Today we are hosting an entry written by Bill Longhurst, Deputy Head of Missionin the British Embassy in Belgrade.
The European Rugby league championships were held last week in Belgrade and I was invited to attend the matches and present the winners with their trophies: England, France and Wales contested the Championship itself, and Serbia, Scotland and a mixed team called European Celts (made up of Irish, Czechs, Russians and some others) fought over the European shield for emerging Rugby League countries.
All the matches were held in scorching weather conditions (by UK standards) at the small sports stadium on “Ada Ciganlija”, an island in the Sava river which is covered in lakes, cycle tracks, sports fields and clubs/ restaurants. Anyone expecting a leisurely kick-around by school youngsters would have been quite surprised. The average size of the players looked pretty intimidating to me, as did the ferocity and sheer physicality of the tackling.
The speed, skill and energy levels, especially with the temperature in the high 30s, were very impressive – not surprising considering that several of the players from the top three countries have already been signed up by professional clubs at home.
England (with the current England senior team coach and former international Tony Smith in charge) met France in the final on Saturday after both teams had defeated the Welsh in hard-fought matches earlier in the week.
What looked like it was heading for a comfortable victory for England mid way through the second half, suddenly turned more tense as the French hit back with a converted try. Finally, though, the English kicked a penalty goal to restore a two-score lead of 8 points and held on to clinch the match 22-14.
In the European shield final match between Scotland and Serbia, it was a similar story with Scotland, complete with piper accompaniment from the touchline throughout the match, controlling the game but then having to survive a late fight-back by the Serbs. In the end, Scotland held on to win 26-16 and took the Shield.
All in all, a good week for British teams in Serbia, but just as good a week for the development of Rugby League outside its current heartlands. Serbia, Russia and Czech Republic are all target countries for this and judging by the Serbian crowd’s enthusiastic reaction, they are on to a winner. Credit goes to the Serbian Rugby League’s tireless organiser, Jovan Vujosevic for making the tournament happen.
Posted at 14:19 24 August 2009 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[0]
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On Saturday, 14 February, my wife and I visited Kragujevac for the annual ceremony in honour of the doctors and nurses of the Scottish medical mission, who came to Serbia during the First World War to nurse Serbian soldiers during the dreadful outbreak of typhus in 1915.
Dr Elizabeth Ross died in Kragujevac on 14 February 1915, and two Scottish nurses who also died there are buried alongside her. Other members of the mission also gave their lives in their service of the sick Serbian soldiers, not only in Kragujevac but also in other parts of Serbia. Mladenovac holds a similar ceremony in September, and other towns, such as Vranje also keep the memory of the mission members' sacrifice alive. Typhus was, and still is, a terrible disease: the doctors and nurses who came to Serbia knew that they were risking their own lives.
This was the third time I have attended the ceremony in Kragujevac and as always, I was deeply touched to see how many people, including young people from the Serbian Red Cross, turned out at the ceremony to show their respect. Mayor Stevanovic represented the city, as on previous years, and many representatives of other organisations and groups laid wreaths on the graves.
Sadly, our good friend Dr Žarko Vuković, a Serbian doctor who has worked tremendously hard over many years to keep the memory of the doctors' and nurses' sacrifice alive, could not be there this year, as his own health is now frail. We asked his wife to pass on our very best wishes to him.
Posted at 08:55 15 February 2009 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[2]
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Roberts Burns Ceilidh Belgrade 2009 - Update
The figures are through, and we raised almost 64,000 Euros for Save the Children's work in Serbia - up from 46,000 Euros in 2008. This is a great result and reflects very well on all the hard work put in by the organising committee, and on the generosity of the Platinum and Gold sponsors and of all the others who bought a ticket or supported us in so many ways.
Thank you to them all!
Posted at 14:40 07 February 2009 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[0]
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As a blog writer, it's always interesting when you get some feedback. Mostly, this is when people leave comments on this page (as anybody reading this can do, by filling in the box below, in English or in Serbian).
But now and again you find references popping up in quite different places. I was browsing through 'NIN' the other day (15 January edition), and found one of their correspondents getting quite excited about my blog. He'd been busy; he'd read my pieces about Scottish dancing, about my impressions of last year, about my nice day out in Novi Sad, even my comments about the Radicals.
Then, in a box on the next page, Mr Todorovic of the Radicals (Beard and Badge) got a little over-excited about supposedly over-mighty foreign Ambassadors, and ended up calling me an ' English ballet dancer' ('baletan'). So he must know about my Scottish dancing blog piece too. I never had him down as a fan. Mind you, if he thinks that England is the same as Scotland, and that Scottish country dancing is the same as ballet, maybe he should get out more often...
Posted at 09:42 23 January 2009 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[2]
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and if you want to know more about Burns, try this, from his most famous poem, 'To a Mouse', of 1785:
"Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie,
O, what panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!"
Translation, anyone?
Posted at 08:57 10 December 2008 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[1]
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