Take it to the hole!

My friend Cikku was on the brink of tears! Apparently his mother was very angry since her favourite vase was broken.

This precious vase, of the Yao Ming Dynasty, had existed in pristine condition for over hundreds of years and now lay on the floor in about as many pieces.

Cikku's mother walked into the room and found him looking at the pieces in a bemused state and came to the conclusion that he was the culprit of this attack against Chinese heritage.

This was actually miles away from the truth since a little mouse who had taken up residence in Cikku's house was the guilty party.

No amount of reasoning by Cikku would convince his mother of his innocence.

The tears were a combination of anger, indignation and sadness at the fact his mother wouldn't believe him!

Guilty in Absentia!

It just isn't Cikku's week! In fact yesterday's The Times carried a letter by the secretary of Hibernians Basketball Club, Alison Attard, who was apparently surprised by the absence of Cikku and myself during the final of the Women's MBA Shield final and that the final was not mentioned in last week's column.

Hibernians have thus come to the conclusion that I have some personal vendetta against the club!

A needle in a hanger!

First of all let me please point out that Miss Attard need not have assumed that I wasn't present at the final.

It was plain for everyone to see since the crowds at Ta' Qali during women's games hardly resemble pre-election mass meetings!

While her assumption is correct, her deducing powers were wasted since I am certain that had I been there we would have bumped into each other!

Since Miss Attard was so concerned by my non-appearance she could have easily made a phone call, as members of her club have done whenever they needed a favour from me, to enquire about my absence.

I would have gladly described the morbid medical details which kept me from a match I wanted to watch, if nothing more that to spy on future foes!

As for Cikku, I thought that the world knew he is a figment of my imagination (sorry for disappointing those female fans out there!) and since I wasn't at Ta' Qali it is not surprising that neither was he!

May I remind Miss Attard that my absence was not an affront to Hibernians since I did not know at the time that they were going to win the final (prosit by the way).

Similarly I have nothing against Floriana and St George's who contested the Division One Men's final, a game that I failed to attend for similar reasons and that Floriana won in what was apparently a close final.

Q.E.D.

'In spite of this, (the fact I coach a women's team) they were either both inexplicably absent for such an important fixture or refused to report the event.

'This lapse irritated us as a club and suspicions have crept in our minds that Mr Buttigieg might harbour some form of prejudice against Hibernians BC that will only be dispelled by his declaration to the contrary.'

May I remind Miss Attard that match reports on The Times have never been written by myself, and probably never will be since I find such short deadlines rather troublesome (ask the editors!).

I do comment on the games, from time to time, but in the case of last week's column I chose to take advantage of my forced weekend in and began writing the column before the final was even played! Had I mentioned Floriana's success and not Hibernians, then they would have had a right to be suspicious.

That Hibernians were irritated by the lack of publicity I can understand and perhaps that is why they chose to write an accusing letter rather than make a simple phone call (and I have been accused of being sensationalist!).

As for a declaration about my alleged prejudice against Hibernians, I will go one better. I can categorically state that the only club I hold any prejudice against is Juventus FC so much so that my interest in Italian football involves checking the newspapers on Monday to see if they have been beaten!

Beside this one (possible) flaw in my character I believe in supporting teams/clubs rather than trying to destroy others, I believe in trying to win and not in trying to beat others, I believe in bettering myself rather than putting others down. As for Cikku I can only imagine that he feels the same.

A pity

More importantly, I do agree with Hibernians that it is a hard luck that Alexis Darmanin suffered such a serious injury during the MBA Shield Final.

Alexis is a close friend of my wife (who was her teacher and coach for some years) and had really begun to show her potential this season. Hibernians will sorely miss her services but not as much as I know she will miss not being able to play basketball.

I wish her good luck in the operation she will need to undergo to reconstruct her knee and hope she recovers fully. I will be rooting for her early return to the game despite the anguish she will probably cause the team I coach!

Stephen Buttigieg may be contacted at coachsteveishere@hotmail.com (clubs please note!).