Beijing GAA with a Royal flavour

It"s an unlikely place surely but a Meathman is taking advantage of Beijing"s Olympics-driven craze for sports to push Gaelic Games in the world"s most populous nation. Away from the fanfare of the high jump and the pentathlon Jenkinstown native Stuart Smith has helped build up a thriving Gaelic football club in the Chinese capital since he arrived five years ago. One of the oldest codes in the world has been transplanted from Ireland to China with remarkable ease. The ball is fisted to a cacophony of languages and accents during Tuesday night training sessions at Fangcaodi primary school sports ground, adjacent to the North Korean embassy. Smith, who regularly turned out for Kiltale and Moynalvey in his younger years, plays in defence for the men"s team, but is perhaps best known as club trainer. Beijing club"s training sessions don"t happen - or run efficiently - without the affable Meathman shouting instructions and encouragement from the sideline. Alongside fellow trainer Colin Dixon, from Derry, Smith drills one of the most cosmopolitan teams in the world on the skills and rules of Gaelic football. Over 15 different nationalities play Gaelic Games in Beijing. The women"s A-team only has four native Irish, the rest of the team is made up of five Australians, two Canadians, an American and a Dutchwoman. Lithe, speedy Australian expats have little trouble converting, adapting natural athleticism to play a sport that blends the speed and accuracy of soccer with the hard tackling of rugby and the high fielding of basketball. Always on the look out for talent for the black and red team colours of Beijing GAA, Smith recruited a key women"s team forward, Canadian Lyndsey Clark, while she was playing soccer in a local league at Chaoyang Park, Beijing"s largest urban green space. 'Our games are often won by having really enthusiastic and fit athletes who are new to the game,' says Smith. Co-trainer Dixon, is very good on physical conditioning while Smith concentrates on ball skills. The Jenkinstown man is trying to instill the direct, fast-passing and hard-tackling Meath style. 'I"m a traditionalist,' he smirks. Smith, 33, jumped into China at the deep end when he arrived here six years ago. Rather than the glitz of Shanghai or Beijing"s bright lights he chose to teach in a small university in the rural quiet outside Quanzhou, a city in the southeastern province of Fujian. Smith was drawn to Asia after spending a year teaching in Korea following his Masters in Sociology in the University of Limerick, which he wrapped up on top of a degree in sociology and French in the same university. After a brief period back home he was soon heading East, arriving in Hong Kong in April 2003, just as the SARS epidemic began to grip the city. 'My only concern was did Ireland win the Grand Slam,' recalls Smith. Family and friends advised him to 'get out of there", but he struck out for Beijing. He took a train into a deserted, panicking city and has been there ever since. Since those scary days of SARS he"s taught for three years at Wall Street, a private English academy in Wangfujing, the city"s old commercial heart near Tiananmen Square. It wasn"t until March 2007 that he joined the Beijing squad, having concentrated on soaking up the local culture and language. Shortly after joining the group of Irish and other expats who run the club, he was asked to help out with club training. Imparting skills came relatively easy to Smith. He remembers his father, Pat Smith, who turned out for Meath in the past, teaching him how to kick the ball with both feet. Seeing the potential of the game in China, Mandarin-speaking Smith has rarely missed a training session since throwing in his lot with Beijing GAA club. Carving out his own sporting niche in this Olympic year, Smith is proud of the commitment of his charges, and remembers them putting in over two hours on a typically cold March Sunday in Beijing. Even as China"s capital counts down to the start of the Olympic Games on 8th August sports headlines in the world"s most populous nation were captured lately by the heroics of the local Gaelic footballers. Chinese national television was on hand to capture the action as a very multicultural Beijing ladies side dispatched a Shanghai ladies team 4-12 to 2-5 to take the women"s cup in the annual competition, this year organised by Beijing GAA Club. Smith was on the sideline directing matters before togging out himself for an epic men"s final. In that game Shanghai GAA, a squad of expatriate Irish - including a couple of former inter-county players - and local Chinese talent, beat Beijing 4-9 to 2-12 for the China Cup. Locals, more versed in the rules of table tennis and badminton, cheered and took photos on their mobile phones during eight hours of fast and furious football, played in seven-a-side format on a full-sized pitch. Aside from Shanghai, teams from Hong Kong and neighbouring Shenzhen in the south travelled to the 7th June Games, which featured on RTE news. Gaelic football may be catching on among Beijing"s 16 million people but running a Gaelic football club can be difficult in China"s capital, where a huge population means space is at a premium. 