Bravery and Bravado in a Bye-Curious Belting*

They say you can’t get too much of a good thing but Thursday night newcomers Bye-Curious FC nearly let their great communicating get the better of them in their impressive 8-6 victory over Men Without Hats.

Coming off a dubious record of 2 wins (by forfeit), 2 draws and 2 losses, their strong line up promised an interesting encounter and the talk early from the boys in white was encouraging. A solo effort on the right wing from Simon Ley ended in an early goal for Bye-Curious, almost to the surprise of his ecstatic teammates. The strong start only got stronger with Bye-Curious attacking hard and dominating possession. An unlucky miss from Jack Quirk in the 3^rd minute was the first obvious blunder from Bye-Curious but the all-rounder backed his mistake with stoic defending and an excellent pass from the wing that lead to another shot on goal, this time by forward Nick White. Quirk redeemed himself further with a scrambling save as goalkeeper at the 4 minute mark and White’s strength up-forward was impressive. Similarly impressive was the second goal which came at 5 minutes from Matt Carmody who backed up his efforts with some strong defending in the wing.

Unfortunately the strong start had faltered by the mid-way point of the first half. While Bye-Curious’ attacking up forward was impressive, they lacked speed in their defence when possession was turned over. Men Without Hats always had at least one player, if not two, depending who was on court, dedicated specifically to defending, while Bye-Curious stuck to the rotating system which in some ways worked, but often left gaping holes in their defence. This led to a Men Without Hats goal at 7 minutes but the ever-enthusiastic Bye-Curious did not let it overwhelm them and some excellent defending from James Bowman followed by a clever pass set up another Carmody goal in the 9^th minute.

The dominating display of possession dipped slightly at this point and so began an onslaught from Men Without Hats but it was matched with strength from the current goal keeper Magnus Newman who defended the shots on target with style. The 10 minute mark however saw another questionable phase in Bye-Curious’ play with the talk on court from the players, and indeed the sidelines, getting out of hand. They were penalised with another goal from Men Without Hats after a series of misreads but again, their mistakes were quickly mopped up and some good court positioning from Quirk allowed him to net another goal. An unlucky fumble by Ley in the goals allowed a final goal for Men Without Hats in the 1^st half but overall the display from the Bye-Curious boys was strong up-forward and they were looking good to dominate the second half.

Loud direction from his team mates led to a clever pass from Ley which set up a strong goal at the feet of White at the 30 second mark of the second half. Men Without Hats stepped up a notch at this point and outclassed Bye-Curious with their control in defence. Even though they too had a rotating structure with their players, their discipline with 2 dedicated players who hung back served them well and meant the forward presses, specifically from White and Ley, were not able to be capitalised upon. An unfortunate fumble in goal allowed Men Without Hats another score which ended up being the sign that Bye-Curious needed with their defensive pressure getting much stronger after the goal. A clever call from Quirk on the sideline, pleading with his players to man-up on the defence was enough for the Bye-Curious boys to take note and a more dedicated effort was made to guard the forward press. A strong pass from left wing by Newman set up a particularly tasty White goal which breathed life back into the Bye-Curious side.

Indoor soccer is a particularly fast game and control of the ball is difficult to manage, however at the halfway mark of the 2^nd term wayward passing was still leaving something to be desired from both teams. Tom White was unlucky to have a particularly nasty goal slip by him but his efforts in the backline were enough for redemption. A solid goal from White (Nick) at the 10 minute mark helped Bye-Curious regain control of the match and a minute later Quirk was unlucky not to net another one after a courageous effort in intercepting the ball on the right wing.

Buoyed by their lead and impressive displays in defence from Bowman and Newman, Bye-Curious almost let their confidence run away with them and some sloppy errors allowed for Men Without Hats to dominate possession for the final few minutes but the backline did their job well. A final Bye-Curious goal from Newman after a strong tackle cemented the deserved win. Bye-Curious’ cohesion when they man-up in defence makes for exciting football and if not for a slight drop in concentration , the last Men Without Hats goal wouldn’t have happened. Overall it was a strong performance from all the Bye-Curious Thursday boys and the convincing win sets them up nicely for the rest of the season.

*Disclaimer:

Apologies to Men Without Hats for the unbelievable amount of bias in this match review.

Bye-Curious for the flag!

For Mr Diamond

“I live on the other side of the cemetery” she said to her new friend in the cafe. He’d just asked her if she lived around the area and that was the best way she could describe it to him. He was intrigued.

