So where do I begin...

The highs and lows of sport are sometimes hard to handle, especially the lows. After an amazing start to the tournament with two wins from two games, we went into the Czech needing a result to put us through to the semi finals. We started well and Got off the mark with some fantastic interplay seeing Sparrow roll the ball across the face of goal for Watto to net his first international goal. Unfortunately the second half didn't go to plan and despite our best efforts and creating some great scoring chances, we conceded two goals in the second half without reply to lose the game and lose out on a semi final spot due to an inferior goal difference to the Poles and Czechs. A hard pill to swallow for us as a team, especially given the type of hockey we have been playing throughout the competition. It has left us with an important mission of ensuring we come fifth and secure the maximum amount of ranking points possible.

It's now Friday evening as I write this and we've had out debrief from the Czech game and despite the obvious frustration of not being in the battle for promotion we still want to come away with four wins out of five games and play the best hockey we can as a group. There is a sense of urgency again, as the guys want to get out on the pitch to put the last game right, and prove to ourselves how far we've come since we started our season this summer.

I'll leave the humour for some of the other posts on the blog, but for today I'm keeping it short and sharp.

We mean business tomorrow!

Rick

Back by popular demand I am writing the blog yet again. With a very unique situation of yesterday’s game having finished with 6 minutes left to go due to torential rain flooding the pitch. With Ukraine not having enough electricity to power the flood lights, the game had be played the next morning. Breakfast was the usual bizarre concoction of food with most boys deciding to go to the local supermarket to buy much needed nesquick balls.

It was meant to be our rest day with a planned trip too the pool, which we were looking forward to (nothing to do with the local totty) however it was cancelled in order to play the last 6 minutes. Having absolutely dominated the previous day the only problem being unable to slam the annoying ball into the net. A few wise words from Zack meant that we were calm and collected and knowing that by moving the ball around well were going to create chances and would finish one. Obviously I am writing with the beauty of hindsight here.

Living life close to the wire we made the most of our 6 minutes. Having our only short corner charge down, you could tell the Swedes were dogged and committed having lasted 64mins determined to last the final 6. No more than what was expected from an international team. We were unfazed by time slipping away and kept moving the ball around. In final 14 seconds the adrenaline and relief rushed as that ball slipped between the two posts putting us one ahead and leaving the Swedes no time to come back. Such were the emotions of those pressured 6 minutes it felt like we had just played a full international. As the final whistle went broad smiles apeard on the faces of all the welsh players and fans.

Having had an early lunch Naz treated us to some char grilled chicken at his private club in centre of town (secluded room in a restaurant). The play of the day went to Rufus for showing great commitment as one of boys left their shirt and had to rushed back to get it. D**k of the day was to me as I was the one who left the shirt.

Cheers Owain Dolan Gray

Day 5

Senior men go high tech with video blog

follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgqibGtG-H8

Cheers

Sio

When you come up with rules to a game, you need to be extremely careful they do not come back to bite you in the ass. Forgetting my playing shirt was worthy of any DoD award, but Ben Edge and his streak of on pitch brutality looked to have snuck it, sadly as he won the Schnozzz off on the previous evening he had earned himself immunity!

Not too sure if it was last nights dinner, the large amount of sports drinks or a bout of nerves that was making me feel slightly uneasy before the Poland match. Maybe it was the fact that the Welsh side resembles the cast of the hobbits in the Lord of the Rings and the Poles were something out of 300 (huge). Anyway, we had our two big lads David Schwimmer and Chuck Norris at the back to guard the shire. Peter was going through his traditional pre-match ritual of re-griping, yoga and a skipping routine dedicated to former captain and national treasure Rhys Joyce. Owain (Gary) on the other hand was practicing the art of running into people at pace, which if witnessed is an incredibly effective skill, although don’t try it in Austria as they are not so impressed.

