The Gerbil World Cup at the Bluestocking!

[Magpiecomplex]

New thread.

No pushing at the back, please, we have plenty of scones and kilts for everyone.

The English school I went to made us play lacrosse. The first Irish secondary school I was at encouraged volleyball. Not sure what school 3 pushed. I do know the Irish schools didn't force the issue, and PE only happened once a week.

After I left there was a new, camogie obsessed, headmistress but I'd escaped at that stage.

At my girls’ grammar school, the first day back after Easter, we had swimming ‘lessons’ in an outdoor, unheated pool. Occasionally ice would need to be broken. If we didn’t get in willingly we were pushed in.
Also hockey and lacrosse in the snow.
Apparently it was character forming.

Ah @EdithStourton you and I are clearly twin souls. Actually I avoided almost any activity involving running, though I quite liked throwing things and the long jump. Hurdles was my biggest nightmare.

My final PE report at school ( aged 18) read
"Some of Fuzzy's work lacks enthusiasm".

No shit Sherlock.

Being hypermobile, I was actually quite good at getting over hurdles. I couldn't do the running between them fast enough though.

What sort of character did it form?
One with a lifelong hatred for cold water and group exercise?

Yep. And a profound sense of grievance!

Evening all.👋 A hot chocolate with a Tia Maria chaser please gerbils. It's still warm here, but quite windy this evening and some rain is forecast overnight, so my plants will be pleased.

We played lacrosse at my school, rather than hockey and I was the type who threw myself into games (some would call it recklessness). My abiding memory is of breaking a front tooth and chipping another during a match, so I've had crowns ever since.

I was never any good at running, my preferred sport was tennis and later squash. I played well into my 40s until a rotator-cuff problem made overhead shots difficult. These days walking is my main exercise and I walk most days. There is a park run near me, but I would rather walk the distance instead and take in the scenery and wildlife. I'm lucky to be able to take in coast and countryside in my local walks.

I loved sport. Not convinced about Netball being 5'0" tall. It did seem to be designed for tall, slim girls who look good in a sports skirt. Against that, it did encourage tall, slim girls who look good in a sports skirt to actually play sports.

I loved hockey. I had no natural ability but I found my inner savage. I could spend 90 minutes every week running at the opposition screaming "do you really want me to break your kneecap?".

Dauntless, it seemed a bit weird to me that in England lacrosse was regarded as a posh girls' game. In Ontario is was ferocious and mostly played by boys. It's a ferocious game linked to honour.

It was definitely ferocious, at least the way we played it!

been lying around fanning myself as my prickles make me feel hot.

anyway my rather small ears pricked up about lacrosse.

it is an ancient indigenous Canadian game that the french Canadians adopted in the 16 hundreds and gave it its name.

Huh.

There’s a Cambridge University Lacrosse Club and a Cambridge University Women’s Lacrosse Club.

However, in 2026:
In the women’s team’s link it says that they’ve just had their 110th Varsity match against Oxford.
In the men’s team’s link it also says that they have just had their 110th Varsity match against Oxford.

So they started at the same time.

I am surprised, but pleased.

At least the BBC has mentioned that it’s England Men they’re reporting on.

Screenshot taken a couple of minutes ago.
Click on the photo to see the relevant bit.

The gerbils are delighted. Enthusiasm abounds.

More will be reported in the morning.

I remember hockey involved me being hooked deliberately so I fell. My eyesight was too poor for netball, so despite being 5’7”, I was rubbish at being GK.

I haven’t really exercised in anger since I was 18.

I swam for my school team - honestly swimming was the only sport I actively enjoyed. However I didn’t take it any further because I balked at getting up early to practise. I’m still a late starter in the morning, now I don’t have children or work to get up for.

I quite enjoyed swimming, but I had a complete inability to jump into the pool let alone dive. I simply couldn’t make my legs move if I was stood on the side.
Swam in the sea a lot as we lived on the coast, and as an adult did some sailing - I’ve really missed messing about in and on the water of late especially this week.

been out to a party tonight, a friend’s 60th. I didn’t know very many of the people but it was great - nice food made by some of her friends, the most amazing cake (with 60 candles!), a good singer and then a silent disco which was hilariously good fun. I’m not a dancer, the last time I did was at her 50th. Stone cold sober as I was driving but on a sugar high.😂

The weather has finally broken! I slept!

Me too! Just been for an early morning walk in the park with my friend & her dog & it was lovely, so fresh.

Me, too! It's borderline chilly this morning, and cloudy. Looks like it rained overnight as well Good Morning everyone! Are the bar gerbils awake or still sleeping it off?

Nevermind, I'll make some coffee and I think there are leftover doughnuts in the kitchen. I'm celebrating sleeping in my own bed for the first time in a week! Anyone want the last jammy one?

Too early for a jam doughnut for me, help yourself.

We had two camogie-obsessed PE teachers at the last school I went to [no sports at all in the lower schools I attended up to A-level level] and although I wasn't very good at it - I started playing late, and I'm not very sporty in general - I loved it.
Some of my family were involved in the establishment of camogie as a sport in the early 1900s, so it felt like being part of a long tradition - and of course the sport itself has an even longer tradition, it goes back to Celtic mythology. As the camogie-mad PE teachers were keen to remind us from the sidelines...

I'm not entirely sure all that pre-history was uppermost in my mind on muddy, icy cold, wet days in November😬but I'm glad I have played the game.

Good to hear that the merciless sun is no longer beating down on[most of?] us

It's cooler outside than in today, so I've got windows and doors open to try cool the stuffy house.

Last 150 pag s of my novel, so that's my morning planned!

I even turned the fan off!