Thursday, April 24, 2008

SEVENTH DAY OF COMPETITION

Well, Newport, supported by a large contingent of Olympic Club poloists, took it to the Russian Beavers last night and won by two goals thereby giving the Olympic Club 30+ team the Gold Medal. I can't give you all the other results as it is now Noon the next day and the organizers have yet to post the results from yesterday. In the 30's, Russian Beavers were second and Szombathely Aligators from Hungary were third. In the 40's, The Olympic Club beat Masters Old Fellows from Brazil 7-1 to win the Bronze medal. Kiev beat Kazakhstan to win the Gold. In the 45's, the gold went to WPM-04 Moscow, The Olympic Club was second and Polytechnic Barbarians (England) were third. In the 60+, Tri-Valley Spartan Cardinal won the Gold, defeating SV Poseiden Hamburg (Germany) in the final.



Today is the Open Water Swim, followed by the Closing Ceremonies and then a big Aussie barbecue. Our Olympic Club group is breaking camp in various stages. Some left last night, some are leaving tonight (it seems the flights to the US leave between midnight and 3:00 am) and the rest leave tomorrow. I am off tomorrow to catch up with my wife, Carolyn, on the Gold Coast and then we will begin our vacation in Australia. I hope you have enjoyed this blog and found it informative? Masters is really a fun experience, and the closeness of the teams is great to see. There was some really good water polo played here. If you want to see the complete results, sign on to http://www.2008finamasters.org/, and hopefullky the organizers will have posted the results. Good Day Mates!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

SIXTH DAY OF COMPETITION

As usual it was another day of scrambling from pool to pool. The 40's had their semi-final game against Kiev at 10:00 am at the University of Western Australia pool at 10:00 am. We had not played at this pool before and it would mean that we had to go through commute time traffic, so we left 2 hours before the game. The University is nearer to the main part of Perth, so we took the back roads to get there, rather than chance the freeway. In the first semi-final, Kazakhstan, who finished second in their group behind The Olympic Club, defeated Masters Old fellows from Brazil 8-7. Then Kiev, who had finished second to Masters Old Fellows, defeated The Olympic Club 7-4. It was a hard game to lose, but the Club just couldn't seem to get started. Kiev won mainly with outside shooting. They will now meet the Masters Old Fellows for the Bronze medal.

The 30's had their final game at Claremont at 2:00 PM. They had an easy game against the Dolphins, winning 15-2. Thery have finished their competition and now must wait for the results of the Russian Beavers and Newport to see if they get Gold or Silver? They play at 5:00 PM today, and we will be there rooting for Newport; or as they say in Australia, we willl be barracking for Newport.



The 45's completed their competition with a 10-5 win over Masters Old Fellows. They will get the Silver medal, with Gold going to MWP-04 Moscow.



It has been a pleasant trip with a great group of players between the 3 teams. The 30's are really fired up by the great camaraderie between the guys on the 40's and 45's., and are already bstoked to do this again in 2 years in Sweden. Last night, all the teams gathered at Sorrento Beach for a barbecue by the pool. Our group from Room 126 went to the super market for the meat and miscellaneous stuff, while two of the wives from the 40's team went and got the salads and veggies, etc. You should have seen the face on the lady at the chicken place when we told her we would take 120 of her chicken kabobs. This was repeated when we moved over to the meat section and ordered 150 beef kabobs. It was a great night with a lot of water polo conversation between the teams. The stories got better as the night went along.



Other results:



30 Women: The Gold was won by City Beach over Triton 7-6, and the Bronze by Brazil over the Dolphins 4-3.



40 Women: The usa/Australia team norched a win over the Pink Pointers 11-9. The Dolphins meet Queensland Blues for the Gold today and the University of Western Australia meet the University team for the Bronze.



Men's 30's: As reported earlier The Olympic Club beat the Dolphins 15-2 and Newport lost to Szomathely (Hungary) 6-4.



Men's 40's: Results of the crossovers reported above. The medal games are today.



Men's 45's: KAOS Bulmanians lost to Sibenika 3-2. The results of the round robin gives the Gold to MWP-04 Moscow and the Silver to The Olympic Club. They haven't updated the points totals in 2 days, so I am not sure who finishes third.



Men's 50+: KAOS Centurions lost to Ras Tanura 7-2; Tri-Valley won over the the Dolphins (Australia); and KAOS Blasters defeated City Beach (Australia) 12-6.



Men's 55+: The Tri-Valley Spartan VCardinal defeated KAOS Spoilers 9-5, and Tri-Valley lost to Dusseldorfer SC (Germany) 6-2. The Tri-Valley Spartan Cardinal had an unfortunate situatuon happen to them and they had to forfewit their first 3 games. The rules call for 9 persons to be dedicated to a team when you are using players between two teams from the same club. They were doing this in the 60's and 55's, with 6 players playing on both teams but unfortunately when the records were checked, they only had 8 players dedicated on the 55+ team. Rather than suspend them from the tournament, the FINA Commission had them forfeit their first three games. This is a round-robin group, and since they have not updated the point standings in 2 days, I do not know how the medal situation stands.



