We Play for the Pennant

So Phil informed me that Ryde in their characteristic inconsistency, showed up with less than a full team against Putney, and procedeed to have their arses handed back to them with a 9-0 thrashing.

With that big victory for Putney, we are pushed back into 5th place, where we will play for the Pennant; the crappy team playoff.

The guys should have a good chance of winning it again, as we did last year.

Although it’s disappointing to not have made the final four, I think the guys will feel better about the 1-1 draw on the weekend. For us to have stayed in 4th place, we would have needed an 8-0 win over Kenthurst.

The question was asked about whether or not I’d play in the playoffs, but after seeing even Kenthurst, who were a bit of a pushover first game, getting pretty physical, I’d say there’s buckleys chance that I’d be back to play. All the teams in this year’s competition are just too big for my weakened state. The only exception is Oakhill, but they are just too good.

Nervous Wait

KEN 1-1 WPH

With the result from the last game, played three weeks ago due to heavy rain, which has been sorely missed in Australia in recent years, we were sitting in fourth place, but only due to a two goal difference.

This was the last game of the scheduled season, so we had to win today, and by a decent margin to guarantee a place in the top four round robin. Pre-match confidence against Kenhurst led to suggestions of a formation change, to go searching for goals.

Somehow I managed to sleep in, missing the first 25 minutes of the first half, and I was informed that we were dominating until letting in an easy one-on-one goal for Kenthurst, the product of some bad ball-watching.

All in all it was a pretty scrappy game, one of those games where the ball just doesn’t seem to come off anyone’s boot nicely. I watched Phil miss a great chance towards the end of the half. After receiving a good ball and running wide of the penalty spot, he tried to kick the ball with the foot that was opposite to his stride, and towards the near post. Unfortunately the ball bobbled and came off his shin.

It drew a lot of criticism from the bench, who felt he should have taken a touch and tried to blast it past the keeper. But it’s what I would have done, and if he’d hit it properly, the keeper would have been beaten, because he was not expecting the early shot. That’s the difference between most players on the team, and a real goal-scorer like Phil.

The second half was mostly our ball game, but that doesn’t mean we really had the ball. Like the first half, no-one seemed to be able to keep the ball under control. In fairness it has been three weeks since they played, and it’s not like I made any contribution to the game from the sideline. I really wish I could have though.

Phil missed another difficult chance, taken on the half-volley from a cross. It drew a great save, and would have been a ripper goal to add to his eight goals thus far. Scott was probably guilty of the easiest chance gone begging, when he had some much time in front of goal, but seemed unsure as to whether the game was still in play.

Finally as time seemed to draw to a close, James made a great run from the left of defence, beating a couple of players on the way. He wasn’t able to make much of the run in the end, but won a corner (another corner, we had almost 20 I think). He then provided the initial cross, which was rebuffed by Kenthurst, but then put in a second cross, the was met by Dan Fisher, who had his first kid just the other day (Congrats!), to bring us level.

With no more time to grab a second goal, we will just have to wait to see how the Putney and Ryde pairing goes. If Ryde can get a full team, we might be in luck. But Putney only need a one nil win to take fourth place from us.

Holding onto 4th Place

STU 1-0 WPH

Sorry guys, another game I missed. This time my excuse was better, I was in Hawaii.

My week in Hawaii …

… was awesome!

Part 7 Going home 8/7 – 9/7

Well we gained a day when we came to Hawaii, so conservation dictates that we would lose one when coming back.

Not much to speak about this day.  Got up early feeling very shitty, my cold was running out of control.  Had a very quick breakfast, and nearly caused my parents another heart attack, as I was busy buying some water and gum, when the bus was trying to leave.

And after all the fuss from the US Immigration upon arrival, finger printing and photos, they didn’t even give two craps about us leaving.

Again the Tylenol came to my rescue on the flight and I got several hours of sleep on the way back.

So Hawaii was a pretty good trip overall.  And now that I’ve ‘done’ a lot of things there, if I ever go back I can just lounge on the beach, or go surfing, or go to another island.

My week in Hawaii …

… was awesome!

Part 6 – Submarine adventure 7/7

We had yet another early start to the day, and were wolfing down breakfast under the nervous watch of our parents, who didn’t want to be alte for our bus.

Turned out the tickets we had were mis-printed, and told us to meet for the bus two hours earlier. I could have told them that. Why would we need to meet up at 11am to get to a 1pm submarine ride, when it is just down the beach!

So finally we had some free time to lounge by the pool, and get some sun. With my fair skin, not too much. Nyssa showed us up, with her ridiculous tan, after only a very small time in the sun.

The bus took us to the Hilton hotel at the end of Waikiki beach, and onto a wharf where we waited for the shuttle boat to the submarine site. These submarines are able to hold over 60 people and take them down to a depth of almost 150ft. They could probably go deeper, but the US Coastguard sets that limit.

We had to wait for a while, until we spotted the first submarine breach the surface of the water. From there the first 60 people jumped on and disappeared below the surface. After that we raced to the second site, where the other submarine would shortly surface.

We were able to spot its shape beneath the water, and I got a picture or two of it surfacing. Once on board we were treated to a great view through massive portholes, made of 3in glass.

Once everyone was in the submarine, we dived to about 40ft, to check out some artificial reefs and the marine life around them. We then dived to 80ft to check out some pyramidal reefs, placed by the University of Hawaii. There was quite a bit of activity around these reefs, quite a lot of tropical fish. At 80ft beneath the surface, the light coming from the sun is heavily filtered, removing pretty much all traces of the colour red. It was quite unique to look around and see that everyone had become bluish! We also passed a plane wreck, put there on purpose, not a real one!

We made our deepest descent to 120ft, where even the yellow on Andrew’s shirt and turned pretty much blue. Here we saw a shipwreck (artificial again) and plenty of fish, even a turtle or two. Finally after about 20 minutes we surface to the top. I didn’t even notice any change in the pressure, which was very welcome as I was getting progressively sicker at this stage.

It was a really cool experience to be down that deep in a submarine, but overall the marine life wasn’t very impressive. I’ll take snorkelling off the coast of Australia any day.

Back at the beach we had some food then headed to the Ala Moana shopping centre. It is apparently very big, and has lots of designer outlets. Nyssa was drooling at the prospect. I wasn’t entirely unimpressed, it’s certainly much bigger than crappy Westfields in Sydney, but once again, I’ve seen bigger in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Andrew always gets annoyed when I compare things to China, but it’s true. It wasn’t that big. I ended up leaving quite early as I began to feel dizzy and very crap. I did however pick up some Tylenol PM (Extra Strength) to knock me out once I got back to the hotel.

For dinner we went to a steakhouse, and I finally was treated to a big meal. I had a 450gram steak and prawns. I was very satisfied after that meal!

A couple of Tylenol later and I was sleeping like a baby.