Thirst for speed and deafening adrenaline, dangerous tracks and stunning races, the whistling of the wind in your ears and the heady feeling of real freedom... You experience all this only when it appears in your life - a powerful and modern racing motorcycle.
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What happens when you combine football and motorcycles? It will turn out a motoball - a motorized sport popular in Europe. Of course, this sport is far from safe - athletes on motorcycles in pursuit of the ball have to show unimaginable dexterity and perform mind-blowing stunts.
Many European countries even have national motoball teams. Interestingly, many of the best motorbike players in the world come from Russia.
A motoball match is played on a football field. The game involves two teams of five players each: four riders and the goalkeeper - the only one who is not sitting on a motorcycle. The goal of the motorcycle players is a large ball 40 cm in diameter and weighing about one kilogram. When a player approaches the ball, he slows down with one foot and kicks the ball with the other.
The match is monitored by two referees. The match is divided into four halves of 20 minutes. Goalkeepers stand in the red area in front of the goal, which other players are not allowed to enter. But they have at their disposal the rest of the field, on which they drive at great speed, sometimes about 100 km / h. There are several safety rules: for example, players are not allowed to ram or kick each other, but this does not always save you from injury.
The motorcycles that the players ride are specially designed for motoball and fitted to the body of the rider. Now such motorcycles are produced in Spain - motorcycle clubs in France, Germany, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania and the Netherlands buy equipment from one company.
Motoball is a favorite sport in several small towns in Russia. But the first unofficial motoball match took place in the French city of Dijon. The game quickly gained popularity, and ten years later it was already being played in England, the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium. And the first official match was held in 1963 in the USSR.
Nowadays, there are several annual motoball championships: the European Cup of Nations, the French Cup, the European Champions Cup and others. Almost every year Russia wins, and the second place most often goes to France.
Motoball: a look through decades
The one who sees the motoball competition for the first time has mixed feelings: what is it - football, hockey, a jousting tournament or a gladiator fight on motorcycles? Indeed, motoball is a special sport, loved by fans for high speeds, constant change of players, expression.
Grand opening of the 1st European Championship 1986
The bright exotic elements inherent in the motoball are a convincing argument in favor of the version about the birth of the motoball in the circus arena in France. It is believed that it was the French actors of one of the circus groups who first played football on motorcycles for the audience. One way or another, but no one argues with the fact that France is the birthplace of the motoball. The year of the first motoball game, 1923, has also been preserved for history, although until recently it was believed that the first matches in this sport took place in 1929 in Dijon. In those years of clear rules new game was not there yet.
Belarus. USSR national team - Champion of Europe - 1987
In the late 20s - early 30s of the last century in France, societies and unions of motorcyclists arose one after another. They made a significant contribution to the development of motoball, especially the "Union of Motorcyclists of the Dawn" (Troyes), which celebrated victory in the unofficial French championship in 1932, and a year later - in the official national championship. Other motoball teams appeared in the city of Troyes, which merged into the "Sports Union of Motoball Players of the Dawn", which still exists today.
Gala evening dedicated to honoring "Metallurg". V. Nifantiev presents a motorized ball to N. Ozerov
Following France, the motoball appeared in Italy, England, Holland. The newborn sport brought together the first German spectators in 1930, the initiators of the matches were the Cologne teams Velbert and Greford. In 1933, the first international match between French and English motorball players took place, in which the founders of the new sport won with a score of 3: 1.
After the Great Patriotic War Motoball began to be played in Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria:
USSR Championship. Krasnoyarsk. 3rd from the left - V. Nifantiev
In Moscow, the motoball "premiere" took place in 1937, when two teams entered the field State Institute physical education. Both players and fans liked the new sport so much that a real motoball boom began in our country. About two hundred teams appeared in different cities, towns, villages Soviet Union- from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. At the end of 1962, the decision of the Presidium of the Federation of Motorcycle Sports of the USSR "On the development of motoball in the Soviet Union" was issued. The DOSAAF Central Committee organized orders for the manufacture of special balls and equipment for players.
