Cyclops and the hockey stick - A personal account
The stick connected with a dull crack and the ball took flight rising quickly. It was beautiful, and I stood back with the sort of deep satisfaction that can only come through knowing one has created magnificence, watching the white ball ascend into the crisp wintery air on its way to where I sent it. The ball raced to the goal net, an arrow straight missile of destruction destined for the back of the net. I have to say...It felt good being at the top of my game.
The year was 1981 and an eleven year-old me stood basking in the glory of my magnificent shot. Back to the story.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/galenkp/ky4zi2GO-qPIp6U.jpg)
I was on the school oval with my field-hockey buddies at lunch time, practising - serious business. We were shooting goals and everything was coming up galenkp. I mean I was killin' it! out there...But killin it, and the heady scent of success, soon descended to almost being killed with that one glorious strike of that ball. Back to the story. src
A few minutes before the glorious shot I'd been padded up and in the goals as "goalie". All was well, but an ill-favoured wind was blowing through. Enter the soon-to-be-Cyclops.
Ruprecht [name changed] was a lad at school who suffered mental disability, I know not what. He was big, almost adult-sized, a strong dude and, due to his disability, somewhat of a loose cannon. Most kids were a little afraid of him. He had a reputation.
The big unit strode over on gargantuan legs and in a manly voice said "Ruprecht want to play goals," or some such thing. I tried to explain the danger but the giant Ruprecht was having none of it. I was a little cowed by his looming over me and so I relented and started de-padding.
I offered him many other options that wouldn't put this slow-moving jolly frightening giant in harms way, but in fear of having my life crushed out of me by one humungous hand I relented. Back to the story.
The brobdingnagian Ruprecht was not about to play along with getting padded up which meant chest, leg and head protection...No, me Ruprecht, me invincible. Well, as it turns out, not...So off I go, out onto the field to fire some shots his way with the rest of the lads.
The monumental Ruprecht stood in the goal area, arms hanging lamely by his sides, holding the hockey stick in both hands. "Ok King Kong, it's on like Donkey Kong," I thought like a complete and utter idiot. I grabbed my stick, set up a shot and fired like a damned howitzer letting off a salvo across no mans land...The perfect strike I refer to in paragraph one.
I'll fast forward here and not linger on the magnificence of my strike which was heading towards its target, and move to the lamentable results of it. Back to the story.
The ball struck. It struck the towering Ruprecht right above his eye at about three billion miles an hour, four litres of blood gooshed forth like Niagra Falls on a good day. Oops.
Time froze, along with the monumental Ruprecht and the now shitting himself galenkp of course. But time unfroze. The colossal Ruprecht shook his head like a grizzly bear, realised he'd lost 45% of his total life's-blood, and started scanning for the source of his pain. Little old me.
He was lightening-quick, but fear put the strength of ye gods into me and whilst an Apollo versus Cyclops battle [Me, Apollo, as the victor] might have made a better story, I decided discretion really was the better part of valour and a withdrawal was a more healthy option.
Withdrawal...It was more of a general flee for your life, the Saxon's are coming type of withdrawal really. Back to the story.
I fled. I ran way to the sounds of "ruuuuunnnnnnnnn" echoing behind me; Team-mates offering enthusiastic encouragement and rather sound, if obvious, advice. I heard the grunts of pain and determination from Ruprecht the Cyclops, the wailing and his thunderous footsteps hot on my heels also. I ran, over hill and dale, my brother @tarazkp can testify to the hill and dale thing as he went to the same primary school. I ran like my life depended on it and of course, it quite probably did; It was an unknown what would happen if the Ruprecht-Godzilla-boy caught me.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/galenkp/gBPFe1xJ-helicopter-380983_1280.jpg)
I dared a glance over my shoulder once; The enormous figure of Ruprecht-man-mountain gaining on me, hockey stick waved overhead like the rotors on an Apache helicopter diving in for the kill spurred me on (image below). "If he captures me he will pummel me to death", I thought, and set to running with renewed vigour...But my energy was flagging; The adrenalin from the most magnificent ball-strike of my hockey career, and fear of being pummelled into a bloody, ragged mess by Ruprecht-the-strong, was wearing off. Despair set in...I was going to die. I knew it then. I was going to die an eleven year-old virgin. [Ok, I didn't think that last bit at the time but it's funny now right?] helo im src
I still recall the faces of my school peers, astonished, grinning and yet other's simply curious or eager to watch the public hockey-stick-bashing of the little-brown-kid that was about to ensue. A blur of colour, the movie-reel of my life flashing before my eyes. This is what people felt when they heard the words "release the Kraken." Back to the story.
