Sale is undoubtedly the highlight of the Victorian Touch Calendar. It provides the touch players in Victoria with a chance to test themselves against the best players from around Victoria. Along with this chance to play quality touch, ‘Sale’ as the tournament is affectionately known, provides a chance for everyone to participate in 2 nights of drinking and dancing.
This year saw Touch UM’s biggest turnout at this event with a total of approximately 60 people, a combination of 1st years, 2nd years and ancient already graduated members, participating in both the men’s, women’s and mixed competitions.
The journey began on the Friday at the Victorian Secondary Schools Championships where Touch UM were to play an exhibition game against the Monash University Touch Club. This was then to double as a group departure venue. However, the ‘crapness’, for want of a better word, of the Monash University Touch Club saw them fail to supply a whole team let only two people. (Credit must go to Steve Huynh, the only Monash student who participated in the game). Following the game, the club commenced their 3 hour journey to the classiest of all country towns, Sale.
The majority of the participants arrived in Sale in the late afternoon and it wasn’t long before people had their choice of alcoholic beverage in hand and went about consuming it at a rapid pace. Drinking games followed and left the Touch Um population in a less than respectable state. Shenanigans galore continued however the real action was to begin the following day.
The first thought on the minds of myself and many other people on waking up on Saturday morning was the thought of playing 5 games of touch. The arrival at the grounds was more or less very smooth however one participant found trouble getting to the fields.(Via the Sale Police Sation). Games soon commenced and Touch Um found great success in a number of its sides, with the new kids on the block excelling. The highlight of the day was however the graduates of Touch Um, The Occasionals, making the final of the Mens competitions however narrowly being defeated by Up’n’Smoke, a mainstay of higher level touch competitions in Victoria.
Very quickly the attention turned to another night on the town. An improvement in club morale was definitely a priority and was quickly achieved through a number of drinking games and a club dinner. It was then that the majority of club members ventured to one of Sale’s finest establishments, the Kasbah. However this trip would not be complete without a stop at McDonalds on the way through to fuel the body for a long night. A supplier of quality beats and purveyors of fine alcoholic beverage the Kasbah was overcome with Touchies from across Victoria where a great night was seen to be had by the whole bunch. For some of us, the party then pushed on to the Saloon bar where Sale locals partied into the early hours of the morning.
Off not much sleep, the Touch UM crowd stumbled out of their room and to the grounds for the mixed competition. The group again struggled but success was still had with the Touch Um Mixed Team, Dangermouse making it to the Grand Final to only lose to Monash, our arch rivals in a drop off. The loss can very much be contributed to Touch Um being a much better partying club, a reputation that we should be very proud of. The loss of Tim Glazebrook to injury also made it tough for the team however the performance was a great credit to everyone in the team.
The journey then began to get back to Melbourne before darkness and extreme fatigue set in. The return to Melbourne was a successful one for everyone which was extremely pleasing to here. On peoples return home, the first thing on their mind was a change of Facebook status commenting on the amazing weekend and confessing their undying love for the game of touch.
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