The big game/more preseason training/day off

The north v south game occurred at Bridgenorth Oval on Saturday. It's a small ground - only 140m long, according to google earth. (The centre square is meant to be 50m long and the 50m arcs are meant to be 50m long each, so 140m length ground is rather short.) Anyway... the long and short of it is that we lost by 15 points.

It was scrappy in the first half as the ground was still pretty wet. In the second half, the skills improved but the margin seemed to be pretty close all day.

Personally, I was feeling pretty flat - I didn't have the acceleration that I had enjoyed during my umpiring season, so that was disappointing. Interesting to note that the fitness was fine, it was just that I didn't seem to be able to get any speed with my sprints. My highlight was a beautiful shirt-front. One of the Lonnie boys who was built like a cube of muscle (I'll say muscle, it makes my story sound better) had been running through the midfield, collecting the ball and charging through and kicking into the forward line. Anyway, in the third quarter (maybe it was the fourth) he's come through and I've lined him and he's gone down like a sack of spuds and the ball's spilled free. It was a bit freaky cos he was a helluva lot bigger than me. I really didn't get into the swing of things til the second half - I had a couple of kicks into the forward line and neither of them hit targets, which was crappy. I picked up a couple of tagging jobs too, which I was quite happy with.

What else was there?

More preseason. I took the day off work today with grand plans for a blackadder marathon, but alas, it wasn't to be.

Instead, I took my car in for a service, walked into the uni from there and checked out Justin's final year engi project which involves wind monitoring masts. Then we went back to Kingston and did the infamous hill run.

I started out pretty quick, but my legs were tired, so it felt quite slow. As the run continued, I struggled more and more, and just tried to keep up with Justin. At the final 500m, it flattens off a bit, and I had mate, so we belted to the top of the hill. We made it up there in 32min40s, a personal best by 2min30s. We were quite happy with the achievement.

Congratulations must also go to Haile Gebrselassie for breaking his own world mark by 29s in the Berlin Marathon. He ran it in 2h3min59s. Corresponds to sub 3min kms all the way through. I've done a couple of them in my life... just a shame that we had to overshadow this remarkable event with our own world record hill run. Ah well, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Preseason Begins

The weather is crazy. The sky has erupted and the the shockwaves are shaking the windows.

Ok, slight exaggeration, but it was raining pretty hard and the wind was pretty strong...

I went for a run this morning with Justin and we attacked the hill up to Leslie Vale. As we left, it just started to spit a bit. Undeterred, all decked out in shorts and T-shirt, we headed off. It's a solid 7km up to the top of Leslie Vale and I was starting to feel my breakfast quite early on... Nearing the top, the heavens opened and slapped us with cold stinging rain. But we were going up hill, into the wind most of the way, and we did it in about 35mins, so that was quite impressive. The way back down was really very blowy - a struggle to stay on the road.

But we got there... and back in 64mins, and still with a fair bit of petrol in the tank. So I'm hoping to crack some PBs for Burnie 10 in October and Point to Pinnacle in November.

And then, hopefully that'll set me up for a big footy season...

It's pretty crazy, there's more snow on the mountain again. It seems to have been awfully white for an awful long time.

Boundary Umpires versus Field Umpires

In what was billed to be... actually the game didn't actually get a billing. It was just a social soccer game between the field umpires and boundary umpires, with the field umpires kitted up in new shirts, each individually named. The field umpires, after a season of soccer practice looked to be the raging favourites, but many still were bearing the scars of their defeat to the boundaries two years ago. The boundaries came into the game with a big bench, many of whom were very young. But the young kids weren't to be disappointed, being given plenty of opportunities to get a few kicks throughout the game.

The game started with yours truly in goals. Possibly not the wisest move considering my general lack of co-ordination. Anyway, us boundaries, attacked early, to no avail. Then a shot, with a solid save by me, resulted in a corner, which preceded to miss - got caught on my wrong foot for it and wasn't in the ball park...

Their second goal came soon after, again, with me in goals.

Down 2-0 at half time, we had to step up. I got rid of the goalie gloves and passed them to somebody competent. And before we knew it I was having a wild strike from 30m only for it to ricochet back to me for a lame second attempt. One of the fieldies instinctively put his hand down to stop the ball, giving us a free kick just outside the box. The field umpires started swearing, and the freekick was turned into a penalty which was duly converted.

There was shear jubilation, as we can't say we were expecting to score too many goals.

The field umpires responded quickly, replying within the next couple of minutes.

From there it was down hill for the field umpires. We scored a second time, and then, we sent a third in from a corner which their goal keeper shovelled in for us. But alas, the lack of proper goals meant that the referee couldn't tell whether it went through. The referee asked around, before ordering the corner kick to be retaken. The resultant corner resulted in a shot at goal, which went about cross-bar height through. The story goes that one of the field umpires allowed the previous goal on the basis that it would not be a good look if his side won, having conned a goal off the ref. So the previous goal stood, giving the fields possession. With about 5-10 mins to play, there was talk of "5 minutes each way in extra time" "golden goal". Slack defence from the field umpires ended that talk quick smart, as none of their 5 strikers made it to the back half to defend.

With 2 minutes to play, we withstood a couple of corner kicks before the final whistle sounded. A solid 4-3 win for the boundaries!

Seat Belts

I was driving home from church today, and I was 100m up the road when I realised that I hadn't put my seatbelt on. Considering my driving skills, it wasn't exactly a risk I intended to take...

But in the 5 years or however long it is that I've had my licence, that's the second or third time that I've done that - just forgotten to put my seat belt on. I don't know why.

Grand Final

I do enjoy grand finals, and today was no exception. I umpired Huonville and Lindisfarne in the SFL Regional League Grand Final. It was all tied up at three quarter time. But despite Lindisfarne being undefeated all year, Huonville kicked away in the last quarter for a surprise victory.

Having run my previous two games in a three-umpire boundary umpire system, there were doubts as to my ability to run out a full four quarters. But I got through. And it was good to umpire with guys who wanted to be there. There was a really good vibe today in the crew, and it was really enjoyable.

We had about 4300 people there, who made a good deal of noise. There's nothing like a good crowd and some sunshine (of which there was plenty) to lift your spirits.

And the grand final fudge combined with the old beer in the shower, whilst stretching also make into my highlights.