The farmer wants a wife – TA Nationals – Oct 2009
Well do we have a fine story to tell from the 2009 Taekwondo Australia Nationals held recently during October 2009 in Brisbane.
Skip Sommerville, ATA Mandurah, as a young fledgling 52 year old – well he is not that young in age but still young in health, heart condition and still fine in physical fitness and prowess. Skip had been training hard for his poomsae and sparring competitions after the state tournament. Still nursing a shoulder injury and some hammy soreness, he perservered. He had been watching the nationals entries and was getting rather disappointed when at the final close of entries, there were no opponent for him in his entered division, the blue belt 50+ heavyweight division – he was the only entry. There was one other entry in the blue belt heavyweight category but this was in the lower age group category – the 41-50 age group (who was also unmatched).
Undeterred, he was asking if he could be paired off with Steven Bult from Queensland so he could have at least a fight, even though Skip would be slightly dis-advantaged being the older aged player. He searched high and low at the venue on the Saturday coloured belt comps day, and he found his likely opponent, and we also found Steven’s coach. That was where we began the negotiations so both players, at least could have a match fight. After much discussions, both Skip and Steven convinced the tournament organisers to give them a match play fight. So this was set.
But since this is to be a match play fight, there needed to be a prize, and Steven’s coach suggested the prize to be a pretty, tall, slim blonde. Incidentally Skip’s partner is pretty, tall, slim and blonde. So now Steven had to offer something to add to the prize, and since he was a pig farmer, we suggested that he offered his farm up. We thought that was fair – the farm and the blonde. The prize was winner take all, ie. the farm and the pretty, tall and slim blonde. The match is now definitely on, and the prize offered were "accepted" by both players.
The adrenalin was churning and burning. As the coach, Kim suggested to Skip that he better win, so he could then offer the farm up to Monika (his partner) as the prize for a wife. If he lost, Skip would be in big trouble – but Skip was very confident. All set, and ready to go. We were set on the sidelines waiting for the match, and you could see both players really psyching up for the match, when suddenly both players had second thoughts about the prizes they are offering for the winner to take all. Well no matter, both agreed to play their best and the best man to win. Determined as they were, the match was quite even in terms of the points being scored. The final score was 5 points to Skip and 4 points to Steve. Skip WINS. Yes, if the prize was still available, Skip would have won the farm and keep his blonde partner. In the end we are convinced the motivation that Skip had to win was really his thoughts of "The farmer wants a wife". Monika is now still waiting for the farm.
You can view Skip’s fight (the 1st round) on this video clip. note: you can actually see Skip, even though at 52 years of age, is quite light on his feet as he pranced around the court stalking his opponent and finally winning the match.
Roy Khoh says:
November 9th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Reminds me of a movie “Never Surrender” whereby they fight for each other’s girl.
Not the greatest of movies, for plot, acting or anything really. Check out the imdb site about “Never Surrender“.
The underlying reason for fighting was okay … “back to the primal instincts for why we fight” … “to get the girl”. But hey, that’s just MY opinion. I’m sure others will like it.
Kim Seng says:
November 9th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Skip is the blue player.
In this case, Steven was fighting for his farm to get the girl while Skip was fighting for his girl and to get the farm for his girl.