The film was well worth waiting for, especially for Kaz’s goal celebration dance.

Women in the Stadium is a brand-new documentary directed by Palestinian filmmaker Sawsan Qaoud and produced by Al-Jazeera documentary Channel . It portrays the personal stories of four players of the Palestinian Women’s National Team. Through their sporting excellence these women struggle against checkpoints, which prevent them from training, and against the perception that women should not participate in public sport events. Girls who have suffered hard times in their lives see these young women as role models realizing their dreams. Football becomes a source of inspiration and hope.

Also, don’t forget that the Palestine Film Festival starts tomorrow with a couple of films and Ken Loach at the Watershed from 6pm. Jesse Tate’s film about the Cowboys in the West Bank, “Over The Wall“,  is on Thursday 8th at the Cube.

Also, also don’t forget that Hydra Books, Bristol band new radical bookshop is now open at 34 Old Market.

26/11/2011

Netball reports thus:

Too,s lost this sat 6-30 against Skylarks who are currently unbeaten this season. An unfortunate accident in the first quarter sent our Kerry Collins to Frenchey A&E with a dislocated little finger, ouch! Cat Furness stepped in. We defended well for the first 3 quarters with our Emma Whitaker in GD awarded player of the match by us, but the oppositions defence was also excellent and we struggled to get any goals in. The last quarter we made a swap in order to try and increase our goal score, which worked, however it also meant our defence weakened and the opposition more than doubled their goal score in this quarter. Kim Tilbrook was awarded player of the match by them.

The Suburbans beat Glensides Old Boys 3-1.

Downs A beat Jersey 2-0. The match report is here.

Downs B lost to Torpedo 1-2

27/11/2011

The Sundays beat Portishead Elite 5-3

The Casuals lost to Stroud 2-3. PC reports thus: “we were rubbish”.

And finally our friends from Leicester, FC Kolektivo Victoria, won their first ever competitive game, they reported thus on Facebook:

FC KOLEKTIVO VICTORIA 8-2 THE ABBEY Beyond the wildest expectations of even the most optimistic soul, the mighty FCKV won their first ever league game, with an epic display of total football. With only six players, and a new, spongy 3G pitch, the team apprehensively took to the field. James was elected captain mainly because he has the nicest hair and set the modest target of scoring at least one goal, and Lee in goal was hoping not to damage his back by picking the ball out of the net so often. Captain James (as he will be known forever) picked up the ball (not literally, although he likes to handle it during the Sunday kickabout at least three times), beat two players, before playing Simon in. Simon, angered by playing against a team in sky blue, rifled the ball into the bottom corner. FCKV had scored! The game was energetic, and despite some excellent saves from Lee, The Abbey equalised. The bald eagle in goal was on the receiving end of some barracking from The Abbey’s fan club, who were outsinging the FCKV contingent (one), until he launched the ball forward, misty eyed nostalgia of Wimbledon ’88 fresh in his mind. Nilz chased the ball down, and with a majestic touch rolled the ball into the corner to make it 3-1. After that, FCKV took all the best bits from the Sunday kickabout, and achieved great success. Nilz completed his hat-trick, including a wonderful goal from 20 yards. Simon scored his second, Captain James scored an excellent curling shot, before going on another mazy run. Hair falling into his eyes, he had the chance to score his second of the evening, or lay it to Nilz to score his fourth. As he went for ther pass, imagine the sheer horror as it was not the clinical finisher running onto the ball but defensive rock, colossus, superman Neil Skinner. As the birds in the sky braced themselves, Skinner delicately side footed the ball into the net. Reevesie, whose excellent tackles and bursting runs from defence had created many an attack, scored a deserved goal at the end to ensure that all five outfield players scored. With the score at 8-1 FCKV unfortunately conceded a deflected effort, which was in no way an own goal by Skinner. It was a deflection. Definitely. After eighteen months of the friendly football kickabout, two tournaments in the height of summer, and the friendly games against the FIFA teams, this victory was beyond our expectations. Every player played to their strengths, and it was a wonderful reward for the fun that has been generated on Sundays. We look forward to next week’s contest. Special thanks to Habib, who came to support the team, and who we hope to see playing very soon. FORZA FCKV! Wonderful performances all round. Team: Lee, Skinner, Reevesie, James, Nilz, Simon Goals: Nilz (3), Simon (2), James, Skinner, Reevesie Own Goals: Definitely not Skinner

The Bristol Palestine Film Festival is running from 1st – 10th December at The Watershed, The Arnolfini, The Cube and Hamilton House. This festival includes a film by a certain Jesse Tate (of this parish) entitled “Over The Wall”:

this engaging documentary follows the endeavours of Bristol-based sports team Easton Cowboys as they return to the West Bank for a second time.   The film provides an insight into the realities of the occupation as seen by Palestinian and Israeli people and explores how football can build connections between communities across the world.

