For all the talk, it was just a small group of stalwarts who made their way up to Attitash this weekend to round off the Spring season. Many names had been thrown out during the week about who was going to attend, but in the end it was just the usual suspects.

Alright, enough about the wasters, once again Portland found themselves drawn against Mystic River in the opening game. On paper this pits the top two sides against each other, and it was the Boston side that had the upper hand. Portland showed up initially with only 14 players, many of whom were carrying injuries from earlier in the Spring. After borrowing a player from Old Gold we took the field against a young and motivated Mystic side.

The Portland side hung with Mystics throughout the first half, and the 3-7 scoreline at the break was a fair reflection of the run of play. The second half was not so close however, as cracks were exposed and Mystics were able to run in 3 or 4 tries. In the process Portland picked up a couple of new injuries, lost their sub back to Old Gold, and lost another player to family commitments for the afternoon.

Things did not look good for our second scheduled game against Team Frankenstein, but fortunately they were even flakier than us, and showed up with only a handful of players. That means a forfeit, and a welcome let off for us. Naturally all we wanted to do was celebrate our good fortune, and then celebrate some more.

Much of the rest of the afternoon was spent celebrating, as was the evening, and long in to the night. By this time we knew we were drawn against our old favorites, Old Gold, for the third place playoff, so nobody was going to loose any sleep over that.

The morning dawned clear and bright, and after some burned eggs for breakfast, the reinforcements that met us at the ground that morning were a welcome sight. Fred, John and Jerry McQ had made it back from the day before, and Diesel and Tim McMahon added some welcome strength to our pack.

With all of this extra talent on board Old Gold never really stood much of a chance (do they ever?), and they were rolled pretty convincingly. Not sure how many we scored, but I know they didn't score any, and third place was comfortably ours.

That about wraps it up. Mystics beat up on Charles River for the final the day before, and it looks like North Shore won something for probably yelling the most.

Check out this sight for pictures of our game against Mystics and possible the one against Old Gold soon.

Plumbing new depths of boredom today, I present to you this site. Proof that we humans can find hidden meaning in a random array of letters. From my name I got "vomit longer" - did my parents have a vision of the future when they named me? Spooky.

Practice is on for tonight and Tursday, 6:30pm at Fox Street. Let's get a look at what sort of side we're taking to Bull Moose, and figure out who get's the top bunk.

Before there was Normandy, there was Dunkirk, a sort of D-Day in reverse. It was drawing to a close 64 years ago today. The BEF (British Expeditionary Force) had been chased out of Belgium without any chocolate, and found itself squished up against the French coastline. It took every remotely sea worthy bath tub in the south of England to evacuate some 338,000 troops over nine days, leaving no time to stock up on booze at the duty free shop. Operation Dynamo turned a potentail Allied disaster in to a mere humiliating retreat, and left the French alone to make friends with their new German landlords.

Two years later, on the other side of the world, the Japanese aviation industry suffered a major setback after losing 322 aircraft at the Battle of Midway. Admirals Chester Nimitz and Raymond Spruance out-foxed and out-fought Admiral Nagumo who had earlier commanded the fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor. Instead of the intended death-blow to the U.S. Pacific Fleet he received a major kick in the nuts, and probably had to chop his own head off or something.

Did you know that rugby may be played on grass, sand, clay, aritifical grass or snow, so long as the underlying surface is safe to play on? "It shall not be played on a permanently hard surface such as concrete or asphalt". Whew, glad I knew that. Click here for all you wanted to know about the laws of rugby, but were afraid to ask. Careful though, we might ask you to ref. a B Game.

Want a cool, free game to play on your computer? Check this out. Commissioned by the army as a recruitment tool, it's supposed to make you want to join up. It just makes me want to stay indoors and play video games. Warning, this game carries a high risk of turning you in to a spastic gamer nerd. Huuah!

Sorry it's been so quiet. I've been trying to find the right words to decribe the ignominy of Newport. Let's just say that the warm breezes were absent and the lure of cold beer was a little stronger than that of the soft turf. Excuses abound, but whatever the reasons, we were left to keep Springfield company at the bottom of the table. No offence to Springfield, but hell, that just ain't right.

