Bali bombings hit close to home but rugby games go on

Bali bombings hit close to home but rugby games go on

Geoffrey Atkinson, Contributor, Denpasar

There was a minute's silence as Bali counted its dead last
weekend. And rugby footballers from around the region bowed their
heads as they ringed the playing field at Sanur -- in the heart
of the island's oldest tourist district -- on Sunday.

Some wept as they remembered 27 teammates, family and friends
killed in the first Kuta bombing three years ago. Many had the
number 27 embroidered on their left sleeve.

Among them was Dave Letchford, who was badly injured in the
2002 bombing which claimed 202 lives in Kuta. At the weekend he
had returned to Bali for the Bali International Rugby 10s
tournament as a key player with the ISCI Club from Jakarta.

"It was just gut wrenching," said the 39-year-old father of
three from his office in Jakarta this week. "Here we were playing
rugby on Sunday while they were still counting the dead. How many
were killed and how many were injured? We just didn't know.

"For me there were just so many mixed emotions -- rage and
fury at the depravity of people who could do such a thing,
feeling sorry for the victims, the injured, their families and
the people of Bali.

"When it happened the first time (2002) we all thought it was
a once off -- but when it happens a second time, it's not so easy
to pass off."

In 2002 the carnival was canceled after many teams lost
players and supporters in the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar bombing
at Kuta. Last week, there were no rugby casualties and organizers
called on players to decide if they wished to continue with the
country's showcase rugby event.

Clubs had come from Jakarta, Australia, Singapore, Guam and
even as far as Taipei. Only the undefeated Sumbawa withdrew on
orders from the mining company that employs most of the team.

Most players were tour veterans more interested in rugby's
camaraderie than the cut and thrust of 10s football.

"When you let terrorists start dictating your life, it means
they have won," Letchford said. "We owed it to the friends we
have lost and the victims of the night before to continue. But I
felt numb and hollow. It just destroyed the weekend."

In 2002 Letchford had been in the front seat of a taxi nearing
the Sari Club when the bomb exploded. The windscreen shattered in
his face, his glasses were blown off, both eardrums perforated.

He got out of the taxi disoriented, covered in blood and with
shrapnel-type wounds all over his face and upper body. A deep cut
gushed blood from his wrist as he saw people horribly maimed.

Even with these memories, he plans to holiday in Bali with his
family in a few weeks. "You have to stay positive ..." he said.

That seemed to be the consensus as a rugby crowd of more than
500 players and friends gathered for an open-air dinner in the
grounds of one of Bali's oldest hotels on Sunday night after the
carnival.

The organizers spoke of taking Bali 10s to the "next level".
And the 16 remaining teams that drank and sang late into the
night last Sunday were bound by a common thread -- to return to
Bali next year.

Geoffrey Atkinson is the media officer of Indonesian
Development Rugby, an organization working to develop the game
nationwide.