Old Gold Departure

All of you coming to Old Gold tomorrow should be at the Park ‘n’ Ride on Marginal Way no later that 9:45am, ready for a prompt departure. If you plan on going their directly, here’s where we’re playing, and please let someone know that we shouldn’t wait for you.

Fall season starts tomorrow, and it’s like The Clash said:

When they kick at your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun

New World Order

There are those who have a hard time letting go. Just because our leaders tell us that our old enemies are now our allies, it doesn’t mean that we feel differently about them overnight. Germans, Japanese, Russian, Vietnamese, Koreans (the southern ones), Argies, French, Irish (the northern ones), Iraqis (mostly), Iranians (completely), South Africans (the white ones), Serbs/Croats (the nutcase variety), Danes (the Viking kind), Italians (the Roman kind). Take your pick. Depending on your age, historical, geographic and economic circumstances, any or all of the above list may have been your mortal enemies whom you are now expected treat with trust and mutual respect. And don’t even get me started on religious persuasion.

To add to that list, and to our increasingly shades-of-grey world view, I submit the name of Old Gold. As most of the old gits like me on the club are fond of saying, we remember a day when up was up, only Alexis Carrington wore shoulder pads, and Old Gold were the team that you loved to hate. Victory was usually as much of a certainty as the manhole covers in the middle of their pitch. Well, the quality of their fields may not have improved, but it seems that all of a sudden they got a little good, we got a little worse, and it’s time to kiss and make up and turn our venom on South Shore.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of South Shore, but as you can tell I’m having just a bit of difficulty with Old Gold as my new best friends. My feeling is that history will record this era along side those pictures of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein, and Neville Chamberlain assuring the people of England peace with Mr. Hitler. Any side that allows “do rags” is not to be trusted.

When it comes to Old Mould any respective difference in divisions means nothing more than ink on paper, and I hope they are not foolhardy enough to think otherwise. Nevertheless I find the lack of pre-match hype on their website down-right patronizing.

So, in this spirit of love and fellowship I expect to see you all there on Saturday, and in order to get them properly narked before hand, I suggest you go and fill out their lovely availability chart here. I’m sure they’ll appreciate knowing that you’re not available for any of their other games.

Practice tonight at 6 on the Fox. Be there if you want to see some minutes this weekend.

Duty Calls

I'm sure I don't need to remind you that Thursday night is practice night, but what I might need to remind you is that we have just over a week before our first (and only) warm up game before the Fall season begins. Hard to believe, I know, but there you go.

If you have any aspirations to fill your boots with some D3 opposition this season, you're going to have to put in some minutes prior to that to show us what you've got. It'll be no use trying to get on the bandwagon four weeks from now. So, in order to take the field against Old Gold next week, you're going to have to display your credentials at practice. While turn-out to date has been good, a number of you have been conspicuous by your absence. Let's put that straight, shall we?

Bored?

Really bored?

Squad Practice

Just like the falling of the leaves, the first herald of the Fall is upon us with the resumption of formal training sessions in preparation for the upcoming season. For those of you new to the regime, we're still talking about Fox Street at 6pm this Thursday, and then Tuesday's and Thursday's from here on out until we've won the bloody lot.

Please come properly equiped, and be ready to go at 6. Expect to be challened both physically and mentally. Nowhere does the cliche of getting out what you put in apply more than on the training field. Our Captain first shared this quote with us, and it's an apt time to revisit it: "Training is principally an act of faith. The athlete must believe in its efficacy; he must believe that through training he will become fitter and stronger; that by constant repetition of the same movements he will become more skillfull and his muscles more relaxed...He must be a fanatic for hard work and enthusiastic enough to enjoy it." Franz Stampfl.

To think that you have either nothing to learn or nothing to offer to training is to sell yourself short.

See you there.

Burlington Stream Of Consciousness

Our 7's lads and some dude
Originally uploaded by tlovering.

Fred was cleary still flying on Monster when he wrote his report of the weekend, but it's entertaining reading nevertheless. All I can figure is that they made it to the final. To figure out how, read on...

"Hello All,
Big hits, Super Try's and even a Cooler of Monster drinks to keep you going at our age, right Jerry? Thankfully we had a few youngsters to round out the side and after a tight game of St Albans Hold em and a breakfast fit for someone who doesn't have to play in 45 we marched out on the field . Move your tent !! sign this !! Play the home Team 1st, mere attempts to divert our focus. Not even the 5 Canadian Fembots with an eye on our shifting canvas and our female standouts would weaken the Resolve of this Group. That's right! we were there to play 7s and after a trip to the dugout with some pre wrap and a Rolaid the whistle blew. Jerry 12 Burlington 10, you had to be there! Next it would be Mad River and If I were on the other end of it I would also be Mad,Portland many Mad river few(2-0). Oh no my nose what shall a Cowboy do? Suck it up Hannas and look like Jerry or myself till you stop playing and get it fixed, damn that coors light was warm! Dartmouth Portland on field 2 , were up again Boyz! They look pretty fit, they have subs, they beat the Nairobi guys. Wait a minute were as good once as we ever were and Deans hit all his kicks, just ask him! we played our game,we won! Portland (3-0) Ok I could really use a sub and Hannas is over at the Clones tent working on a new Nose, work on the traps and we'll fix your nose, oh yea no hat's over here, it ruins the look. Ottawa Green Guys vs. Portland in the semis but we will have to wait till the Women's final is over and look, Patty and Sarah have been stacking tries and tackles next to the Maple leaf flag all day. The Canadian Fembots went through our bags, drank Stuarts Monster and stole our Women, get away from my wife!! and then they won it all. Big props to Sarah and Patty for a great day of rugby and eventhough they are taking the trophy back to the island of girls who Rape and Pillage they could not have done it without you! Green Guys vs. Portland Toad stompers,Let's just say we did nicer things to them when I was a child and knew no better. Portland 50 Green Guys 5, where's my damn sub?? Apparently Burlington got it under control and played themselves in the semis to make it into the final with us. Deja Vous, we beat them already! 4-0 vs. 3-1 for all the marbles. No excuses we lost in the final and finished the day 4-1 just like them. Maybe we should start a 7s tourney in the summer so I can sit for a goddam minute!
Fred

Fall Schedule

Gents, the Fall season looms large, and our fixtures have now been released. Make sure your schedules are clear to make all of the games, including the Playoffs. Practice will start in earnest next month, so enjoy youself at sevens now, and get ready to work a little harder.