World Maths Education Cup, Fremantle 2010

The grand final (and only match, in fact) of the inaugural World Maths Education Cup football (soccer) tournament was held in Fremantle today. I believe it ended up being a 9-7 win (I always lose count of scores once the total gets beyond four), with the champions being the combined Singapore-Australian mixed team and the runners up being the combined Australian-Singapore mixed team. As I played for both sides at various times, this means I am both a world champion and a loser. I also scored several goals, both left and right footed, proving that I could still drag up the old Grade 5/6 skills despite the passing of many years (I was, all that long time ago, possibly the first girl to play on a boys’ team in Tasmania).

The Singaporeans had brought the soccer ball, and what started as a friendly kick around was soon transformed into a match between two teams, with bags for goalposts, flexible boundaries, no offside rule, pitch invaders, and appeals against the light when we realised that we’d been playing for well over half an hour and that if we were going to take a group photo we’d be needing a flash. Admittedly it was mostly three-a-side (with a fourth player on one team for the first 15 minutes or so), and we weren’t taking it all that seriously … but it was definitely good fun.

I ended up with a beetroot red face, a slightly bruised calf muscle, and a sense of relief that my quadriceps, hamstrings, achilles tendons, and anterior cruciate ligaments seem to have survived despite the abuse inflicted on their aged and decrepit components.