I slowed; Legs wobbly with fatigue were a fitting companion for lungs gasping for life-saving air. Resignation of my impending doom settled upon me. I wondered if my mum would be able to have an open casket at my funeral. Damn you doom and your impending ways.
But hark...What is this...A lucid thought? The spark of a plan I could nurture to a flame? I could feel it formulating, growing in my soon-to-be-crushed-like-a-melon noggin. "Run like a mofo into the teachers staff room." Simply sagacious of me. Wise beyond my eleven years, but could my jelly-legs carry me that far before the brobdingnagian-Krakenish-King-Kong-sized-Cyclops-Godzilla-Apache-helicopter-hockey-stick-weilding-Ruprecht cleft my noggin in twain with one of my own hockey sticks?
I burst forth into the staff room like a one-boy-herd-of-wild-horses to the amazement of a bunch of teachers, spied the head-master and made directly for him. Mere seconds later the brobdingnagian-Krakenish-King-Kong-sized-Cyclops-Godzilla-Blackhawk-helicopter-hockey-stick-weilding-grizzly-bear-Ruprecht burst through the door as well. Would he wade through the intervening educators like a Titan, laying about left and right with the hockey stick in his attempt to reach me? Thankfully not. I was safe.
The teachers calmed the situation down, got the story from me and what they could from the now-calmer Ruprecht, obviously after first-aid was administered. He ended up with nine stitches to a pretty vicious cut above his eye and is probably scarred to this day. Both sets of parents were called and Ruprecht was sent home. My mum took me home also as I was pretty shaken up. I've made light of it here but I was really quite frightened as you may imagine.
Several of my team-mates would attest later that I made many attempts to dissuade Ruprecht from being goalie and that he was impossible to reason with, which everyone knew anyway. Of course I could have made better decisions also...Not fired in that ball in so cruise-missiley-hard. I was eleven and just a kid though; Logic wasn't a strong-point at that stage.
Ruprecht didn't come back to school for a couple of weeks although his father came back to see me. He sat me down patiently explaining that his son was different to the rest of us and was unable to apply logic, restraint, balanced thought...I can't recall the words but I recall him being very patient, kind and understanding with me. Comforting. He was not mad with me in the least bit. It was nice, and a valuable lesson I took into later life. The incident began a reasonable friendship between the two sets of parents but I'm afraid I couldn't bring myself to trust Ruprecht after that, and probably him me. He didn't seek King-Kong-style vengeance when he returned; It was almost like he had forgotten but I don't think he did.
There you have it, a not very glorious sporting story from my younger days. I was prompted to tell it on the back of my post yesterday about failure which you can read here. I mentioned how I've failed over and over all my life, like most, and that failure paved the way to success.
I failed that day at school, made a stupid decision, but it taught me many things, some I learned right then, some much later because of that event. I laugh now but at the time it wasn't a joke; The ball could have killed that lad, taken an eye maybe. But now, knowing that didn't happen I can sort of laugh at it. I hope you were a little entertained...At my stupidity, and hockey-ball-hitting-magnificence.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default
Fantastic I needed a good laugh 🤣.
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If all that happened to someone else back then I would have laughed my ass off. Alas, King Kong Cyclops boy came after me and I wasn't laughing. Makes for a good post I guess and was fun to write.
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Yes a great post and well written.
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I much prefer mistakes which can be learnt from without death or lifelong guilt. So glad he didn't end up a Cyclops and that you didn't end up a lump of pummeled Galen. These tales are much more fun when you can laugh at them. :D
Unpummeled Galen has a nice ring to it.
Agreed...pummelled me wouldn't be the best version of me.
Yes, he didn't lose the eye so all good. I tip-toed around school for a while, made myself scarce when he was around. Tried to blend in, but being brownish in an otherwise all white school...Yeah, didn't always work out so good. 🤣
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Haha! Sore thumb comes to mind. It's a weird thought, because I've never really seen you as brownish. Maybe the rest of the school needed a bit of sunshine! 😆
It was just the times...Small rural town in the early eighties...Australia wasn't as multicultural as it is now.
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I guess it becomes normal when you're used to it being multicultural. I was the palest in my family, so I guess I'm used to seeing better tanned people than me. 😁
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I was brought up in a very multicultural environment at home...School was different. The vilification started dearly and continued for years. Still, it's all good...Helped build character and to understand human nature earlier in life. These days...I'm just a delectable mocha colour...🤪
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It says something for your character that you see it that way and aren't bitter about it. I led a sheltered childhood in that I didn't even realise such a thing as racism existed. Even when we were told about it, I thought it was in the past and no longer happened. 🤣 I got a bit of a culture shock when I hit the real world.
