We went to as many Roses events as physically possible: Part three

I never want to look at sports again

2 years ago

In an attempt to learn more about sports, I challenged myself to go and watch as many sports as was humanely possibly during the Roses weekend. And let me tell you, by day three, I was flagging. If you want to read my previous escapades – you can find them here and here.

To begin the final day of Roses, I forgot to set my alarm, and instead of waking up at seven, I woke up at half eight, meaning I had to run down to the sports centre in order to catch my first event. However, buoyed slightly by the news that we had officially won Roses, I did manage to catch five events, taking my total tally up to 16 events, which I was very proud of for just three days.

Canoe Polo (Mixed)

It’s official, canoe polo is the sport I want to play most after watching so many this weekend. It was messy, it was tense, I could not for the life of me figure out the rules, and yet I wanted nothing more than to get in one of the canoes and have a splash around. I loved the fact that they used their paddles to whack the ball out of the air and stop goals. Despite the fact that I couldn’t figure why at certain points people kept throwing the ball in the water, this is otherwise an amazing sport and I am fully behind it.
Sport vibes: 5/5
Crowd vibes: 3/5

Basketball (Men’s 2nds)

This was a very fast paced match – the ball was zipping around the court like you wouldn’t believe, and some of players moved unbelievably quickly. I know there’s something in the rules about the fact that you have to be bouncing the ball at all times, and that’s what makes it different to netball, but honestly, that’s all I know about basketball. The coach kept shouting “rebound” but I never figured out what that meant.
Sport vibes: 4/5
Crowd vibes: 4/5

Ballroom Dancing (Open)

Well, I felt like I was watching Strictly. I’ll be honest, I went to watch this because it was raining and it was inside, but I actually enjoyed it immensely. It looked really good fun and I sort of want to try it, but I have no sense of rhythm so I know I would be bad at it. I have no idea what was good or not because I know nothing about dance, but I thought everyone was pretty good. There were very obviously a lot of people who had been dancing a really long time there and really loved it, which made it more enjoyable to watch.
Sport vibes 4/5
Crowd vibes 3/5

Korfball (Mixed)

I have never seen, nor heard of, Korfball before going to watch this match, but if I’m honest, it seemed like a mix of basketball and netball. We talked about it and decided that other than the fact that it was mixed, we couldn’t find a difference between netball and what we were watching other than the fact that there was contact and you could go behind the net. The crowd were very invested in every goal though, so that was lovely to see.
Sport vibes: 2/5
Crowd vibes: 4/5

Dance (Open)

Anyone who can move like that is impressive. I know nothing about dance, but I did enjoy it very much. I liked the music and costumes as well, the variety of styles and things going on was fascinating: the fact that people can do so many different things is incredible! The crowd was huge as well – they weren’t letting any more people in the room, and everyone was very loud and supportive of both teams. Seriously, the level of talent in the room was insane and I am in awe of each and every one of the dancers.
Sport vibes: 5/5
Crowd vibes: 5/5

Well: three days, 16 sports, very little sleep and a horrific amount of sugar later, and I made it. There are definitely some sports I enjoyed watching more than others, and some that I would definitely like to have a go at, but on the other hand, there are definitely sports that I would never attempt in a million years!

I feel like a congratulations is in order to all of the competitors from both York and Lancaster for an amazing competition, but of course, roses were red this year!