'Finding suitable playing grounds is no small feat,' says Smith. Beijing GAA rents the astro-turf sports grounds off a secondary school near historic Ritan Park in downtown Beijing for its Tuesday night training sessions. Recruiting and keeping players isn"t easy. It"s also difficult to replace players when they move on from China. Smith points to a Kilkenny man who recently moved to Singapore for work, leaving a hole in the Beijing back line. Enthusiasm carries the women through the bumps. While the men"s team players get agitated and drop off training when there"s a low turnout at training. The girls" 'thanks' meant a lot to Smith. 'They don"t know how good they really are.' Women, he thinks, like the GAA scene because it"s a social outlet in an expat society where men have most of the fun. 'A man in Beijing is like a king, but western women say it"s harder to find social outlets.' While the girls find it harder to pick up the game, the women"s game is more enjoyable to watch. It"s much more fluid compared to the tennis-style attacking speed of the men"s game. The seven-a-side format is also faster than games played by 15-man teams. Scores often come in 15 seconds, while substitutions are also rolled over more quickly. Gaelic games competitions in the Far East are overseen for GAA headquarters by the Asia County Board. China"s economic boom is increasingly drawing Irish expatriates to mainland Chinese cities, particularly Beijing and Shanghai. The presence of teams from smaller Chinese cities like Dalian and Shenzhen at the finals in Beijing is a hint to the growing presence of the GAA in the world"s most populous nation. A team from the northern city of Dalian featured many talented Chinese players. 'We"ve trained really hard,' says Stone Li, who went home with a medal after the team emerged victorious in the play offs for third place. A large local Irish population has traditionally made Hong Kong GAA the top side in Asia. The club in Hong Kong, which regularly plays practice matches against sides in Ireland, takes a New York style approach to tournaments, bringing in top players from Ireland for key tournaments in this wealthy, cosmopolitan city in southern China. A Wexford senior player was brought in and helped to a job in Morgan Stanley. Beijing"s team has its own inter-county talent in the form of a Louth under-21 player, Enda Winters, while a panellist on Shanghai"s team, forward David Gallagher, 'could kick a ball into a bucket from 50 yards.' Vast distances in Asia can make tournaments a logistical nightmare. Getting a good side to last year"s Asia finals in Singapore proved difficult given that many of the teachers were on holidays. The team, which had just won a tournament in Korea, collapsed to a Shanghai side which they"d led by five points in the first half. Also, Singapore"s tropical heat got to everyone. Waiting around for almost four hours between games and forking out €400 for flights and €100 a night for mediocre hotel rooms left a sour taste. Back in China, the 2007 championships in the northern seaside city of Dalian were a great success. Fellow Meathman, Michael Farrelly, based in Dalian organised the games in 'great parochial spirit,' says Smith. The tournament nonetheless was great for the club"s growth when, after a relatively barren 2006, the women"s side took home a trophy. This despite losing key members including three local PE teachers off on maternity leave. In the men"s games Smith was sent off following a row with the referee, and the Beijing"s side, already down three men to injury, lost. When he"s not playing football, Smith likes to soak up Chinese culture. Most of Beijing"s expatriates live in villas or high-rise apartments. Smith"s home is a traditional courtyard house in Beijing"s old quarter, which he shares with three families. In the morning while moving around the renovated old house he can hear his neighbours" chat, old-time Beijing folk telling passersby and visitors, 'there"s a foreigner in there…he"s Irish!' Weekends are spent on trips around China"s lesser known towns. He recalls a recent trip to the border between Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, both poorer rural provinces not typically frequented by tourists. A six hour journey for €2.70 and friendly people who have never seen a foreigner. The Chinese are very friendly to outsiders who attempt to learn the language and integrate. 'You"ve got to make an effort.' Smith is making a double effort now, as teams across China are now training for the All-Asia Gaelic Games finals, which will be held in October in Malaysia. n Mark Godfrey is the Beijing GAA media officer and can be contact at mark.godfrey@sinomedia.net or visit www.beijinggaa.org