Also of interest is a talk by Honey Thaljieh, the captain of the Palestine women’s football team:

After years of playing football with the boys but without a team to call her own, Honey Thaljieh spearheaded the effort to start the women’s team in 2003, and remains the side’s captain to this day. Honey will share the joys of football in Palestine, whilst touching upon the social, cultural and political hurdles that her and her team mates have faced in their bid to become a recognised team.

Why not visit the Bristol Palestine Film Festival’s wonderful new website.

Palestinian women’s football team, the Fearless Tigers of Palestine, try to qualify for the 2012 Olympics and international recognition.

Cast your mind back to the Awards do last month. You may remember seeing a stall selling T shirts and various bits and pieces of paraphernalia. Sat behind it for most of the night were some of the Cowfolk who have been out to the West Bank, either last year or on the first tour there in  2007.

We are fundraising for the Villages Group, a collective of Israelis and Palestinians that provide support to some of the communities south of Hebron that we visited in May 2010. These are people literally living on the edge, often surrounded on all sides by illegal Israeli settlements, hassled on a daily basis by both Settlers and the IDF. The Villages Group work with these communities, and have set up a number of projects that range from renovating water cisterns to constructing up alternative energy systems to organising transport so the local children can get to school safely without being attacked by Settlers.

There is more information about the work the Villages Group do here:

http://villagesgroup.wordpress.com

Inspiring people, and a very worthwhile cause. So yes, to help support their positive work we have produced some beautiful T shirts (pictured), and are also selling pamphlets and attractive hand crafted mobile phone holders. To get your hands on any these get in touch with Jess Orlik (jessorlik@hotmail.com)

Palestine- The Cowboys are having a stall at the Anarchist Book fair and will be selling t-shirts.

COWGIRLS DO IT ON GRASS – WEDNESDAYS at 7pm-8pm on Eastville Park-
STARTING WED 4TH MAY The Cowgirls footballers will be organising regular games on grass on Wednesdays for 7 weeks (when we break for the summer). All women welcome no matter what your footballing experience. Come and Play !!!! You know you want to.

Calendars are available at the Plough for a price of just £5. Added to that amazing price, the offer extends to; Buy 9 months get 3 months totally FREE!!! What more do you want? As we still have over thirty left it’s pretty clear that a lot of the people that are in
the calendar/team photo’s haven’t purchased one. Why? Perhaps they don’t understand the culture of the club, which is to support and get involved with all aspects of what is The Mightiest little team in Easton, err sorry, the World (see poll results on our website). Not just a half a shandy, grab a handful of chips and leg it home to watch the re-run of the outtakes of the people that didn’t get into the X-factor. You can always go and play for Torpedo if you think that’s what we’re about. Get it!

In May this year a group of cowgirls and cowboys travelled to the occupied territories of the West Bank to play football and volleyball and to show solidarity with Palestinians. They are giving a talk about the trip at Easton community centre on Wednesday 3rd November 7.30pm. All welcome

Yes, it happened. At the beginning of May a group of fifteen Cowboys and Cowgirls ventured out again to the West Bank for another ten days of football (and volleyball), fun and falafel. There were a few differences to our last visit in April 2007. This time we mostly played in small villages, as opposed to the large centres of population like Bethlehem; we played in Israel itself, against the Anarchists Against the Wall group from Tel Aviv and we also had a more disparate group, made up of some old faces, a few new faces and a couple of our comrades from Republica.

But everything went according to plan. We all got into the country and rendezvous-ed at the agreed point. Even on the football pitch things went, well, better than expected, considering our wafer-thin squad.

It was as gruelling as last time – nine games in eight days – and everyone will have their own personal highlights. Who can forget our whistle stop VIP tour of Palestine’s leading fun fair, Megaland? Or our driver Shaher (aka ‘The General’) and his habit of inflicting the Backstreet Boys’ classic ‘Show Me The Reason For Being Lonely’ on us at regular intervals?

Then there was our final game in Traffur. As the tour bus wended its way down to the foot of the village where a floodlit stadium was carved out of a disused quarry, we were besieged by scores of kids. As we went in at half time all we could hear were hundreds of young voices, all chanting in unison ‘EASTON COW-BOYS! EASTON COW-BOYS!’ None of us will ever forget it.

Along the way we learned a hell of a lot about the realities of the occupation. We also donated over £1000 to the building of a school in the community of Khallet Zakariya that is surrounded on all sides by illegal Israeli settlements. And we confirmed the Cowboys twinning arrangement with Tulkarem Sports Club. There is already talk of maybe getting a Palestinian side over here next year.

On top of this, there is also a cinematic masterpiece in the offing. Jesse took a camera out and is currently working on a film of the tour that will see light of day before too long. More news on that soon.

Well done to everyone who contributed to making this happen. Hopefully we can do it all again at some point in the none-too-distant future..