Thank you, Lion Cubs

I must have been one of the biggest skep­tics of the inau­gural Games, but over the last 12 days, I’ve been treated to some of the best things it has brought to our shores.

I’m just hop­ing we’ll for­get try­ing to show the world how we can do this and do that — it may take sev­eral more decades before we break the stu­pid infe­ri­or­ity com­plex that makes us call our­selves ‘the lit­tle red dot’ — but instead savor and remem­ber the enthu­si­asm and joy some of these kids have shown the older cyn­ics like me.

If you’ve been hid­ing under­neath a rock, let me tell you now, that Boys’ Own stuff was demon­strated in the bronze medal foot­ball match by our own Lion Cubs even with their cap­tain Jef­frey Light­foot hav­ing been taken off early in the game for a nasty gash that required stitches.

Our boys went and, accord­ing to their coach, over­played their hand, dis­obeyed coach­ing instruc­tions, and smacked four goals past the boys from Montenegro.

It’s been a long, long time since a local foot­ball team’s photo graced the front pages of our news broad­sheets, and just as long since one packed a sta­dium. I’d have bet that if the National Sta­dium had hosted the Cubs for the Games, the Kallang Roar would’ve made a come­back and scared the crap out of peo­ple rid­ing in the Sin­ga­pore Flyer.

Thank you, our home-grown boys.