1936 - 1937 Mission Diary

The official diary of the Gould mission to Lhasa sent by the British government. Read more about the mission diary.

Tuesday, 20th October.

see photographs below

Today we were challenged to a game of 'Soccer' by Lhasa United, a team picked from Tibetan, Ladaki (Mohammedan) and Nepalese sides.

They turned out in garish Harlequin coloured shirts. After a good, clean, hard game the Mission Marmots (as we call ourselves) won by scoring the only goal of the day. The goal was so small that the only hope of scoring was to go through oneself with the ball. Playing at 11,800 feet is not as much of an ordeal as one would imagine and we appeared to be no more breathless than our opponents.

We now practice nearly every day and are thinking of picking up a number of seven -a-side teams to keep ourselves in training.

Richardson left early this morning for Gyantse, to see that everything is going on all right there. He will he away for about a fortnight if there is not too much snow on the passes.

Author: Frederick Spencer Chapman [see handwritten annotations in Diary by Hugh Richardson in MS. Or. Richardson 2, Bodleian Libary, Department of Oriental Collections, University of Oxford]

Page Reference: Pt VIII p.2

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