      Current score of 2200 odd in Wii Sports Tennis. I'm a golf pro too on it.

                                      That's about it.

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                                        #20
                                        The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                                        This seems the ideal place to announce my first ever wicket 10 days ago, the batsman was out hit wicket and I got 1/10 in two overs, without conceding a boundary, bowling 2 of the last 3 overs of a 20 over match, they got 120 in total.

                                        I was very pleased, it would have been even better had I not bowled 3 wides! Still, the hit wicket thing... history will suggest an evil bouncer that felled the batsman and sent the wood flying. Truth be told, it was a super pie that he flung himself so hard at he fell over onto the stumps.

                                        With slightly more skill (I really am an awful bowler) I came in last man (controversially due to a new captain who hadn't seen me play!) and guided us to victory when we had needed 30 off 4 overs. I did only get 7n.o. of those though, so again I might be over egging things a little

                                        My average from 3 innings is 16 at the moment.

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                                          #21
                                          The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                                          Ooh, and I've scored two goals from in goal. One wind assisted in an 11 aside match, and one when as a frustrated goalie in a 5 a side match, I got annoyed with my team and had a shot from in goal (unusual to be allowed to kick the ball from in goal, but we were in this tournament) and the ball flew like a bullett into the bottom corner.

                                          I was allowed onto pitch for the final and in the last seconds, got the ball in defence, rounded 3 of the players and flicked the ball off the outside of my foot into the bottom corner. This might not seem all that remarkable, but anyone who'd seen me play football would find it amazing, as I am much more in the Carlton Palmer level of skill than Ronaldinho.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                                            I smashed 50 minutes off last year's time in the Northern Rock Cyclone challenge last weekend. I may upload the official photo for the delectation of the otf peloton. Once I've paid for it.

                                            I got in under 5 hours this year. It's a 64 mile hilly ride around Northumberland.

                                            And I've mentioned this often, but our staff team, inc a 54 year old and a late 40-something won the student 5-a-side league in 1999.

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                                              #23
                                              The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                                              Late one evening - aged about 14 - I finished a round of pitch and putt and, as no-one was around, I had a go at a proper par four hole on the adjoining golf course with my eight iron and putter. Got a par four after hitting my third shot to six inches.

                                              Also have hit two (proper) birdies in a row and I play off 25.

                                              Now the bad stuff. School cricket match against local rivals - they need a single off the last ball and, being a rubbish fielder, I fumble at the crucial moment. Thirty years on I can still hear them celebrating and see the looks on the faces of my team.

                                              Character building stuff.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                                                I reached the final of a Cambs U-16 squash competition. Got tonked in it, but seeing as I could never quite break into the top ten of the junior county rankings, making the final was a decent achievement.

                                                I played and won a rally against the then world no.2 squash player. There are some major qualifiers regarding this, but I will magnanimously overlook them.

                                                I like King Mob's comprehensive school sports day story. I have a similar one.
                                                My year had somehow missed every being taught how to throw a Javelin. As anyone who has tried will know, getting the thing to land point down (i.e. legally) requires a certain amount of technique.
                                                Sports day one year, I had agreed to give it a go, as the field events took place during the day so taking part got you out of a lesson. It turned out that one guy in the year was a member of a local athletics club and was district champion. He won the event with a 40+ metre thrown. However the rest of us weren't members of athletics clubs...
                                                I had been drawn to throw last in each round. Come the/my final throw of the competition, the standings were, erm, interesting. 1st ~ 40m, 2nd ~ 15m (plus two fouls), 3rd - no mark, as the other five had recorded three fouls! I, of course, had two fouls. So I did the obvious thing. Walked carefully up to the line, held the Javelin out in front of me, vertically, point down, avoiding my toes, and dropped it. ~0.30m, third place, six points for the house.
                                                For some mad reason the teacher wasn't happy with me (see the '~' in the distance, he refused to measure my mark, growling "we will call it 30cm"). Something about "not in the spirit of the competition". When the school published the results for the parents, I was listed as third in the Javelin but they had 'accidentally forgotten' to print the distance!

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                                                  #25
                                                  The OTF High Achievers (Sports) Thread

                                                  That's a great story, Janik.

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