I won't go in to match reports, since there is little good to report. We lost a scrappy game to Providence, who went on to beat someone else, and get rolled pretty easily by Newport in the final. Then, even with huge measures of referee incompetence working in our favor for once, we still managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory aginst Charles River.

In all my years, I have still to play a game on Sunday at NERFU. What is it about Newport that manages to bring out the worst in us?

On this day in history, 1588, the Spanish Armada left Spain with 130 ships and 30,000 men intent on invading England. Their plan was to go down the night before, so they could have a good sleep and show up refreshed. Well, the Spanish being what they are, they all got pissed up on cheap vino and kept each other up all night. Meanwhile the home side got a good night's sleep, and awoke refreshed and ready sink some ships. The bad weather didn't help the queasy Spanish stomachs, and after being chased all around the British Isles, they arrived home later in August with only 67 ships and 10,000 men. The English meanwhile didn't loose a single ship.

Only 15 days to the kick off of Euro 2004. Where you can see all of Europe's best soccer teams in action. England will face their arch rivals...(fill in any other Eurpoean country here). Ireland will play...with themselves, at home, since they didn't qualify. Mwahahahaha! But that's OK, they're in good company, because neither did...er...um...The Faroe Islands, Malta, Lichtenstein, Andorra, and a whole host of other quality footballing nations.

Just let it go already.

Newport beckons with the promise of soft turf, warm breezes and cold beer. Get out, get a life, and get down there. Be at the Park n' Ride at 5am (yes, that's right, 5am) on Saturday morning so you can get there in time for our first match at 9. Once again we are matched against Providence, who we always go toe-to-toe with, so your presence will make a difference.

Accomodations for Saturday night are all set with Willam and Lowie (sp?), and by all accounts their hospitality is legendary. Bring sleeping bags, tents and pj's and you can crash somewhere in or around their house.

Some have said that there is an Anglocentric prejudice to my postings on this site, and to that I just have to say, "that's bloody bollocks!". But, in an effort to recognize contributions to world history by other nations, I have scoured the web for evidence of other civilizations.
On this day in Irish history: it rained.
On this day in American history: Charles Lindberg (1927) and Emelia Earhart (1932) both decide to leave America but accidently land in France and Ireland respectively, and naturally they decide to go back.
On this day in German history: Sixteen year old Otto III was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. That's just a silly name.
On this day in French history: everyone wore skirts.

I rest my case.

Thanks Dom, for posting the match report for Saturday, although I'm not sure why we now have to call him "Long" Jerry McQuenny.

May 18th, sixty-nine years earlier, the former "Interim Administrator" of Arabia, T.E. Lawrence dies from injuries sustained falling off his Brough Superior motorcycle on the backroads around his Dorset home. "Lawrence of Arabia" as he was better known made his reputation while fighting with the Arab troops of Sherif Hussein ibn Ali against the Ottoman Empire during the Great War. Once the Arabian peninsula had been liberated, Lawrence hoped to see a single Arabian nation created, but what do you know, Arabian in-fighting soon cast those hopes asunder.

Wasn't that Carl Marx who said, "history repeats itself, first as tradegy, second as farce..."? If so, then we still have the farce to look forward to.

On to club business. As you may already be aware, we are trying to scare up names of people commited to going to see the Eagles play France in Hartford on July 3rd. Good seats are $42 each, and if we can get 20 or more guys going we get 10% off. Jim Gooch would like you to e-mail him by next Tuesday to let him know if you're in. Expect to cough up the cash a week later.

This Saturday and Sunday is the NERFU Tournament in Newport, RI. At the risk of sounding like a Match Report from the Old Gold Website, good numbers put us in with a great shot of going all the way this year. Worst case, you'll have a hell of a time in the process. So get out to practice this Thursday and shake it like a Polaroid picture.

As Lawrence said:
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. "
Finally some validation for not doing any work. Watch out! I'm dangerous.

News link: be sure not to leave the army off your invitation list. They don't take it well.