“You live on the other side of the cemetery? That’s beautiful” he said, taking off his glasses so he could look in her eyes properly. She set down her coffee and smiled at him. She hadn’t really meant anything by it but there was something quite interesting about her sentence. When she considered it again she thought it sounded like the name of a Smiths song, or maybe a line from a quaint English period drama. She kept her eyes steady as he looked at her, taking in her features properly. She hadn’t felt anyone looking at her as closely as he was in a long time. Not in a threatening or lecherous way, more in a curious and considerate way. He was looking at the way her mouth turned up at one side when she got self-conscious, at the way she tucked the hair behind her ears even when it wasn’t falling across her face.

“It would be better for me if I were brave enough to walk through the cemetery to come to the cafe, but I’m too scared so it takes me about 20 minutes longer than it should” she admitted.

“Why are you too scared?” he queried.

“Well, it’s a cemetery, I’m scared of ghosts and cemeteries are where ghosts live. Or at least where they get started” she said, blushing as she felt his eyes consider her again.

She wasn’t used to people looking at her properly. She never bothered looking if they were, truth be told, but just always just presumed they weren’t, so when she watched him looking at her it was strange to her that she should enjoy it. She smiled at him.

“It’s not every day you get a grown up woman admit that she’s afraid of ghosts” he said, picking up his cup again and taking another sip.

“Well there’s your first problem right there, I’m no grown up woman. I’m just a girl who has been alive for long than other young girls” she blurted out.

He waited a few seconds before responding. She’d looked away very quickly after she’d spoken. She looked out the window onto the car park. The cars lined up next to one another changed very quickly in this area. A red station wagon was pulling into the spot left by the black shiny four-wheel drive which had just pulled away, carrying with it the bejewelled soccer mother with her skinny latte.

She tried to distract herself from the fact she knew he was watching her again with looking at the number-plate of the new car. It was an Albany licence plate; she knew that from the capital A before the numbers, not too old, probably a few years....she had to look back. He was looking at her again in that same inquisitive and soft way. She shrugged, took a deep breath and then decided to really look at him properly.

His grey shirt looked worn but well-lived in, like he’d pulled it out of the bottom of his suitcase that morning, which when she thought about it, he probably had. He seemed like one of those people who truly lived ‘day-to-day’, like every morning was another adventure, but not an adventure that you had to be dressed up for. But that wasn’t to say that he wasn’t distinguished. His brown hair flopped in his eyes, peppered with grey which she thought made him look a tiny bit older than he should. He could only be late 30’s at the oldest but the way he held himself suggested more than just years had passed under his nose. His arms looked strong and his sleeves pushed up above his elbows hinted at a line of light coloured hair which came down his forearms. He wore a silver watch on his right hand, which she noted was strange because he was right handed. He reached into his pocket and she presumed he would be reaching for another cigarette, but this time he pulled out a pencil.

She hated how people like this, people she knew next to nothing about. How could they be so much cooler than she could ever hope to be? But this person wasn’t aware of his cool. He just seemed interested in her. She was scared to ask him if she could take out her notepad and jot some ideas down, not because she thought he would be offended, rather she didn’t want to ruin the running time of their conversation. Although it had been fairly stilted and so far it had basically just been her answering his questions she didn’t want him to think her mind was elsewhere.

“Why do you like coming here?” he asked.

“Well you’ve had the coffee, it’s the best in town!” she said smiling.

“Yes, but surely a good coffee is not worth walking past somewhere that frightens you. There must be another reason for coming to this particular cafe”.

There absolutely was, but she wasn’t going to tell him about it. The reason walked around the corner at that very moment and before she could have time to hide her blush, her new friend had seen it and seen her eyes dart down to her lap.

“Well that answers my question nicely” he said, watching the reason walk behind the counter and place the cups he’d picked up one by one into the washing machine.

She sighed; it felt all the more pathetic now someone else was in on it. She’d been coming back to the cafe, not just for the amazing coffee, for at least a month now, three or four times a week, just to catch a glimpse of the reason. She was invisible to the reason though. She had no doubt that he was a lot of girl’s reason for coming to this particular, irritatingly located cafe.

“Its nothing” she said, looking intensely at the sugar granules she was pushing around her saucer.

“Well he doesn’t look like nothing” he said smiling, watching her shift uncomfortably in her seat.

