Brighton
Bears v Guildford Heat - 28/01/06
Report
by Dan Collin
On a bitterly cold
evening in Burgess Hill, myself and Peter Chapman
ventured to the Triangle (Note to BBC: This is situated
in Burgess Hill NOT Brighton) to witness what can
only be described as a landmark moment in the town's
history. Once superstar basketballer and Celebrity
Big Brother evictee, Dennis Rodman made his return
to the sport and, for none other than the Brighton
Bears.
Of course, The Rod
was not the only celebrity in attendance. Realising
the publicity following such an event would be huge,
Burgess Hill's own minor celebrity Peter Chapman
invited myself, an avid basketball fan and former
player (I have even won trophies!), along for the
evening with the intention of seeing a spectacle
and to report back with a more personal report for
local citizens.
Indeed, the Triangle
and the Brighton Bears staff, both those who are
employed permanently and those hired for the evening,
rose to the occasion and made a complete mockery
of what is essentially a very basic task. On arrival,
me and Peter were ushered to one side of the entrance
with but a few other people. As time passed we were
joined by dozens more before the doormen decided
to stop cramming everybody in. A good hour was spent
there getting colder and colder and with tempers
flaring (some old women telling the doorman to 'be
quiet!') it was a mighty relief to finally progress
into the A-E queue. Fortunately, me and Peter did
not make a rudimentary error as it was fully explained
to us by the doorman that we had to get in the queue
with the letter corresponding to our surnames(!)
However, while in the
queue, it was obvious that with all the local media
snooping around that it wouldn't be long before
someone picked out minor celebrity Peter Chapman
to talk to. Inevitably, Peter was selected as 'promising'
and was routinely interviewed by the reporter. Being
the devious character that he is, Peter went against
the grain of everyone else and answered the questions
posed to him as the reporter, no doubt, would not
have wanted. Additionally, the Meridian sports reporter
Paul Belverstone and his one man crew hovered near
us, enjoying a refreshing beverage no less. It was
no surprise that he ignored us as Peter informed
me that 'he looks much older on TV' and was clearly
intimidated by our youthful appearance. Perhaps
most crucially however, was when Peter was called
into emergency action drawing upon his Media Studies
experience in helping a rogue cameraman to 'white
balance'. I have absolutely no idea what this means
but clearly Peter and said cameraman were on the
same wavelength. Then with the excitement beginning
to fade - The Rod arrived! He crept in through the
backdoor, though it's very hard to be subtle when
you're a 6 foot 8 black man!
The saga continued,
as we had to wait near enough another hour before
finally receiving our tickets. Then, finally arriving
at the collection table, disaster came close to
striking. Informing the ticket lady of our name
she realised that mere moments before she had handed
them to another man. As luck would have it, the
man noticed the mistake and handed them back allowing
myself and Peter to swiftly join the queue to enter
the stadia. This was not without queuing further
of course!
Finally, we found ourselves
inside and proceeded towards our seats. In true
fashion of the evening so far, this did not go smoothly.
Finding our particular section we issued our tickets
to the stewardess who informed us she 'wasn't sure'
where we were supposed to be sitting. This puzzled
me and Peter as well as many other spectators who
had been equally informed of the current situation.
Upon further investigation, it was discovered that
our seats did not actually exist! However, when
a portion of the waiting fans were allowed through
we were not hesitant in following suit. Now with
a male steward, we were told 'we don't know where
you're supposed to be, so just sit anywhere in Row
F'. We duly obliged and had no further trouble regarding
our seats for the remainder of the evening.
The match itself was
a tense and torrid affair (similar to that which
Dennis' housemate Faria Alam shared with Sven-Goran
Eriksson). The Rod played a fair portion of the
match and I thought, bearing in mind the circumstances,
he did rather well. Firstly, he is at least 10 years
older than most, if not all, of the players that
he played with and against. Yet he held his own
and showed signs that he still has the athleticism
and ability of his glory days in the NBA. Of course,
to the Rodmaniacs (I made that up) out there it
could be seen, in a biased way, that Rodman made
all the difference. He scored 4 points, the Bears
won by 3, the difference between a win and a loss.
But to the neutrals it was quite obvious that players
like Terrance McGee and Jerry Williams were the
most influential on a night where Brighton were
under the cosh.
Following the action,
Peter and myself decided that, unlike the majority
of the crowd who were requesting autographs, we
would take a number of 'candid' pictures with unsuspecting
players. Having completed this task we made our
way out of the arena and into the car park where
we located Peter's car. On a pleasant journey home,
we discussed the antics of an amusing evening before
finally arriving at my residence.
And that's about it!
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