European and German Cup - 1981. In the foreground - Nikolai Anishchenko
In 1963, on the initiative of the leaders of the motor-ball of France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, the International Union of Motor-Ball Clubs was created. And if earlier in every country in the new kind sports played by their own rules, then with the creation of this Union, uniform rules were developed - they were based on the French version, which made minor changes and additions, tested in other countries.
The year 1963 was remembered by the players and fans of motoball in the Soviet Union also by the fact that, on the initiative of the magazine "Behind the wheel", the first All-Union competitions were organized at the capital's stadium "Stroitel". 12 teams took part in them, the team of Alma-Ata won.
Finalists of the USSR Cup - the team "Kometa" Elista, "Dombay" Cherkessk. 1967
The history of international motoball tournaments dates back to 1964. The strongest teams from France, Germany, Holland and Belgium participated in the first European Cup. The European Cup rightfully went to the most experienced players - the French.
In 1965, the first USSR championship in motoball started, and a year earlier - the championship of Russia. The title of the strongest Russian and all-Union team was won by the Elista "Kometa".
Team "Yenisei", Krasnoyarsk 1966 Silver medalist of the Championship of Russia
The Soviet motoball debuted on the international arena in 1966 - the Dombay team from Cherkessk held a number of meetings in France and Germany. In 1967, "Dombay" took part in the official European Cup and immediately won it.
The skill of Soviet motorball players is convincingly evidenced by the fact that they won the European Cup 14 times, and in 1986 they won the first continental championship. In the same year, the motoball was included in the program of the first Goodwill Games. Two matches between the national teams of Europe and the USSR were held in the city of Vidnoye, both were won by the USSR national team.
France 1981. From left to right: S. Chasovskikh, V. Kuzychenko, A. Danilin.
A lot has changed in motorbike today. With the collapse of the USSR, all-Union competitions also collapsed - they were replaced by the championships and cups of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania. In other countries former USSR they forgot about the motoball, which can be said about England, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria. But in Germany and France, as before, dozens of teams are fighting for the championship title, youth championships are being played.
Tournament of veterans in Kovrov. V. Lopukhov concedes a goal
Motoball is a European sport that has never gone beyond the continent. The most important motoball tournament is the European Championship, held annually among 7 teams: Russia, France, Germany, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, Holland.
European Championship, Pinsk, Belarus
In the "sky firmament" of the motoball, their star teams and individual bright stars. Over the years, such teams were: German "Typhoon" (Mersch), "Puma" (Kuppenheim), French "Suma" (Trois) and "Camare" (Camare), Russian "Dombay" (Cherkessk) and "Kometa" (Elista ). IN last years The titles of stars are rightfully borne by the teams Metallurg (Vidnoe), Kovrovets (Kovrov), Vitry and Valreas (France), Avtomobilist (Pinsk, Belarus). The best motoball players of our time are the athletes of the Metallurg team: Honored Masters of Sports Sergey Chasovsky, Vladimir Artyushkevich, brothers Alexander and Vladimir Sosnitsky, Andrey Pavlov, Roman Krivchenkov, Gennady Mits, Vladimir Danilin, masters of sports of international class Vladimir Serebryakov, Alexei Danilin, Anton Gusev. In the motoball world, the star names of the athletes of the Kovrovets team (Kovrov), Honored Masters of Sports Alexander Tsarev, Valery Ionov, Viktor Shiryaev, Nikolai Pogodin, masters of sports of international class Vladimir Tsarev, Alexei Mironov are well known. Motoball players high class playing for the team "Kirovets" (village of Poltavskaya, Krasnodar Territory) - Honored Masters of Sports Viktor Krivoy, Viktor Pustyk, International Master of Sports Nikolai Vanyukov. A figurative comparison with Maradona and Pele was deserved by Anton Vlasovets from the Pinsk Avtomobilist (Belarus). The names of French motoball players are covered with well-deserved sports glory: Gerard Pontinnon (Club Houlgate, Houlgate), Graziano Maragini, brothers Philippe and Laurent Lenoirs (Suma, Troyes), Olivier Bonger, Mathieu Voronovsky, Gwental Voronovsky (Nouville de Ruato"), Gerald Meyer ("Valreas"). The history of motoball at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century will undoubtedly include the names of the best German players: Thorsten Schwartz, Michael Schwartz (MSC Mersch), Frank Schmitt, Thomas Schmitt, Holger Schmitt ("Puma", Kuppenheim).