“Why don’t you talk to him?”

“Because it would be a waste of his time, my time and the air I breathe to do that. What am I going to say? Hi, sorry you won’t have noticed but I come in a lot to stare at you? Yeah great first line. I’m happy in my own comfortable denial thanks.”

“That’s not good enough. What’s the point of coming in all week and torturing yourself?”

“It’s not torture. It would be torture if I ever thought something was possible, but it’s not. This is just the cheap thrill of being near someone that lovely. I don’t need to speak to him..."

He got up before she could finish her sentence and went to order another round of coffees. She felt a pang of nervousness when he pointed directly at their table when he spoke to the boy at the counter. As she watched him, the reason passed by the till and for the first time their eyes met. She managed a slight smile as he looked at her. Her new friend walked back to the table with a big grin on his face.

“The guy at the counter asked for your name. Apparently you’re in here all the time and one of the boys who works here has a thing for you.”

The reason took off his apron behind the counter and picked up his wallet and phone, done for the day. He said goodbye to the barista, the boy at the counter and walked around the side to leave. She watched him do his end-of-shift routine and wondered where he was heading to next. As he passed their table he seemed to pause ever so slightly. She only noticed because she was watching his shoes and saw the perfect pattern of their step go out of time. He turned towards their table and it wasn’t until she heard his voice say her name that she looked up and into his eyes again.

What came first, the Riot or the BlackBerry?

It was announced yesterday that the Liberal Democrats will not support David Cameron’s proposal to shut down social networking sites during times of unrest. The Liberal Democrats are currently part of the coalition government of the UK so their lack of support will make it difficult for Cameron and the Conservative party to pass any legislation or take decisive action should they choose to do so if last week's type of behaviour is repeated.

Deemed the ‘BlackBerry Riots’ in some of the British media, last week’s unrest has prompted significant political debate regarding the reasons behind the riots and how to prosecute those responsible.

For Generation Y this is ‘our riot’ in that it began and spread by Twitter, Facebook and on the BBM Messenger feature that operates on the BlackBerry Smartphone. All of my peers can identitfy, and most likely use, at least one of these forms of communication. We are all savvy to how easy these tools are to use and most of us are comfortable with the speed they allow information to spread. The speed at which rioters got involved, in real time, was not particularly shocking for Generation Y because we’re used to it. What we’re not used to is having these tools taken away from us.

There are currently powers which do exist in the UK, and indeed other countries, that allow the government to order the blocking of traffic and the shutting down of internet networks. This did occur during the unrest in Egypt earlier in the year and was particularly crippling for those trying to get their information out. Therein though lays the quandary about who is more negatively effected when a network is shut down- those trying to instigate the problem or those trying to escape from or report on the problem. It’s your classic ‘chicken-and-the-egg’ dilemma.

Arguably once a problem has become big enough to necessitate shutting down a network it will have gone beyond the internet- the unrest will have spread to the very visible streets. The question is then do you risk the safety of innocent individuals by disallowing them access to the tools that could help them escape harm's way by shutting down the networks they could be trying to use to get information out or do you let communication flow?

Panic on the streets of London.....

Unfortunately for anyone who has spent time in the UK in the last few years this round of riots will come as no surprise. Terrible yes, alarming yes, but unexpected? No, sadly not. It is becoming ever more apparent that rioting and violence has become a quintessentially British exercise for its citizens dealing with malcontent.

When I first visited England in 2004 I was a doe-eyed 15-year-old finally visiting the land of my father’s family, The Beatles, punk music, football and all the other wonderful things that have come from the UK that I’d looked forward to experiencing and relishing in. The country I’d dreamed about delivered upon my expectations and some and I came home planning my escape to the UK for as soon as school/money/mum and dad would allow.

Circumstances allowed me to visit again in 2006 and this time I had my father with me, showing me more about the country I’d fallen in love with from afar. We spent weeks together wandering around the streets of London and I finally began understanding so much more about the music that had been written about this wonderful town. Only something was still puzzling me, something that only dawned on me when I got home in early 2007 and re-watched the Julien Temple documentary The Filth and the Fury about the birth of the Sex Pistols. As I watched the birth of the punk music unfold before me on screen I began to realise that all the anger that I saw on the faces of those young men I hadn’t seen on anyone’s face while I was in the UK.