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Thank you. I can't say I never reacted poorly to racism because I did. Mostly it just became another layer of character but it hurt a lot. Even now when it happens it still hurts a bit, but the character that started building when I started kindergarten kicks in.
I know what you mean about not understanding racism. I had no idea I was different until I got called a nigger for the first time. I was almost 5 years old and didn't know what it meant. I learned quickly though. Amazing what kids pick up from parents...That kid probably had no idea what he had said
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Dude that's a great story! You have a gift with the words!
I am surprised that King Kong didn't seek out vengeance on you at a later date.
I had a long-running feud with a fellow student in my freshman year of high school when i struck him in the head with a soccer ball... it was an accident on my part because at the distance i was at, I definitely didn't have that sort of accuracy... it was just dumb luck. Thankfully we were around the same size and it never came to fisticuffs and i transferred to a new school the next year. Funny how sport accidents can turn into fights but i suppose that is the nature of competition.
Thank you very much. Every so often I trip over and manage to hit the keyboard in a fortuitous manner - Something approaching good sometimes ensues. Thanks for saying so.
Yes, sporting rivalries can be odd...A word spoken in haste, a ball kicked from afar into someone head...At least your situation didn't come to blows. Mine...Well, the upside was I realised I could run fast! ...If motivated enough. You know, being chased by T-Rex, the Kraken or Cyclops boy. 🤪 🦖
Thanks for reading and commenting. ✅
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Oh man, what a story. It all played out to me like a classic '80's movie.
Thanks Ginny, coming from you that's a great accolade considering the way you tell stories.
I see Vegemite saved your life in the recent storm. Glad you started eating now right?
Thank god for Vegemite. Who knew it was powerful enough to steer a hurricane? ;)
If only the Bahamas had some. I heard they got smashed? I don't eat h the news so I'm not sure how bad it was. Bad I heard though. Glad you and yours made it though.
They are devastated. The death toll is going to be high. So many people there could not evacuate. I can't imagine living on an island. It entirely missed Florida but was very close.
Bummer. Yes, must be terrible to experience such a thing. We were in Phuket 12 months after the 2004 Tsunami and it was weird knowing so many people died. The water line on the building was frighteningly high. Devestating.
If only the Bahamas had some. I heard they got smashed? I don't eat h the news so I'm not sure how bad it was. Bad I heard though. Glad you and yours made it though.
Just woke up to this one and I don’t think it will be topped today!
I feel your fear, my tale relates to football and less stitches though.
Staff room, wise choice - safely and first aid in one place 🙂
Thanks mate, I appreciate you saying it. Was fun to write and that's a reward in itself but I was worried it wouldn't be well-received through being long. I actually cut 300 words from the original.
I'm hoping to inspire more stories of the same kind from other's...Sporting fails. 🤣
Thanks for your nice comment. Bust out your football one man! Do it!
I prefer these posts over any dlike ‘news’ updates any day. Original content!
Hopefully I’ll have some time at the weekend to write a little, although I’m a poor storyteller - a chance to improve on Steem I guess 😬
Spoke to Taraz tonight...I commented about all the Actifit
dibblestuff on the sportstalk tag...Kind of makes it difficult to navigate through to anything good. I'd like to see more, real stories, more personal experience stuff.You should give it a crack and let whatever comes out...Out. you might suprise yourself. Besides, you seem to write well as far as I can tell.
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I'm pro @actifit, at least as far as on-boarding potential. It would be nice to be able to hide/unhide that tag from 'New' at times though.
Maybe we need a tag 'mysport' or something, and encourage people to use it when they write about their own sporting achievements/fails, etc.
Thanks!
I agree, there's a place for it however it seems to take over a lot and for the sportstalk tag...Is walking to the bus stop sport? Maybe it is, I don't know. Could be a good Olympic sport possibly...bus stop walking. They could have a bus stop set up, a bench...Last one there is a rotten egg. First one wins gold and everlasting glory in the annals of the sport.
A tag for #mysports sounds legit though.
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At 11 you can be forgiven some stupid decisions and you at least retained lessons and fortunately no major damage done, you didn’t kill the poor kid and he didn’t kill you 😆
I know right? I might tell the story of me, the styrofoam kickboard and swimming pool sometime...Another monumentally dumb decision...One that only hurt me though. Again, no one was killed...Except my four front teeth. 😀
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This is definitely one of those "it'll be funny later" stories.
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