We are all used to such traditional sports as football, hockey, basketball and even rugby. After all, how good it is to come to the podium and enjoy your favorite game, these feelings should be experienced as often as possible.
But in today's material we will tell you about a sport called motoball, which in the near future will certainly have weight in society. Moreover, there are already a lot of fans of this sport in our country. No wonder the motoball has an international status, which means that interest in it is really growing. By the way, this year the European Motoball Championship will be held in our country, in the city of Kovrov.
Comparison with football
Motoball is one of the types of motorsport, which is a game of football on motorcycles.
The game takes place on a field that corresponds in size to a football field, that is, 105 meters long, 68 meters wide. However, there is a slight difference in the layout, because the motoball does not have a central circle, and the goal area has the shape of a semicircle. The field surface is usually cinder or asphalt. They play with a ball that is much larger than a soccer ball.
Each team has 5 people: a goalkeeper and 4 field players on motorcycles.
“What is the difference between a moto-sick motorcycle and a cross-country one?”, you ask. We will answer you. The bottom line is that the differences are noted in the control levers. A duplicate foot is installed on a motorcycle for a motoball rear brake With reverse side, since during the game one leg of the motorbike player is occupied with the ball. On the front wheel of the motorcycle, arcs for dribbling are installed. And in front of the bike there are plows so that during the game the ball does not get under the bike.
Motoball history
As a sport, motoball appeared in France in 1931 and has been pleasing fans with its entertainment for 87 years. The first professional team was the Sochaux club. After that, teams from such cities as Reims, Paris, Vitry, Avignon, Nevers and Troyes began to emerge. And it was in 1933 that the team from the city of Troyes became the champion of France and left its mark on the history of this sport by the fact that this team was the first to prepare special motorcycles for the game. By the way, they also found the right solution for putting the ball into play - a special yoke, which is still relevant today, only its appearance has been slightly changed.
In the same 1933, the first international match between teams from England and France took place. After that, teams have already been created in Belgium, Holland, Germany and Italy. Even in North Africa, ten teams were organized by the end of the 50s. As a result, motoball became an official sport, having an international status.
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Motoball in the USSR
Rules of the game
Here are the rules for the game of motoball, approved by the European Motorsport Union:
- Duration of the game: 4 periods of 20 minutes with 10-minute breaks (another format is allowed), between the 2nd and 3rd periods the teams change sides of the field. In cup matches, with a draw in regular time, 2 more periods of 10 minutes are played with a 5-minute break. In the event of a draw, a series of 4 penalties is broken through, then, if necessary, one at a time - until one of the teams wins.
- Scoring system: win - 2 points, draw - 1, defeat - 0.
- Technical defeat: score 0-3.
- Field dimensions: length - 85-110 m, width - 45-85 m.
- Gate dimensions: width - 732 cm, height - 244 cm.
- Ball: circumference - 119-126 cm, weight - 900-1200 g.
- Team composition: in the application - 10 players, 2 mechanics, 1 coach, in the field - 4 players on motorcycles and 1 foot goalkeeper. A maximum of 10 motorcycles can be used per match.
- Age of players: over 16 years old.
- Judges: in the field - 2, side - 2.
- Motorcycle weight (without fuel): 70-120 kg.