As Temple, Johnny Rotten and the rest of the Pistols explained, the band was formed in a period of serious unrest in England in the late 1970s. Britain was going through a tumultuous phase in its history - coal mines closed, strikes were common place and the working class felt an immense sense of dissatisfaction with the government. The Sex Pistols, and indeed the whole punk movement, was the artistic explosion that came from the rage bubbling up in the working class British psyche. In this case art was created from unrest, but looking back at post-war Britain that is not always the case when tensions boil over.

When I arrived in London for a third time in late 2010 I was met with an entirely different city. Something had changed in the people and in the feeling around the place. A lot has changed for the UK in the last few years, as it has the whole world. The Pound is weaker globally, Britain is facing some of the harshest cuts in public spending in decades and I found that the people of London had lost the sense of pride in their city that I had lapped up in my previous visits. The place I was living was also starkly different to the places I had previously stayed. When we walked around Walthamstow when we first arrived I was very displeased with my father. Gone were the nice neat houses of Lewisham and Brockley around South London, replaced with endless shop fronts with languages I didn’t understand selling things I didn’t recognise, messy townhouses and ugly pubs. But I as I explored Walthamstow more it felt more like home and I started to like it. Sure it was at the END of the Victoria line, sure no-one was really smiling and sure there was NOTHING to do around town but it was a suburb I now felt comfortable in.

Boredom soon encouraged me to branch out to neighbouring suburbs to visit a new friend. He lived in Hackney and I realised that it wasn’t too far away from me and after a few tries the trip between Hackney and Walthamstow felt like second nature. Hackney was nicer than Walthamstow but it still had that dingy North London feel to it. But again, the more time I spent there the more it grew on me. It was with horror then on Tuesday that I watched the streets and shops I had walked along only months before burn. I knew things were bad in these places, but never had I imagined it would turn this bad.

Britons love a riot- it’s almost become a caricature, the “lets ‘av it” mentality, bursting with bravado looking for a muppet to flog. Looking back at the periods since the wars there has been a recurring theme in Britain. A quiet anger has been brewing and every once in a while it pops its head up again to remind the government, police or whoever the protesters are angry at, that it is still simmering away. Political disenfranchisement is often a good excuse for people to protest, and in some cases a peaceful protest can actually effect change. But politically protests are highly emotional and emotion can have an awful effect on a mob.

Anger is a dangerous emotion at the best of times, but when you fuel anger with the anger of other people around you there are rarely peaceful solutions. What is concerning about these latest riots is the fact that an emotional reaction to an event lead to a night of violence which lead to an excuse for others to take their own violence out onto the streets. The catalyst for the rioting is clear, yet misbehaviour is the only clear reason for the nights that followed.

Political dissatisfaction is not the only thing that Britons have rioted over in recent decades however. Football riots were a huge problem for the British Government in the 1970s and 1980s and had a nasty flow on effect in the rise in street violence. Although it was not the first time deaths had occurred due to football riots, the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 was enough of a tragedy for the British Government to take notice and for legislation to be passed to try to stop hooliganism. The Football Spectators Act 1989 was designed to target offenders specifically at football matches in England and Wales and although it has had amendments it is still active legislation. Walk into any pub in England and you’re likely to see signs which say something along the lines of “no football colours”. As an avid football fan I understand the passion and emotion which football brings out in fans but loving my team does not make want to me go out and smash up Manchester United or Millwall fans. My question then is whether or not football rioting was a bi-product of passion, or something more deeply set.

Clasford Stirling is a youth worker in Tottenham who spoke to the ABC’s Lateline program on Wednesday night. He told Tony Jones that he was not surprised by the riots in his suburb. He explained that tensions had been boiling up between young people in Tottenham and local police and that although it “wasn’t the right way” the riots were just a way for the young people in his area to have their voices heard.

I feel so sad for a country that I still love so dearly that this sort of thing should be happening. At a time where Londoners should be looking forward to the Olympics next year, they are being forced to watch the city they love burn. Although the unrest is spreading, there was at least some reprieve amongst the anger. The images that came out on Wednesday of people on the streets of Croydon out with brooms, sweeping up the mess and helping one another was just as powerful as the images of a city in flames. Perhaps not as shocking, and perhaps dare I say it, less expected, but none-the-less inspiring. I don’t condone violence in any form, I truly believe that the privilege of being an evolved species is that we have the ability to communicate rationally with one another and violence is an irrational behaviour.