Nopesport

"In the olden days the British team would always win the banquet. That doesn't seem to happen any more" were the words of the Czech coach to Jon Musgrave, coach of the British Students team. Little did he know...

All major international competitions conclude with a closing ceremony and banquet, a chance for teams to relax, celebrate and socialise together before heading home. Often teams will wear matching outfits to maintain a national identity - for example at JWOC this year the (mostly) Scottish British mens team all wore kilts and shirts.

As one might expect with a competition for students the banquet is something of a boozy affair, with many teams starting their innings as soon as the cross the line in the relay (making use of the bar in the food tent).

This year however the Brits had bigger plans and had to set off easy so as to see them come to fruition.

No one is certain where the idea of the mens team dressing up as the Village People came from, but once the seed had been planted the idea grew and grew. So it was that Police Chief Musgrave led brickie Crane, cowboy Gristwood, injun Johnson, fireman Chepelin and flight lieutenant Strain into battle.

And not to be outdone the girls launched themselves upon the most iconic girl-band in pop history, so we saw Posh Mhairi M, Scary Helen B, Baby Helen P, Sporty Aislinn A and the mastermind Ginger Rachael!

The team arrived fashionably late to the banquet, to much whooping and hollering. The boys then had to negotite the finger buffet with out eating their own moustaches, while the girls happily posed for photo's with adoing fans.

As if that wasn't enough, the team had spent its free time of the last week learning dance moves for their respective bands, so when the party moved to the dancefloor the spotlight was on. First up, the girls kicked off with Wannabe, while the gents held the crowds back. To say it went down well would be an understatement!

Soem technical problems meant the mens team performance had to be delayed, which was for the best perhaps, as the intervening time allowed the performers nerves to be calmed by a few pivo's. However once a suitable CD player had been found and hooked up, the 'young men' of team GBR were pouted up and ready to go!

They went, they Y'd, M'd, C'd and A'd their way through 4:40 of the finest dancing Slovakia had ever seen. Then they bowed to the rapturous applause and retired to the bar, safe in the knowledge that once again, Britain had won the banquet.

All photographic evidence has been destroyed. Hopefully.