- Motorcycle length: 2.2 m.
Motoball in Russia
The era of motoball in our country began in 1965, when the Kometa team from the city of Elista became the first champion of the USSR. In those periods, no one even thought that Russia would win the European Championships in the future.
Here's what to the question "How did you get into motoball?" answers the current chairman of the motoball commission in our country, Valery Mosin, who can rightly be considered a legend of this sport:
“Honestly, it was pure coincidence. In my youth, I was fully physically prepared, I loved sports. But in general, I didn’t want to do sports, but history, I entered the history department of Moscow State University three times. And they never took me. I was interested in archeology, Novgorod birch bark letters were especially curious - then it was a very “hot” topic. But, alas, the competition was big, and I did not work out. Yes, and there was no experience - I did not have time to visit any expeditions.
He served in the army for three years. And when he returned, he began to think about employment. And after the army, then three months were given to get a job and to go on experience. And now these three months are coming to an end. I am traveling from Vidnoye by train and meet my friend and her husband there. We started talking, and I found out that my husband works at the Central Automobile and Motorcycle Club. I told him my story, he thought and said: “Well, come to work tomorrow, we need smart people.”
And I came. It was 1968. My department was engaged in motorcycle racing on ice, ice speedway and motorbike ball. I knew and loved sports, so I quickly got involved. I worked for myself and worked, and then circumstances developed in such a way that by 1974, due to some events, I was left alone in this department. Once, then I had to lead, and I became responsible for the USSR national motoball team. The first pancake did not come out lumpy - in 1975 the national team won the European Championship in French Houlgate, and I remained at my post.
The most titled teams in the country are Mettalurg from Vidnoye and Kovrovets from Kovrov, who have won the USSR championship in turn for 21 years in a row.
Valery Mosin recalls that Yuri Gagarin even looked at a motorbike once:
“There were big competitions at Luzhniki in many sports, and Yuri Gagarin, who was then on the crest of popularity, was the chief referee of all competitions. Well, he approached the motoball, there was an exhibition match. But I didn’t run around the field with a whistle. ”
When the chanson ceases, only the sound of the collective husking of sunflower seeds remains in the night cabin of the minivan, spreading deep from the front seats, their smell mixing with the molecules of masculine cologne. At first, the sound resembles the rustling of a finished playing record, but soon the associative array changes - now these are clattering ground beetles somewhere under the skin. The monotony is broken by Roma (he is driving), who shows Nikita and Lesha a video on a smartphone with his daughter from his first marriage. “He hears the sound of engines two kilometers away and asks his mother: when will we go to the stadium? He remembers what dad does,” the driver smiles. "It's good when the relationship remains normal," they nod in unison in response. Roma, Nikita and Lesha are 22-year-old motorball players of the national team and Metallurg from Vidnoye near Moscow. In mid-July, their club guaranteed itself another championship, and now the guys are going to the junior tournament, where their age is the limit for participants. Destination - the village of Kushchevskaya, the same, infamous.
Vrrrr, vrhh, vrhh, vrrrr - Vasya Ivanov's motorcycle from Metallurg growls painfully, and this is minutes before the start of the principled game with Kushchev's Comet. In a small, like bus stop a dozen red-faced men yell at a tin booth at the edge of the field. Of the censorship words, “fan!”, “relay!”, “changed ?!”, “checked ?!” are most often used. The judges and the stadium announcer Faina (“Actually, I usually lead weddings”) rush the guests. When a discussion breaking through mutual accusations comes to the conclusion about the seriousness of the Gasgas breakdown, coach Andrey Pavlov decides to release the still completely inexperienced 16-year-old Nikita Markov on a light Kawasaki. From the very beginning, the leaders - Roma Detsina, Nikita Semin and Lesha Volkov - exclude him from combinations, Metallurg de facto plays in the minority, the team fails to cross the center of the field, all one hundred spectators present at the sports facility and rooting for Comet, in ecstasy. At some point, the foot goalkeeper of Metallurg fails to keep a giant ball, which is so large that it is perceived at the level of pure geometry: you want to call it a ball. Finishing, goal. But the raised hand of the referee cancels the success due to a violation of the rules in the attack. The judge, however, is from Vidnoye himself.
