10/6/1988: Atlantis plays as "American All Stars"
vs. "Celtic All Stars" in Bethlehem
(Atlantis
tournament #18)
Emil Signes
June 2013
Note of 2013: In 1988, as part of the
Celtic Festival in Bethlehem, PA, the organizers sponsored a
sevens tournament between a team of "American All Stars" vs. a
team of "Celtic All Stars." A contemporary article is included; the rest I've written in 2013.
As the designated local sponsor for the event (and at the time
the US national sevens coach) I invited a group of US players
to play as the "American All Stars," representing both the
Atlantis and Cougar invitational sides. I asked Ron
Conway, the organizer of the Saltires invitational team from
Scotland, to bring over an equivalent side of Scottish &
Irish players.
We played in two events - the main event was on Thursday night
October 6, and took place in the Bethlehem High School
Stadium. The secondary event, a four-team tournament,
took place on Sunday October 9, in which two Atlantis teams,
the Saltires and the Duck Brothers participated.
October 6, 1988. Our team was represented by (Atlantis
number, name, club)
36 Will Brewington, Duck Brothers
94 Kevin Higgins, OMBAC
29 Gary Lambert, White Plain
31 Chris Petrakes, MOB
95 Tony Ridnell, Old Puget Sound Beach
58 Mike Siano, Philadelphia-Whitemarsh
72 Tommy Smith, Santa Monica
96 Barry Williams, Los Angeles
97 Mark Williams, Aspen
The Celtic All Stars / Saltires were
Paul Brady, Harlequins
Andre Dent, Harlequins
Paul Hogarth, Hawick
Harry Hogg, Jedforest
Jim Maitland, Gala
Chris Mantell, Rosslyn Park
Hugh McHardy, Rosslyn Park
Derek Stark, Ayr
John Thompson, Kircaldy
As the Festival was counting on only two teams, we had to come up
with a creative format. We decided to play two 20-minute
games, 10-minute halves each, with rolling subs. If one team
won each, we were to play a third period (no longer remember if it
was to be sudden death or not) ... We won the first game 32-0, and
led the second 12-0 before the Celts came back to dominate the
rest of the game. Luckily for us, the final was 24-24, which
gave us a 1-0-1 record and the victory.
As noted in the article I've attached from Randy Lieberman, the
crowd of about 1,500 really got into the game. He also notes Mark
Williams' serious injury, a broken ankle (complicated by the fact
that it was broken right over a plate that he had in the ankle
from a previous break. Mark had no insurance, complicating
things a bit. Luckily our event doctor Carl Weiss, who was to
become the US National Sevens team doctor, donated his time (it
was a LONG operation) but we still had to solicit donations from
the community. On the positive side, Mark recovered and
played for years afterwards including for the US.
The only required event for the Festival was this event, but to
get the most out of the players, we also had a mini-event the
following Sunday October 9 with two Atlantis teams, the Saltires
and the Duck Brothers as participants. This is summarized below.
