We returned the following year in a short-lived comp played in first term against a few different teams, and though we weren't taking a flogging, we weren't giving anyone else one either. Later in 1999, the Czech Army returned (minus some old players and plus some new), only to lose our semi-final and fade into oblivion until this year's September comp.

We returned with pink and orange shirts, thanks Jenni, and had a good run at Doyle through the comp, but we just weren't cut the way we used to be. 2001 saw our last year as under 18s, and we played some good games and made it to the semi-finals; alas, schoolies and the semis clashed, and we had to leave the comp rather meekly. Thanks to everyone who gave up some study time and turned up to play or support.

A notable incident from 2000 was Sara, Yas and I jumping on a bus at Parra, ending up further away from the field than we were before (the bus apparently went to Ryde. Thanks, driver. Arsehole). Some quick calculations were made before Yas figured out we were near Jenni's place. Her overly generous dad gave us some vague directions and said "good luck, girls". So a half an hour trek to the field saw us storm down at half time, ready (or maybe not so ready) to play. Another incident: Jenni's mum is giving Yas and Karen a lift to the field. Yas says, "Hey, that guy looks like Mr Van Loon with a bad haircut." She is quietly informed by Karen that the bad haircut lookalike is actually Jenni's dad. Quick! Make for the exit! I hope Mrs Dawes wasn't too offended. It's not like Yas said he was ugly.

The 'Original Czechs' consisted of:
Jenni Dawes (cpt), Karen Frost, Yasmin Sabir, Sara Huda, Lisa Hodgkin, Leah Candi, Mandy Farquhar, Andrea Tay, Emma Kellet and myself.
The 1999 team lost Yasmin, while Emma and Andrea turned up occasionally, and we adopted Megan Edwards, Kim McDonald, and an individual player Kelly. 2000 and 2001 saw Bron make the effort to come out to Parra (yay), as well as a guest appearance from Erin McMurray, and some random turnouts from another individual player (whose name I've forgotten, but she was pretty good).

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Bessie
In winter, 1999, we made an ambitious move to enter a team in Parra's mixed/opens comp, which played down at Doyle on Wednesday nights. Credit should be given to Jenni for the organisation of the team, even though we did turn up on some occasions to find we had no game. The rules for mixed are 4 male, 3 female onfield, ensuring a somewhat faster game. The name 'Bessie' was derived from Jeff's non-existant cow and the guys on the team wore the shirts with embarrassed pride. We played teams around the age of 20+ and needless to say, drew the games we didn't lose.

The 1999 Bessie team was:
Jenni Dawes, Jeff Luland (cpts), Karen Frost, Leah Candi, Sara Huda, myself, Stuart Gollan, Sean Carey, James Milenkovic, Tim Carlson, Josh Foulstone.

In 2000 we lost Josh and Jeff, gained Simon Irrgang, Travis Brown, Andrew Wong, Bronwen Morgan and Yasmin Sabir, and won some, lost some. Except for a very poor 14-0 loss (to a team who no doubt won the comp), all the losses were close, within 2 tries, and the wins were great - 4-1, 11-4. Also note that during State of Origin week, we played with one male (Tom Boer, who wasn't even on the team!) and with the help of Rowena, managed to lose a close 5-4. So stop bagging the girls, we don't suck that much. Bessie came 8th out of 10 teams, having scored about 42 tries altogether and on 17 points. Not bad for a team who *almost* didn't play a few of their last games. A big thanks to anyone who played in the team for the duration of the season (this includes Bron's sister Rowena, Emma, Tom, all the guys who turned up for the last game due to the Gollenium (Jonno, Hinch, Vas, have I forgotten anyone?) and Lisa!

2001. The year of the Nudists. The motto for this year could have been: Don't we get it? We'll never win the friggin comp! But it was more, much more than that. We actually had a good team this year (not to detract from people who played in previous years, but there was something more teamlike about the Noodist Colony, as someone decided to call us). In an attempt to be cheap (well, it wasn't that simple), I made some dodgy t-shirts with a nice little logo. Having a whole team named after him, I hope made Noods happy. This year the team was: Karen, Jenni, Bron, Rowena (Bron's sister - played the 'stupid' winger role perfectly to score a lot of the tries), myself and every now and then any other girl who was free (Lisa); Bernie, Hinch, Trav, Tim, Noods, James (I'm forgetting someone. Gol? Hmm. Sorry.) We had some fun, exchanged words with a few teams and a few shit refs (remember the team whose player pushed Ro? What a dick.) I actually remember winning a few games. It was all good. We should do it again sometime. Notable quote: The team who asked if we really did play nude. Idiots.

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Junior State Cup, 1999 and 2000
The Junior State Cup is an annual event held at the Kingsway Playing Fields in St Marys, near Penrith. The grounds there are huge, allowing for more than sixteen games to be played simultaneously, thus the entire competition is played over a full-day Saturday and half-day Sunday (afternoons are left for semi-finals, finals, etc). The age divisions are as young as under-12s with the oldest of under-18s, and draw established teams like Wallsend and Cronulla, and others as far away as Ulludulla, Taree and Doyleson (never heard of it).
In 1999, Lisa Hodgkin and I were lucky enough to be chosen for the team Parra was entering in the under-16s division. Under the coaching of Robyn Tallon (a teacher at Catherine McAuley), we took our 14-strong team (of which I played wing and Lisa played link) up to St Marys and proceeded to lose every game, though not always without a fight.