Photo: Leonid Sorokin
In the morning, the minivan gets stuck in a traffic jam somewhere near Rostov. Roma has been driving for 13 hours already, but, pumped up with instant coffee, he looks cheerful even in 40-degree heat. Cheeky, short-haired thug with a good disposition, he likes to make semi-serious claims to reality, accompanying them with daring abuse. His sarcastic comments over the last hundred kilometers were awarded to a couple kissing on the side of the road, a pie with potatoes and many traffic participants. A horn is heard from the passenger car on the left, the guys run out of the car at the call and warmly shake hands with the driver. “And I see that the balls are ours,” the 50-year-old mustache shows on luggage compartment where Vasya sleeps on a hill of white spheres. This is Kazak, a former motoball player from Kovrov, who goes to the sea with his family. “In the early 2000s, Metallurg and Kovrovets were sworn enemies, matches regularly ended in fights,” explains Roma. "Fans?" - "No, there were almost no fans."
Photo: Leonid Sorokin
The French invented football on motorcycles 85 years ago, but this sport took root most of all in the USSR. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world of Russian motoball collapsed into an occupation for a handful of enthusiasts of several hundred people, seven out of 209 teams remained, so such a meeting is an incredible coincidence. Once the hobby was actively supported by DOSAAF - "schools of patriots" and volunteers army. Now an expensive motoball (motorcycle - from $ 7,000 plus the upgrade price, uniform for the season - 10,000 rubles) survives at the expense of business and regional authorities, but, despite the status of a half-dead sport, the Russian team won 7 of the last 10 European championships and three more times took silver. High scores are often accompanied by humiliation off the field: the team went to the last tournament in Germany without equipment, as a result, it was bought by a German entrepreneur. Among all human activities in the field of physical culture, the Russian motoball is characterized by the most glaring gap between entertainment and popularity.
At the entrance to the Kushchevsky district, a policeman slows down the minivan. “Ah, motoball players! Play with ours? Come on, all the best." A senior in rank grabs him by the shoulder. "Stop! Documents please. Metallurg, that is. They took away, therefore, our Krishtopa ... ”Ivan Krishtopa is one of the leaders of the main team of Vidnovitch and the Russian team. He started playing in Kushchevskaya, but he was quickly noticed in Metallurg and made profitable proposition. The club from Vidnoye is the richest and most titled in Russia, there is an abyss between it and everyone else. The last time hegemons near Moscow were thrown off the throne more than ten years ago - this was the very period of internecine wars with Kovrov, accompanied by frequent scuffles. The base players of Metallurg receive a salary in the region of 40,000 rubles, bonuses for victories, and club apartments are provided to non-residents. In other teams, it is rarely possible to earn more than 9000 rubles. per month. The president of Metallurg, Valery Nifantiev, who founded the team in 1972 and was first a player and then a coach, knows how to negotiate with the administration (there is a separate article in the budget in Vidnoe for motoball) and entrepreneurs (recently money was thrown from Mechel). The club says that for the sake of good relations with officials, Nifantiev had, for example, to arrange football matches for them, and then clean up the dressing rooms and wash the toilets alone after the guests. Having agreed with the policeman that Krishtopa is still a fine fellow and glorifies the Krasnodar village with his game, we drive on.
