Puck Off!

A couple of weeks ago (Saturday 25th February) I went with some friends to watch the ice hockey. The local team Club Olymique Courbevoie was playing Dunkirk at home and as it was free we thought we'd go along. None of us had ever seen Ice Hockey before and we didn't really know the rules so it was interesting trying to work it out.
It was fantastic! I'd never seen it before and knew it was meant to be quite violent. It was incredible the speed they went at. I am thankful for the toughened glass screens they put in front of the stands though. They weren't right up against the rink so you didn't get people faces being squashed against it as they got rammed into the side (which would've been funny) but considering the speed that the puck goes.... In fact, being in the audience isn't completely safe. The puck did come over the barrier twice and landed in our row both times. Once it hit some kid on the foot/ankle so the team doctor/coach came along and sprayed something on it (to numb/cool it I guess).
Anyhow, after a bit of a warm up, and after someone had driven around on a little tractor thing to melt/smooth the ice the match started. Courbevoie seemed to be doing pretty well and were leading 2-0 by the end of the first third. It was interesting trying to work out what some of the penalties were. The woman on the tannoy seemed to be saying things like "Incorrect Charge", although, having read the wikipedia page it seems there are legitimate times when you can hit/barge/ram people. It was a little difficult to follow at times as the teams are allowed to substitute players at any time, and every so often the whole team would swap. When players beat each other incorrectly they have to go in a sort of penalty area for 2 minutes (or 4 minutes if they do something really bad) and, I must admit, it did seem like Courbevoie were in there far more than Dunkirk.
Anyhow, it kind of went downhill after the first third and Dunkirk went on to win 7-2. I thought Courbevoie played pretty well though and will probably go to see them again.
If you want to see the "COC's" you can visit their website at www.cochockey.org (no joke!).

I've got a page at Flickr now so you can see some more photos I've taken while I'm here. If you want to see the ones of me with my friends you'll need to sign up and let me know your user name so I can add you as a "friend". There are plenty of photos you don't need to log in to see though so take a look at www.flickr.com/photos/aross .