Commonwealth Games Delhi - Blog 2

Day 6
Getting into a routine in the village now of eating, having meetings, training and playing the Wii/Playstation. We playing our second warm up game against New Zealand on Friday, drawing 3-3. We really up our performance during this game with many of the players coping with the heat much better. Among the scorers where Kelburne's very own Gareth Hall and Mark Ralph with a trade mark drag flick, the third coming from Stevie Dick of Reading. Later on that day we had to get dressed up in our kilts and shirts for the flag bearer annoucement. It was annouced that Ross Edgar, who is a cyclist will be our flag bearer. All pictures of this and many others have been put up on the Kelburne Photo Gallery. We are currently all looking forward to the start of the tourament on Tuesday with our match against Pakistan.

Iain & Chris

Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010 Blog 1

Hello from Delhi!
We have arrived and settled in. The village is awesome! Lots of things to do. The only thing that isn't that good is the heat! We played Canada this morning at 9am and we struggled! It was 34DegC but towards the end of the game we started to get used to it and played some decent hockey(we lost 3-0 but that doesn't matter). Hopefully this will continue over the next few days and by the time the tournament starts we will be firing on all cylinders! Below is a picture of one of living rooms in the apartments.

The accomodation isn't as bad as reported and most things are in order. Everyone in the hockey team is pretty happy with it.

The wifi is a bit touch and go in the accomodation so will try and write some more blogs when we can. Speak to you soon.

Chris & Iain

Hällo von Duisburg!

Hällo!

We are in Duisburg, Germany for the indoor European Championships.
We arrived yesterday and played Spain in a warm up game and then had training today.
Tomorrow is the start of the tournament when we play Lithuania early afternoon then Germany (current European Champions!) in the evening.
Looking forward to getting started - the tournament seemed a long time coming!
We finished 4th last time around, so we are hoping for the same if not better this year.

Wish us luck!!
Julie (and the Scotland team)

WCQ - Invercargill 09 Entry 4

Hello everyone,

Well since the last time we posted a blog we lost to Malaysia 3-2, which was disappointing as we were 3-0 down at half time but managed to get it back to 3-2 but couldn't get that next goal which was annoying! So today's game against Wales was a must win game for ourselves if we wanted to have a chance of getting into the bronze medal match.

We went in at half time 0-0 but should have had one or two goals by this point but didn't turn our possession into chances! The second half started well and by the middle of the half we were two up but we started to get a bit nervous towards the end and conceded a corner. With the score at 2-1 we were looking to hold on and get the points but with 40 seconds to go we conceded a short corner. Luckily for us we managed to keep the ball out of the net and claimed our place in the bronze medal match! Woop woop!

We then went for a recovery session in the pool, which was god fun as we ended up just throwing a ball around and relaxing the the spa bath!

Big game tomorrow as we will be looking to beat China and claim the bronze medal, which would be a great achievement and a great finish to the tournament for this team!

Will hopefully post one more blog but no promises. Hitting Invercargill hard tomorrow night! (If any of the two pubs are open)

Bye

Chris and Ralphy

WCQ - Invercargill 09 Entry 3

Hi all,

The last post I did was just after the New Zealand game when we got a bit of a pasting! I am sure by now you will know that we have managed to win our first game of the tournament, beating Austria 3-2! Thanks to goals from Kelburne's Ross, Kenny and Ralphy. It was a tough game with us falling behind twice but we managed to dig in and get the two late goals required. Everyone is in good spirits.

We had a rest day today, which consisted of a short pitch session, then some aqua jogging in the local pool. We all got a shot on the flume afterwards because we were all such good boys!

Big game tomorrow for us, Malaysia. We are looking for a win to help secure our place in the bronze medal match, which is our aim.

The pro Ev tournament isn't going too well for myself as I haven't managed to register a win in about 10 games but I am always optimistic and know that if I put the hours in like the rest of the losers in this team, then I might win at some point!

Will try and write the blog on our next rest day and hopefully by that time we will have secured our place in the bronze medal match. Catch ya later!