Photo: Leonid Sorokin
The audience vilifies the Vidnovsky judge with dashing Kuban words, but soon subsides: Metallurg went to attack furiously. Audially, a motoball match is similar to a market dispute of eight people - in terms of the number of motorcycles on the field. Dividing the ball in a small area with short jerks is a chaotic exchange of remarks, long howls in fast attacks are emotional interjections following the results of the next round. Most of all, stable, tightly knocked down guys are valued in motoball, Metallurg has two of them - Roma and Lesha. They take the game into their own hands: they roll in arcs around someone else's penalty area, pulling opponents on themselves, and then they try to go into a sharp turn in search of a moment for a pass or a shot. The villagers in this segment categorically fail to pass the center of the field through the pass - binding rule games. In a few minutes, the crossbar of the Comet's goal vibrates twice after powerful strikes.
The announcer, in a slightly naive manner, asks the audience to cheer for the "Comet" more sympathetically, "clap their hands more actively." “There will be, Fain, there will be,” the men promise her. A drunken half-naked Kuban yells: "Come on the puck!" - and frantically, with a flourish, beats the air in front of him with his fist, as if trying to throw his hand onto the site of the motodrome. His unpretentious sorcery works. Roma starts having problems with the rear wheel, he, furious, rolls out of the field, thus introducing another young understudy, Artem, into the game. Comet's counterattack at this moment gets bogged down in Metallurg's penalty area, the guys are burning gasoline on a two-meter patch, trying to knock the ball in a favorable direction for everyone. From multidirectional impacts, the projectile is static. Success finally comes to Lesha, but he suddenly loses a ball gray with dust, and it quickly ends up in Metallurg's net. Against the backdrop of a general joyful mate, the guests' bet solos with a sad mate.
Photo: Leonid Sorokin
The minivan flies narrow road past billions of Kushchevsk sunflowers, following with their black eyes the luminary, which is now at its zenith. These fields once belonged to Sergei Tsapok and his gang, who killed three families during the redistribution of land five years ago, 12 people in total, including children. “The Tsapkovskys, of course, helped the Comet with money,” recalls Roma, “but not that much.” He knows what he is talking about: he himself grew up in the Kuban, in the neighboring village of Starominskaya, played for almost all local teams, and two years ago he waited for a call from Vidnoye. “Tsapki suggested that Kometa change its name to Arteks-Agro, like their company, they promised to buy best motorcycles If you pour money into it, you will be stronger than Metallurg,” says Roma. But the club refused: after all, for 50 years, fans have become accustomed to the Comet. Romin's story adds a new dimension to the history of both the club and the village. To become stronger than Metallurg would mean becoming legends, changing the course of the history of Russian and, probably, European motoball. A beggarly team whose highest achievement in modern times- third place in the championship, is trading with the most influential organized crime group in the region and refuses to yield. A name for which there is no glory, but only a handful of fans, turns out to be more expensive than gold medals. The way to the minivan is blocked by a barrier: the train is coming.
Photo: Leonid Sorokin
Until the end of the first period remains minutes three. Roma with a patched bike is back on the field and still rams everything that comes under his wheels, sometimes on the verge, sometimes beyond the foul. A swift spurt after a tackle in the center of the field, Nikita exchanges one-touch passes with Roma so quickly that the Kushchevites do not have time to understand which side the ball is from. Lesha, who is simply called Wolf in the team, interprets space best of all, due to which he soon finds himself in the very vantage point - centered right in front of the enemy rectangle. The goalkeeper of the "Comet" instantly understands what he will take in best case 15% of the goal, and jumps at random, legs and arms wide apart, trying to maximize this figure. The wolf strikes in the opposite corner and foppishly, with two fingers lightly squeezes the visor of the helmet, as if it were a hat. Off the field, he wears a real hat - a cowboy. A murmur is creeping around the stadium: “Well,” “What is it,” “What did you want?”, “These are Muscovites.”
