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While the Spirit surged on to an 81 to nil victory last night at Tompkins Park, the real performance of the evening was provided by our very own all male cheer leaders troop.
Having only got together about an hour before the fixture, the boys put their heart and souls in their short rehearsal and then quickly donned their costumes prior to the start of the game.
While the squad was small, as was to be expected given the short notice given, the eight or so participants were heartened by the arrival of Travelling Gerry, who made a special effort to return from Carnarvon for the occasion.
The costumes, on loan from the Southern Districts School of Dance and Ballet, were magnificent- bright red Tutu style skirts with matching pink floral tops. The effect was admittedly spoilt somewhat by the fact that the lads had to wear their own underpants, and no one had thought of colour coordination or uniformity of style, so Y fronts had to compete with Boxers and, on one of the guys, a thong.
Jedi showed the most natural apptitude, no doubt as a result of training in Highland dance in his youth in his native Scotland, but no.8, Happy, BrokenDownGunfighter, Flamethrower, TheInnForcer and TEF made up for their lack of natural talent by their enthusiasm. Troop leader Krusher choreographed the performance and musical accompanyment was provided by Shasta, who displayed remarkable talent on the piano accordion.
The lads got the supporters arked up pre game with a cheer danced to the tune of TeddyBears Picnic, with the only blemish being the tear in no 8's Boxers while doing the final "splits" movement.
This was followed by a number of shorter chants "2,4,6,8, WHO DO WE APPRECIATE, SPIRIT, YAY" and "WE ARE ACE, WE ARE COOL, WE ARE SPIRIT AND WE RULE..." and several others, all culminating with the lads wagging their posteriors to the delighted crowd.
The final rendition was to the tune of "Lets do the Hokey Pokey", which was a little risque in that the routine involved the boys in "Poking" their Willys in the direction of the Spirit's reserve bench, but it was taken in good stead by the players, especially Henjak, and the crowd roared its approval.
The experiment was highly successful, and the troop intend to perform again at the first local official game, subject to approval from Peter O'Meara.