Stop Press: Wine can improve sporting ability!

Following on the theme of Bibendum staff aspiring to sporting greatness, the North London Lionesses, featuring the Aussie marketing duo of Jenni Lockett and Kelly Taplin took to the netball court recently in the grandest of grand finals somewhere deep in the badlands of Islington. TJ’s experience of this sport has so far been restricted to one girls’ game at university where, being male and over six feet tall, he was forced to play center against someone of clearly superior technique. She made The Juice look pretty stale and this led to dark days for your correspondent, marked by an alarming increase in Isotonic Lucozade Sport consumption (it gets to your thirst…fast). Fear and ignorance have kept TJ from the court since then but this was the first step back on the road to the world of wing attacks, wavey arms at 3 feet and strange rules about which lines you can and can't cross. And boy…either the eyes have slowed down since that fateful day or this sport has got a lot faster. The air was crackling with crisp passes, audacious shots and just occasionally, an errant elbow or two. A good crowd had gathered to see the teams battle to a dramatic tie at full time. Darkness threatened to fall, others had packed up and gone, but still the game went on. Bibendum’s finest did their team proud and in an impossibly close game, the mighty Lionesses were edged out in the final few seconds of extra time for a heart-breaking defeat. Hmm…and the umpire just happened to be the opposition coach…what would the ‘special one’ say?

A week on, and the new season has started already. Keen to put the defeat behind them, Kelly, Jenni et al are off to a strong start. As the evenings warm up, throw your picnic into a basket and come along to support. Rumours that the girls have started sipping rose at half time are almost completely possibly true…