Score 1:1 only seems decent. For Metallurg, accustomed to a 4-5 goal difference after the first twenty minutes, this is almost a disaster. During the break, coach Pavlov starts the installation non-verbally - hits the understudy Nikita on the head with a helmet. He has words for the Wolf: “How do you win back?” - “I’m playing normally…” - “I’ll burp you! Why are you doing six collective farm races ?! The collective farm race is an excessive individualism in the game, as well as the main tactical technique for beginner motorball players. In youth tournaments, the ball is often given to the strongest player who can ride with him for five minutes. Looks depressing. The mechanic rushes about among the motorcycles, not having time to tighten them up, for which he receives from the coach: “Are you completely drunk ?!” Before the game, we really drank with him. Roma gets on all fours, and ice water is poured on him from a bottle. Motorcycles are smoking behind the steaming Roma.
Having reached the Krasnodar Territory a couple of days before the start of the tournament, we turn towards the Sea of Azov. I ask the guys why they need such a game as football on motorcycles, if possible, in general, even without them. “My older brother has already signed up for football,” Roma shows himself to be an adherent of determinism. “And there is little entertainment in Starominskaya.” Vidnovchanin Lesha, who is responsible for mild hazing in the team, sends the younger ones to either sweep the interior or wash motorcycles, followed his motocrosser father. Nikita, the captain of the team, is a quiet, thoughtful guy, while avoiding answering.
The second period begins with a 16-meter penalty, which is given for non-critical violations in their own penalty area. Comet players line up a battlemented wall out of their silhouettes, parking in two rows. Roma accelerates menacingly, but does not hit, but rolls the ball back to Lesha. The cunning Wolf, waving, lets him through, untouched, to Nikita. The one on the left twists into the far corner and - ui-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i - triumphantly rides to his gate on rear wheel. Nikita is an apologist for an intelligent playing style: a little less power struggle, a little more aesthetic passes. Within two minutes, he does something quite incredible. The ball launched by him from an uncomfortable position, like ball lightning, begins to go around physical objects in the form of players, and then intangible ones - the consciousness of the Comet goalkeeper. He won't even move.
On a spa night, one of the motorized referees, whom we picked up along the way, having made his way through the canisters of cognac, bottles of beer and canisters of shmurdyak that filled the bus, pats me on the shoulder: “Come on, you can help collect shells.” The deserted shore is completely strewn with crushed shells, in both directions, as long as the eye can see. “But in the morning, no way?” - “Shh! You can't take them out of here." We drag a 10 kg sack towards the bus each. “Why do you need it at all?” - “For chickens. Calcium".
Photo: Leonid Sorokin
A couple of days later, the bus was already parked at the Kometa garage-workshop, which is near the stanitsa motodrome. Under acacias and pyramidal poplars, a table is set: vodka, a huge vat of khashlama, salted and fresh vegetables. Guys - here judges, coaches, mechanics, administrators - remember the past. “A couple of years ago, ours lost in the final of the European Championship to the Germans, and the French, who were rooting for us, gave a shit about those helmets while they were in the shower.” “Sergey Chasovskikh, he was one of the best in the 1980s, he drank like hell. Sometimes, during the game, he would drive up to the edge and let's puke. Will puke and vomit further. He was closed before the games for money in the bullpen, so he still ran away. “The wolf once got so overheated that he tried to score in his own goal.” In the case of Lesha, this is especially dangerous: at the youth championship, he somehow scored fifty goals in a week. To cool off, I go deeper into the workshop cave. There, the mechanic, Uncle Tolya, explains to me that after the high-profile case and sentences, the connection between the Kushchev team and the Tsapki did not break. Natalya, the wife of Vyacheslav Tsepovyaz, the second person in the organized criminal group who received a 20-year sentence, still supports Kometa with money. His words are confirmed at the pre-match ceremony, when the announcer thanks Natalia Tsepovyaz for her help. An official from the administration speaks opportunistically: “In Russia now there is no best time, but you motorball players are her future. Brave warriors. Such as Prince Vladimir was. The championship is dedicated to the memory of Ivan Strishny, once a celebrity from Kushchevka, who died of cancer in May; on the corrugated fence surrounding the field, his photograph hangs - a pink shirt, a mustache, a sly squint. During a minute of silence, carefully questioning the public from a cohort of officials, I find confirmation of my guess: Strishny is the father of Natalya Tsepovyaz.
