The sitgetans are richer, their town is more picturesque and they attract loads of affluent tourists. We are just a lot bigger and that is about it. Or, that is at least the typical inferiority complex which some of us Vilanovins work hard to suppress.
So, no wonder we love roller hockey (hoquei sobre patins) where our team Club Patí Vilanova l’Ull Blau yesterday beat visiting Club Patí Sitges with 4 to 1. What a great local derby – all Vilanova fans could leave the home stadion at the Plaça de les Casernes content and proud. But there is a little but. Sitges’ loss underlined how frail they are in the Spanish top division, the OK lliga. They way things look now there will not be any derbies next season.OK lliga was, by the way, a strange name to me until I reminded myself that the letter h of hoquei is mute in Catalan. Well, that h is mute in Spanish as well, but I leave that to the side since this sport is so heavily dominated teams from Catalonia: of the 16 teams in the OK Lliga, only 3 come from other autonomous communities and out of these it is only Hockey Club Liceo de la Coruña which, at least relatively recently, has managed to challenge the best teams from Reus and Barcelona for the title.
Vilanova will remain in the OK lliga next season, Sitges will not. To me that is sad. If we do not play against them, how can we ever beat them again?
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Technorati tags: Barcelona, Catalonia, Penedès, Sitges, Spain, Vilanova
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