Men's 60+: Tri-Valley Spartan Cardinal defeated the Dolphins 13-3 and they meet Poseiden Hamburg today for the Gold medal.



We are heading into the final day today, but the Aussies have a big barbecue party scheduled for tomorrow for those who are staying around. With our Olympic Club teams some are heading out on very late flights tonight, while others are leaving either Friday or Saturday. For me, I am going to Brisbane on Saturday where I will drive down to Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast where I will join my wife, Carolyn, who has been visting her half-brother and sister-in-law. After a couple of days there, we will then visit Cairns, Melbourne and Sydney before heading home. I trust I will be able to report the final standings to you before I end my blog, that is if they get around to posting them. Itr was after 9:00 PM last night, before we found out where and when we play today

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

FIFTH DAY OF COMPETITION

The fifth day of competition is over and it is starting to resolve itself as to who is medaling and who is not. The Olympic Club is looking good to medal with each of their teams, but it looks like they will not be gold medals. The 30+ and the 45+ are playing in a round-robin schedule, the 40+ is in a group system of play.

The 30+ looks to get the silver unless someone beats the Russian Beavers in one of their two remaining games. The best bet is on the last day when they play Newport. Newport was at the pool last night supporting the Club in the game against Szomathely (Hungary). They saw a very exciting gamewith the Club trailing by 2 goals at half time. They fought back, tied the game with at 3:34 to go in the fourth quarter, and scored the winning goal with 1:02 remaining. They said they would try to beat the Russian Beavers on Thursday to give us the gold. We will be there supporting them.

The 45's look to win the silver medal if they win their game tomorrow. The 40's play Kiev in a semi-final tomorrow to see if they play for Gold or Bronze. The other semi-final is between Kazakhstan and Brazil Old Fellows.

t has been very frustrating as things are spread out, and the organizers have not schduled the games in the second round or finalk roiund for the 40's games. You cannot find out where and when you play until after 8:00 PM on the night before the game. That makes it very dificult to prepare properly. They have not scheuled any of the games for the finmal day of competition and we will not find out the schedule until after 8:00 PM the night before. They seem to think they need to know the teams playing before they schedule the games, and appealing to them that the games need to be played so they should be scheduled ahead of time falls on deaf ears.

Other results from April 22nd:

Women's 40+ USA/Australia 7 - Pink Pointers 11

Men's 30+Newport 6 - Imperior 4; Olympic Club 6 - Szomathely 5

Men's 40+ KAOS Exterminators 5-0 (forfeit); Olympic club 10 - Kazakhstan 8

Men's 45+ KAOS Bulmanians 4 - Poltechnic Barbarians 5; Olympic Club 9 - Sibenika (Croatia) 2

Men's 50+ KAOS Blasters 8 - Triton (Australia) 2; KAOS Centurians 3 - Tri-Valley 15

Men's 55+ KAOS Spoilers 2 Melville Sharks (Australia) 6; TriValley 9 - Old Edwardians 8

Men's 60= - Tri Vally 10 - Poseidon Hamburg 3

Hopefully a good day today and more news tomorow.

Monday, April 21, 2008

DAY FOUR OF COMPETITION

Not to good a day, except for the Swn Brewery Tour. Two of our 3 teams lost, so the brewery took a big hit.

Results:

Women 40+ Lost to University of Western Australia 14-3

Men's 30+ Newport beat Brenntag (Germany) 9-2; Olympic Club lost to the Russian Beavers 8-7

Men's 40+ Kaos Exterminators beat City Beach Torpedoes 6-4; The Olympic Club beat City Beach Momparas 6-5

Men's 45+ KAOS Bulmanians beat Europa Sporting Association (Italy) 4-3; The Olympic Club lost to WPM-04 Moscow 10-4

Men's 50+ Tri-Valley lost to WPM-04 Moscow 8-5; KAOS Centurians lost to Calgary Masters (Canada) 13-1; and KAOS Blasters beat RAS Tanura Club 8-6.

Men's 55+ KAOS Spoilers lost to Dusseldorf 7-1, Tri-Valley Spartan Cardinal beaTri-Valley 6-5

Men's 60+ Tri-Valley beat Melville Sharks 17-3

I was unable to see the O Club 30+ game as we had a conflict with the 40+ team playing in different venues, but they all felt that the game was winnable, but things didn't go their way.

The 40+ team played City Beach Momparas 6-5 in a hard fought game. We then all headed over to Claremont for the 45+ game against WPM-04 Moscow. The Russians came out ansd dominated the game, winning 10-4. They got 5 goals from Georgy Mshvenieradze, who was one of the top hole sets in the early 80's with the Russian National Team.

After the game, we all heaqded to the Swan Brwery for a tour and tasting. The tour was very interesting and they were very generous with their tasting. Swan is a very large brewer and the size of the facility was very impressive. They had 28 holding tanks that were 32 meters high and each tank holds 1 million 900 thousand cans if beer. They manufacture about 8 different types of beer. The losses kind of dampened things, but it was a nice evening.