Photo: Leonid Sorokin
Roma dribbles the ball, gently pressing it to the arc of front wheel, but falls with the motorcycle, turning it to the side too sharply. Injuries in a motorbike are a frequent occurrence, but most treat them as minor hindrances. A couple of years ago, the attacker of Kovrovets almost had his finger torn off in a collision - he was left hanging on a thin piece of skin. The athlete left the field for only a few minutes - finally cut off the phalanx with scissors and put on another glove over it. Roman, however, is fine. A second later, he is back in the saddle: he lifts both the bike and the ball with one foot, as if taking them in an armful. Roma is very angry: today he hasn't scored yet, but he missed quite a bit. He, as the coach explains, does not always succeed in using his leg like a tennis racket - gently substituting under the ball, and not hitting with a swing. Roma's patrimony is the left flank, I stand behind the gates of the Comet on the right and have already got used to covering my face with a notebook during his visits to the target: they are invariably accompanied by a plentiful release of fine gravel. By the end of the second period, Roma still buries the opponent. He simply trampled the tired defenders, hit the goalkeeper twice, but still scored on the third attempt. Typical Roma.
At 10 am, we drink moonshine with motoball veterans on the grave of Vladimir Krutikov, overgrown with ambrosia. Krutik, as he is affectionately called, played for Kuschevka in the 1980s, and then, like many stars, he moved to Metallurg. “No one rode like him,” recalls coach Pavlov. “We all used a stencil to draw a seven for ourselves on T-shirts - his number.” Five years ago, Krutikov in Moscow was hacked to death with an ax by robbers. About ten meters away lie Natalya Kasyan and her son - random victims of the Kushchev massacre, then simply unsuccessfully visiting their neighbors. Unexpectedly, the veterans recall that Igor Chernykh, nicknamed Amur, who killed children that night and later committed suicide in the isolation ward, started out as a motorball player. “Already then he was crazy, he crashed into everyone head-on,” recalls the director of the Poltava “Kirovets” Nikolai Vanyukov. - Cupid - what is it? A fish, and a fish rots from the head." Pavlov, who grew up in Kuschevka, remembers the Tsapkov brothers in the early 1990s: “They used to come to our disco then, they were still snotty.” Thirty meters in the other direction - the fresh grave of Ivan Strishny, very close by lies the shot Boris Moskvich, the head of the Kushchevsky district, who clashed a lot with the Tsapkovskys.
Photo: Leonid Sorokin
On the cemetery land, one can clearly feel the grandeur of the interweaving of Kuban destinies. Social substances - crime, power, business and motoball - are here in a state of endless diffusion through the semi-permeable partitions of sports defeats, major deals, strong-willed decisions and terrible tragedies. I ask Kuban veterans: “What happened in Kushchevskaya five years ago? For what?" - and I'm waiting for an answer in the spirit of the story about the already fucked-up Cupid. Coach Pavlov answers cautiously and abstractly, as if he were a lawyer: “I think they provoked them.”
"For what?" With this question after the game, I again approach Nikita. This time he is ready to talk, but comes from afar. “The guys from hockey Metallurg at the end of the season get 300,000 rubles on the card, this is in addition to their salary, but we were paid 4,000 for the cup. I am generally interested in the civil service, the prosecutor's office, for example. Sometimes I wonder: what kind of sport is so idiotic in general - motoball - and what kind of strange garbage I do in my life.
The last goal of Metallurg, like the first, is scored by Volk - he brought him one on one with goalkeeper Nikita with a magnificent pass. "Kometa" will play one more ball, but by that time only the husks from the seeds will remain in the stands. After the final whistle, the guys douse themselves with cold water, and Roma immediately goes in the direction of the bus - to call Vidnoye. A few hours ago, two daughters were born to him.
