Coed Y Brenin Mountain Biking (15/16 August 2009)

What an outstanding weekend. The weather was rubbish... see last photo of the most benign sky we encountered over the weekend... and being able to borrow tent pegs to replace those safely stored in Peter's loft averted a potential accommodation debacle, but this was right up there in the outdoor fun/fear/excitement top 10.

The reviews of the trails talk about the adrenalin rush... they did not exaggerate - although they do not dwell on the 45 minutes of climbing required to get to the highest section. There were some fantastic bits of single track and in places only the knowledge that the trails had been built for bikes convinced you that they were do-able.

Steve pretending all is well!

Notice how Dave releases his gonads when Steve is safely behind the camera....

A chink in the clouds... on the rare occasion when we were below them rather than in them!



"The Beast" 38.2k of Mountain Biking delight.

Sutton 20 - Avondale 8 (Surrey Div 1 - 13 August 2009)

This is the part of the season where Sutton and Avondale first teams meet once or twice a week for a month ... It's a good job they generally see eye to eye.

The shoe switched feet again for this encounter (after a heavy defeat for Sutton at Putney, it was Avondale's turn at Morden). The visitors managed to turn up without five of their first team, which was never going to improve their chances even taking account of the return of King Louis to their offence. Having said that, they hung on well and late in the third quarter were only two goals adrift at 10 - 8. From that point on however it was one way traffic as Sutton's better fitness and organisation paid off.

The soft shoe shuffle continues at Putney on Monday.....

Croydon 9 - Avondale 5 (Surrey Div 1 - 10 August 2009)

Avondale managed just seven players and two (junior) supporters for this Surrey league match. The supporters were disappointed to miss of the more entertaining members of the team, but were very impressed with the game nevertheless.

It was a typically tight match and given the size of the pool, the absence of a shot clock and the paucity of members in the visiting team, the slow pace was probably inevitable. As usual, Avondale had more than their share of shooting chances, but converted fewer of them than they should have. Good defence for the first three quarters contained the home team's strong attack, but the majors were mounting and in the end, rather than lose a man, the visitor's defence had to sit off the hole man and suffer the consequences. Half way through the last quarter the scores were level at 5 - 5, but the inevitable tiredness of the visitors presented the home team with several late scoring chances that they took.

One particularly moment of brilliance from 007, early in the last quarter is worthy of note. He stole the ball from an attacking Croydon player, wide on the Avondale left on their own 4m line. THe Croydon player was swimming in on goal with the ball when it disappeared over his head and Bond headed up pool with it. He sprinted to the opposition's 5m line and their with a bounce shot that was too fast for the eye to follow. "What a pleasure", as they say!

Bournemouth - Boscombe Pier Swim - 19-Jul-2009

Avondale ventured into the open water again for another mass stranding.... What a fine looking bunch of athletes, so well insulated (mostly) :


Jonnie Flipper remains the cetacean to beat, as he emerged first from the water despite stopping along the way to exchange pleasantries with other members of his species.

Penguin 8 - Avondale 6 (London Premiership 12 July 2009)

The South London Correspondent reports from Ealing:

I dragged Rocky from his genteel Wimbledon BBQ to the poorly lit, but well used Gurnell Pool at Ealing for a Sunday evening Polofest. Why can't they turn the lights up in that place? It's a nice facility, deep water and plenty of seating for Rocky and I to select a good vantage point.

I barely recognised the teams, both blunted by the lack of their respective cutting edges. The goalkeepers managed a hundred years between them and the average age might well have been nearer the forties than the thirties. I came over all nostalgic at one point. Rocky, being more of a polo purist, turned up his nose and slept through most of the game.

It all became rather dreary and the opposition scored two more goals than did Avondale.

The blueseventy Great Big Open Water Swim (11 July 2009)

Avondale narrowly beat their Surrey rivals Sutton and Cheam to become the highest placed water polo team (possibly) in the 3k swim. Whilst registering for the event Jonnie and Dave noticed an impossibly tall foreign chap who looked like he knew his way around a rowing lake without a boat! Focco sensing a fellow Dutchman in his midst quickly found out that it was none other than Maarten Van Der Weijden, the Olympic 10k gold medallist. Well the boys now knew that they should have someone to slipstream around the lake, of course sprinting past him in the last 50 yards to take the win, at least that was the race plan. As the race started and 188 swimmers fought to get in the slipstream of the Dutch Master those well tuned water polo skills came in very handy and the Avondale lads managed to get themselves up near the front of the pack. The field quickly thinned out and by about 500 meters the high elbows and tactical manoeuvres essential in a water polo game gave way to the extended steady strokes of the long distance swimmer.

 

Unfortunately the boys didn't manage to implement the race plan but all put in an extremely credible effort and did the Avondale name proud. Special mention goes to Dave Brooks who got caught up in the excitement of the race and also caught up in the swimmers he was lapping a decided to start on a 4^th lap of the 1k circuit. Luckily sense prevailed and after about 50 meters Dave turned around and found his way out of the water.

 

First Name	Last Name	Age category	Finish time	Position	Category Position
Maarten	Van Der Weijden	U30	0:32:25	1	1
Jonathan	Beder	30-39	0:37:54	7	3
David	Brooks	40-49	0:39:53	15	3
Focco	Van der vegt	40-49	0:42:42	29	6

Croydon 8 - Avondale 7 (London Premiership 29 June 2009)

An all too familiar story, with a few colourful embellishments. The first quarter finished 4 - 1 to the home side and given the final score that's not a great way to start a game. Avondale, despite once again finding themselves well below full strength could have won this game but for a very lax first quarter and an inability to put the ball away in front of goal... made all the more difficult by some excellent keeping from the home goalie. Even after the slow start the visitors showed signs of pulling themselves together until a 'difference of opinion' about what constituted playing the ball after a foul resulted in Shaun sitting out the remainder of the game. The Croydon player went to pick up the ball and dropped it and the eagle eyed Bond flicked the ball away. His reward, an exclusion for interfering with the foul. As ever, debating this with the referee produced a less than satisfactory outcome for the visiting team.

Neither side really distinguished themselves in what ended up being a scrappy game. The final quarter started 8 - 4, and in the end the home keeper frustrated the increasingly dominant Avondale attack and allowed Croydon to hang on as the clock ticked away.