Today the 30's play at Challenge against Szomathely (Hungary), the 45's play at Bicton against Sibenika (Croatia) and the 40's are at Claremont against Kazakhstan. Another day of shuttling between pools

Saturday, April 19, 2008

SECOND DAY OF COMPETITION

As usual,I will give an update on the US teams. I wish I could give you more details, but this is like a three ring circus and you only see the other teams in passing or if they are playing the game before or the game after you. With three Olympic Club teams that takes up most of the day. Results from yesterday were:

Women 40+ USA/Australia lost 20-2 to University 40+

Men:

30+ Newport beat the Dolphins 16-0,

35+ No teams

40+ KAOS Exterminators lost 4-7 gto City Beach Momparas (Australia); Olympic Club had a bye

45+ KAOS Bulmanians beat Masters Old Fellows (Brazil) 5-4

50+ Tri-Valley beat City Beach Bears (Australia) 5-1

55+ Tri-Valley beat KAOS Spoilers 7-4

60+ I think I forgot to report on Tri-Valley yesterday, but they The Dolphins 2 (Australia 11-2, and today they beat Dolphins 1 (Australia) 10-3

Yesterday was a combination of games and social for The Olympic Club as two teams played and one had a bye. In the morning game, the 45+ team beat Europa Sporting Associatiuon (Italy) 9-1. Then the 40'sand 45's went to Cottlesloe where the 45's had a beach house and had lunch and a few beers while waiting for the 3o's to play at 6:30PM. As you can imagine, there were many stories of past World Games as this group has been together since 1996 in Sheffield. The 30's stopped by for while but left early to rest fro their game.

At 5:30 we reported to the pool for the 30's game to find that swimming was still going on in the pool, we had to wait for that to end and then for them to convert the pool from swimming to two water polo courses. the games got under way at 7:15 PM. It was a very close game with half time ending at 1-1. In the second half the Club pulled away to win 9-1.

Today the 45's play KAOS at 11:00 at Challenge; the 30's play Newport at 3:00PM at Claremont, the 40's play Newport at Challenge. Another day driving between pools and tryting to keep everyone on the same page and winning. Aside from all of this, we are enjoying Australia.

Friday, April 18, 2008

FIRST DAY OF COMPETITION

Well, things got rolling today and it was an up an down day forUS teams. Newport in the 30's had a bye. Kaos Exterminators in the 40's lost Kazakhstan 16-2; in the 50's Tri-Valley beat Calgary 11-3; KAOS Centurians lost to Brisbane 5-0; and KAOS Blasters tied the Dolphins 5-5.

Now, back to my purpose, The Olympic Club. It was a good day, going 3-0 for our 3 teams. The 40's and 45's had games at the Biction Pool, which would be every water polo players idea of a perfect club. It sits right on the Swan River, has a clubhouse, with a bar and restaurant. Our teams played at 11:00 and 3:00,so weall hung around and enjoyed the ambience. the 40's won over West Australian Cavaliers 8-1, and the 45's beat Polytechnic Barbarians (England) 8-2. We then all made the trek to Challenge stadium where the 30's were to play Imperial Sport from Maldova at 6:00pm. As the game time grew close, the sky got darker and darker, and just before the game was to begin, the players were ordered out of the water as there wasl ightning coming. They brought all of us over to the indoor pool where Synchro was practicing and then the negotiations began as to how we would make this game up. Wew couldn't figure oiut why this gamewasscheduled as the first game of the round-robin format, as theres two teams were the Gold Medal game from 2006, won by Maldova. After discusson of many possibilties, including playing the game on Friday, the 25th, after competition was over, as neither team wanted to play the other as their second game of the day. After a 40 minute delay, we were ordered back to the pool to start the game in 15 minutes. Imperial jumped out to a 4-1 lead but Olympic battled back and ended up winning 11-9.


It was an interesting game,with some excellent refereeing and some not so good. In the 10:00 am game at Bicton,one of the referees had a glassof Australian red wine and was taking sips at breaks. It wasan interesting day. The 45's and 30' play today, the 40's have a bye. More to reprt, Ihope, as we move forward.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

DAY ONE OF COMPETITION

The past three days have been rather busy as we try to get acclimated here. We have practice scheduled each day at 3 PM for all the O Club teams. Not everyone arrives on the same schedule, sonme got here Sunday, and some each day since, with the last guys getting yesterday. The big thing has been trying to get everyone registered as it takes up to 2 hours to do this process and sometimes it is hard to scheule that amount of time doing nothing. We also spend a good amount of time shopping as we are in apartments and houses and yiu need to go out and buy all the basices. Naturally you do not think of everythin g the first time out, so you always have to go back. Everything is very expensive here, more even than California, and since the weakening of the dollar, it really gets expensive. In the past we usually ate dinner out, but here we are mostly cooking in the apartments as going to dinner can easily run $50 - 60 a person.

Today starts the 7 days of competition. There are 6 courses set up with 3 at Challenge Stadium and one each at University of Western Australia, Claremont Pool and Bicton Pool. The Olympic Club 40's leadoff with a game at Bicton at 11:00, the 45"s play at Bicton at 3:00 and then the 30's play at Challenge at 6:00Pm.

It will be hard to keep up with all of the activities but we will endeavor to find the scores for the US teams and keep you posted