Dodgeball's comin' to town!

Well not exactly; it's coming to Halifax which is just an hour train ride from Manchester.

For those of you who might not know what dodgeball is, either because you didn't have a childhood or because you know it by another name, it's a really simple game; 6 players to a team, 2 (or 3 sometimes) balls in play and a whole lot of whackin', catchin' and dodgin' action! The aim being to eliminate the other team's players by either hitting them with one of the balls or catching one of their throws. That's basically all there's to it. Also, if you manage to catch a ball one of your teammates can come back into the game and to keep the game safe and friendly, head shots don't count.

The dodgeball fever has already caught on across the pond in the states, aided greatly by that movie starring Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller, and it's slowly but surely clawing its way through the UK. Here in Manchester we've been going at it since last October thanks to this guy called Nathan who had the idea of forming a dodgeball club. It has had quite a but of success; there are around 8 or 9 teams and we play every week just for laughs.

My team is mainly made out of my mexican friends here in manchester and lacking a better idea for a name we 'chose' (it wasn't really a choice but the only thing we could come up with in the heat of the moment) to call ourselves Corona Team.

Although most match play in the manchester uni league was friendly, we did have a tourney on the last week before the xmas break. Corona Team fought bravely through the group stage and semifinals and come the final we were one game up only to see our lead and the tournament slip out of our hands in a 2-1 defeat to a very good and balanced team called Intermenan.

Now the uni league is in a hiatus until the exams finish (next week or the week after next) but in the meantime the UKDBA (the official dodgeball authority on the UK) is organising its first tournament in the north of England, to take place this Sunday Jan. the 29th in Halifax. Team Corona will be present sending 4 players to integrate a 9 player combine which will be representing Manchester University.

So call it geeky, dorky or whatever you may but unless you try it you'll never know how much fun you're missing out on. Wish us luck, if we win I'll tell you all about it, if we don't I'll make up something about how we gave our best and all that crap to keep my team's moral high.