Come the fake millenium, and Parramatta enters three girls teams into the Jnr State Cup: 14s, 16s and 18s; Lisa and I again are lucky enough to be part of this side (U18s this year), because this time we didn't go down with our tails between our legs. Lisa again played link, and I switched between center and link (preferring the latter), and we put two wins to our names. We only got a severe flogging when we played Cronulla, the reigning team in our pool, where we lost 11-1.
Parramatta as a whole did much better than last year, with the 14s establishing themselves as a strong (albeit young) team, with the boys winning the cup and the girls doing better than their older counterparts.
Perhaps next year we could be a contender for the semis?

2001 saw us spend a weekend down in Wollongong, with nice old-school style shirts. The team was quite different to that of previous years. Mel (ultra fast ex-Cumberland girl) and I co-captained - a mixture of public and private schoolites, notably missing the girls from the Two Blues (a good team in the Parra comp). And with twins, Rebecca and Julia - well it didn't turn out too badly in the end. We stayed at the Nan Tien Buddhist temple, a really beautiful place, and were kept up into the wee hours by some guys from Menai that Laura invited into our room (note... our room, not her room :) . Bron made it on the team but had to pull out due to (another) injury. There were a few good moments on the beach, and at dinner, but the actual footy was pretty average and we managed to somehow not win a game, drawing the only one we didn't lose. If that doesn't make you feel pretty bad, what does. Oh well. Hopefully this year's U18s chickies will do Parramatta proud.

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The Sydney Championships: Parra's U23s
The Sydney Championships is (I believe) an exclusively under-23s competition, played on Friday nights at various field around Sydney including Penrith and Tempe. Our Parramatta team last year (for which I played wing) won one game in the entire comp, but on the whole it was an important experience. The games are played with 6 onfield and could start anywhere from 6.30 to 9.30pm. The teams we played came from as close as Westmead, to Wollongong, Cantebury, Wests and Penrith themselves.

L-R Back: Regina, Olivia, Christina, Amelia, Lily; Front: me, Natalie, Adele, Lauren, Dominique, Sky. Missing - Bron (injury), Karen and Tiana (both pulled out because they couldn't make all the games).

The 2000 Sydney Champs heralded a new Parramatta team, made up of relatively inexperienced players. Running around at sometimes absurd hours on Friday nights in the middle of winter wearing them (the above pictured bodysuits) may seem like a crazy idea, especially when you've lost all but one game. But we persevered till the end, and we came second last before Penrith (the only team we beat). I must say one thing though - you can't pass judgement on the quality of our team until you've watched one of our games (hopefully not the one against Wests). The results for our games were:

vs Campbelltown Under 18s: 6 - 1 loss
vs Penrith: 8 - 1 win
vs Westmead: 6 - 2 loss
vs Cronulla Under 18s: 8 - 2 loss
vs Erina Under 18s: 3 - 2 loss (they later withdrew from the competition
Just a note about this game (against Erina). This was during the State of Origin, where Girdler was carving up the field and kicking all the points. Do you remember that little gesture he did, pretending the footy was a hand grenade, pulling out the pin and throwing it on the ground? And the Blues jumped down as if awaiting the explosion? Well it was all funny and great then. But when Erina did it that Friday night it just didn't cut it. Sorry girls, but -10 points for originality (esp cos it was a fairly close game, I mean, honestly, it's not like they're Cronulla or anything.)
vs Taren Point: 6 - 3 loss
vs Cronulla: 14 - 1 loss
vs Wests: 10 - 1 loss
vs Engadine: 6 - 1 loss (noting that the score was 0-0 in the second half!)

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Boys, Boys and Footy

The boys were eager to get on the field and prove that they could play real footy, as opposed to chick footy (which I must admit is a little different, but I'll stop there). In 2000 they entered two teams in the comp, there were so many of them: The Povs and The Super 8s. One might liken them, respectively, to the VBs and the Crown Lagers of beer. From the same cut, at heart, but the Super 8s did just that much better. (Nothing about the quality of the boys themselves, of course :). There was no doubt some relief when the two teams came up against each other because, being a Parramatta comp, there are a multitude of ethnic teams. Not to be racist, but some of them could cause problems and a couple of big fights occurred.

In 2001 just one team was entered, as a few of them had other commitments. From what I remember these guys did really well against some tough opposition, especially some games where not many people turned up. They were also real Povs this year (shirtwise). But it was all fun. The guys involved in 2000/2001 were: Bernie, Gumby, Gol, Trav, Hinch, Jonno, James, Sean, Noods, Tim, Jeff, Warren, Vas, Cho, Dougs, Bram, Boer, Mang, Amit, Dan, Tom Chen, Yad (?). (Sorry to anyone we missed out.)

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Footy Links
The Australian Touch Association Weekly competitions, draws and national information.
The Blue and Gold Army Parramatta Eels' Website.
The New South Wales Touch Association Website
Sydney Uni Touch Team

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