Chris 

WCQ - Invercargill 09 - Entry 2

Good evening all,

Well we have now played the first two games of the tournament. The first game was against China and I am sure you will know by now we lost 2-1 but we played really well and deserved at least a draw out of the game, if not a win. The difference between them and us was that they took there chances and we missed far too many really good chances but we were all pretty pleased with the performance.

Although the weather here is very cold and extremely windy alot of the boys are getting burnt. Even Mr perma-tan Willie Marshall has managed to burn his face as can be seen in this picture.

We have also been doing alot of cooking for each other and last night myself and Kenny had a fajita night for Ross and Wei (former Kelburne indoor player of the year). It was a roaring success. Lets just hope when we go round to their crib we get the same standard of food!

Our game today was against New Zealand and we got an absolute hiding! It finished 8-0. We weren't really anywhere near at the standard we needed to be to get anything out of this and they punished us with some good team goals. The team are pretty disappointed as 8-0 is a hammering!

We have a rest day tomorrow, so hopefully we will be able to do something other than hockey!

I will get back to you over the next few days if anything interesting happens. Bye!

Chris and Ralphy

WCQ - Invercargill 09 - Entry 1

Hello all!

We have arrived and been in sunny Invercargill for a few days now. The journey was very very very long! We all new it would take just under two days but it felt like much longer. In total we had five flights and one night in Dubai. The night in Dubai wasn't as glamorous as it sounds. We arrived there at after midnight, then had a flight the next morning at 9 am so no time for a bit of sight seeing. We left on Saturday and arrived here on Monday.

We are staying in a pretty nice motel. Every two people have a small house to themselves with kitchen and hot tub (it's really a spa bubble bath thingy).

Invercargill is like a place that has stayed the same since the 1950's. Lots of small shops, with not very many pubs or clubs, which I am sure is a good thing for some of our team!

The pitch is a two minute walk away, so no probs getting to training or matches. Just played New Zealand today and lost 2-0. Wasn't too bad as it was just really to get used to the pitch and get some of the jet lag out the legs. One more day then we play our first game on Saturday against the Chinese. We are all looking forward to it and the squad is in good spirits.

We have all been playing a bit of a Pro Ev tournament on the PS2's and Xbox's and also some cricket in the car park. So it's all good!

Hopefully write the next blog after our first game and let you know how we get on. Hopefully do the club proud!

Chris, Iain and baldy Ralphy

The Final result from Melbourne

Hello Hockey Players (and others)

 

I know I said I'd finished, but I thought you'd like to know that the team we drew with (and lost on rule 29b, subsection 3) - Queensland - won the final 2-0.  I think that means we were the second best team in the tournament, doesn't it?

 

bye

Alan Bryce

Semi-Final against Queensland Friday 9th

Game 8 and looking forward to a tough assignment against the top team
of the Carnival, Queensland. I'm playing full back or sweeper,
depending on whether you speak Aussie or not.

We haven't lost any of the last five games and we're moderately
confident. Both sides had chances in each half and both sides could
feel that they should have scored.

The game became a story of superb, 'robust' defending and fleeting
opportunities in front of goal. At this point, it should be pointed
that the rules of the tournament meant that Queensland only needed a
draw to progress to the Final. Guess what?

The final result of 0-0 showed that our game had improved greatly
since the first match.

And that's it - tournament over and much to be proud of. A final
'by-the-way' - the colours of our team, Western Australia Country, are
black and gold (handy,eh?) and avid Clydesdale member, Alan Auld, has
had to wear the kit every day!!

We're back in Scotland by the 20th. Over and out.

AB

EHL Barca Day 1 - Thur 8th Oct

Was an early start for the Kelburne boys with a 5.15am meet at the airport. Almost got off to a bad start with H Coles queueing to check into the wrong flight! As usual we had to keep him right.

Two flights and a few games of card later (John C found Scabby Queen a challenge, not as bad as Gordo thou) we arrived in Barca. Sunny 24'C great weather for a few games of hockey!

After a bit lunch and a lie down we took our first trip the Polo Club for training. As expected the facilities where pretty good. Having to walk past the polo pitch, two hockey pitchs and 20 tennis courts to get to where we were training. A bit different from a Thursday night at Bella...

We finished the night with dinner, where Nelly, Iain H and Johnny went for the lobster, which definitly wasn't lobster.