A Refs' Review
At daybreak on friday the 20th of August a beautiful sunny day was there and because of this my humour was even more jolly as it usual is. I had registered myself for thé tournament, Flanders Basketball Trophy, in our neighbour-country Belgium in Ghent. I also wasn't the only one who
did this; with about 30 referees we had quite a delegation. In total there were 90 referees from Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Luxemburg, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland and Spain.
At 14.00 o'clock Tjalling Douma, Sybren Bosch and Bea Lie-A-Tjam left together at the station Sloterdijk in Amsterdam to Ghent. The trip went on prosperous and soon we arrived in Belgium. Because of an incident on the road we nevertheless ended up in a traffic jam. After we drove for about one hour, with the speed like a snail, the traffic jam was gone. The first thing we did was a stop at the gasstation for the toilet and also time to buy some solid food. After our arrival to sportscentre Bourgoyen we got the gameshedule, 2 T-shirts and some coupons for food handed over. I ordered a hotdog and saw that it was 3x bigger (and more tastefull) then an averaged Dutch hotdog; a tasty start so far.
The Bloso sportshotel was reserved for us to stay. We decided to go into Ghent with a group of referees and eat something at restaurant Amadeus. That only the word
'eating' could amaze me so much, I was about going to witness this evening. My dinner plate, Waterzooi, was chicken with small potatoes dressed in a lovely saus. Some people ordered 'spare-ribs à volonté' and decided to honour the name of this meal, 'unlimited'. My amazing kept on rising when I saw one colleague chopping his 22nd spare-rib while someone else easily stuffed away a 10th big potatoe. The tasty salads were also
very popular by the men. The precision of all of this reminded me to the comic character Obelix who ate swines in no time. With my thoughts far, far away I wondered if my job as a referee already had started. In my opinion two gentlemen ended up equal and overtime, to come to a winner, wasn't neccesary. Also our typical dutch frugality was fully exposed. The
total amount wasn't payed preciously till the last cent but really, really close to it. Even on our way out some people took sugarbags, disposable towells and all stuff for free without a blink. After this we decided to visit a local bar for a drink. Because the beer didn't please me quite well last year, I decided to stay on non-alcoholic beverages. On the terrace of
a cosy café we bumped into the men's team of VBC Akrides who were enjoying the several belgium beers. Immediately they tried to bribe us referees in every possible way, but of course we kindly said 'No'. Around midnight a brilliant idea was mentioned to go to a salsa-bar and start some kind of dance-battle over there. For a moment I thought I could
present a magnificient dancing act but after an short (very short) attempt I wisely sat down at a table. If the jury of 'Dancing with the stars' saw my act, they probable would be rolling around the floor with
the tears from laughing and the request for me to don't come back again. Meanwhile it was about 2.00 o'clock and time to go back to the hotel and sleep.
Next morning my alarmclock woke me up at 06.30 and I dragged myself towards the shower, and after the refreshing I reported for breakfast at 07.30. After a few sandwiches, coffee and some fruit I left together with some colleagues to the sportscenter Hekers Zwijnaarde, here the
boys and girls U16 played their games. The first games we refereed in the
tournamentshirt we got. Due to the high tropic temperatures the shirt soon was totally wet of the sweat and so we changed shirts and wore our own refereeshirt which lets more fluid through . After two attractive ladiesgames I ended the day with a boysgame; Cheshire Junior Jets
against BBC Latem-De Pinte. Together with colleague Jesscia Dufromont I was asked to lead this game. It was a game in which the players were pushing it to the edge, and so it was really nice to have a colleague who also perfectly knows how to handle that. Because of the fysical and fast game the players pushed us to the max. At about 1,5 minute before the
ending the differance between the teams was 1 point. Finally the team of Cheshire was the best and won with 64-59. One thing I really must mention is the perfect job the table-officials did, which made the
cooperation optimal. During the breaks and after our last game we sat down on the terrace enjoying the bright blue sky and a sunny summersun. With the colleagues from Iran, Portugal, France, Belgium and Luxemburg we discussed the games and gave each others mailaddresses. After the last games were finished we took off to the hotel and then to sportscenter Bourgoyen to eat. A few people decided to visit the cosy town Ghent again; I decided to stay at the Bourgoyen's where during the evening a party started. My personal driver, Niek Heering, suggested to leave on time to the hotel because she wanted to sing a lullaby for her little daughter. When we arrived at the hotel I also was nearly asleep and I desired to go to bed. After saying 'goodnight' to everybody I lay down
on bed and read something when suddenly a knocking sounded on the
door. It turned out to be a colleague-referee who asked me for painkillers. A quick grab in my toiletbag and the colleague left. Soon my eyelids were getting heavy and in no time I slept like a top.
At daybreaking I did the same ritual as yesterday. Shower, packing my bag, breakfast and getting ready for leaving to the sportcenters. During the breakfast I immediately arranged transport with colleagues who were also refereeing in the sportscenter Rozebroeken Sint-Amandsberg. This day we were scheduled at the men's Seniors and Boys U18. This day I refereed a boysgame with Nathalie Wies: Estonia - Falco Ghent. The
winner of this half final would be playing the final at 15.15 o'clock at the Bourgoyen. The boys were, just like us, eager to go and a true titanbattle
had begon. Two teams who were totally equal to each other were competing for every inch on the court and were constantly in balance. For one moment a player from Estonia tried the quality of the shirt of his
opponent by pulling it. He got an U-foul and it seemed the Belgium team could change the game in their benefit by taking a 5 point lead. This was a mistake; the Estonia-coach could motivate his team during a time-out the right way and several scores came up. The last period there were 11 seconds left to play with a minor differance of 1 point in the benefit of Belgium. Again the Estonia-coach took a time-out and made another plan. The throw-in by Estonia, a dribble, pass to the center, 2 points Estonia; time-out Belgium with 4.7 seconds left on the clock and 1 point down. After the throw-in for the Belgium team the ball goes around the bucket to the forward who looses the at the baseline. For the neutral supporter
it must have been a great game to watch. My last game was the final for place 3/4 between Falco Ghent and BBC Latem-De Pinte, two Belgium topteams who also compete each other in the regular competition. Together with colleague Frank van Stiphout we were invited to do this
magnificent job. Partly because the team of BBC Latem-De Pinte had less players Falco Ghent won the game with 59-45. Later on I arrived at the Bourgoyen where I could see a part of the final boys U18. Meanwhile it was almost time for the awardings and a word of thanks by organizor Geert Baeyens. The end of the tournament was almost there and we left
with one destination: home. Around ten o'clock I came home and fell down on the couch; tired but satisfied.
See you all on court!