Our attention had now turned to what animal would make an effective goalkeeper, our keeper (Ketts) has named himself ‘Dragon’ but I am not too sure that a dragon would be that great between the sticks. This dragon bagged man of the match as decided by the bench of 20 technical delegates, and he was well worth it with 4/5 outstanding saves along with some crucial interceptions. Richard Gay managed to grunt louder than Maria Sharapova when he sent a drag flick into the side netting to square up the match. The match opened up which suited the Welsh team and the Polish keeper was forced into making some sharp saves, this was until I rolled one in with a couple to go sparking scenes not seen since ‘Mike Bassett – England Manager’. The polish side then broke immediately but repeatedly ran into ‘The Hoover’ (Peter) who cleaned up, and ushered us over the line.

Tuesday started in very similar fashion, I was greeted by the naked bottom of Peter asleep in the opposite bed, which considering how bad it could have been is a result. Peter and I had invested in a selection of breakfast cereals including Honey Cheerios and Nesquik Rocks, to replace one of the strangest breakfast line-ups I have ever seen. I am also not too sure about the hot milk but my little girl seems to have no such problem so I suppose I should just man up! We then went back to the rooms to sleep in beds carved out of one of Ron Burgundy’s book cases, and topped with mattresses thinner than Jonny Gordan’s right bicep – as you can imagine it is not the most comfortable of sleep’s.

Now for the Swede’s and another positive result!

Monday 8^th of august 2011

Another 5 star quality meal organised by Naz, maintaining his impeccable standards. As it was quite an uneventful day, the daily ritual of “play of the day” came down to a snozzle off (biggest noses) with Ben Edge, Andy Cornick, Matt Ruxton and Rick Gay putting them selves forward. Ben Edge won it by nose length, snot hard when you have a snozz like that. D**k of the day was settled on an epic game of rock paper scissors between Rufus and myself. I am writing the blog so Rufus won, but there are some allegations that it was rigged.

The day we had all been waiting for had finally arrived, the first day of the tournament. Breakfast at a punctual 7:45 am with every one wide-awake apart from a few max factor hair doo’s.

The pre game meeting was tense, but you could tell everyone was excited and had their game face on. Following an absolutely inspirational video from Danny Newcombe of our previous successes, we were ready to take on the Poles. Walking to the pitch we hardly noticed the beautiful Ukrainian women who normally leave most of the guys jaws open. Arriving at the stadium we were ready for battle.

Cheers,

Owain Dolan Gray

So to pick up where Watto left off...

Our training game against the Ukraine gave us a chance to run out the trip from our legs and get ourselves back into the groove prior to the tournament getting underway. It proved to be a rather tougher game than most of us had anticipated, with the Ukrainians proving difficult to break down and consistently hurting us off the break due to our own errors. Nonetheless the ever reliable Mike Shaw put us up in the first half with another well taken PC - four from four for the young man. The lack of sleep and heat got to us and we struggled for periods, yet still managed to come through with a draw at the end of full time. After a few important words and some lessons learnt, we made a hasty exit from the pitch to get back to the hotel, get showered up and head out for our evening meal.

Dinner proved to be yet another fantastic spread with Naz coming good again for the boys. Private dining room, three course meal and MTV "Pimp My Ride" on in the background, the standards have been set out extremely high. Management has certainly set the bar high, come Monday it will be our turn to do the same against the Poles!

The last items on the yesterdays playbook were the start of the "Play of the Day" and "D**k of the Day" awards. They are related to incidents occurring on and off the pitch, both good and bad. The latter was picked up by none other than yours truly - some tardy punctuality and roughness on the pitch saw me stream ahead with somewhat unanimous efficiency. The "Play of the Day" award went down to the wire with some good nominations: Shawsy, Ketts, Owain and Naz in the running. But after the votes had been tallied, Naz ran away with it after his superb organisational skills to get the boys well fed and back in high spirits.

Sunday morning started off a lot easier after a good 9+ hours of sleep. Amazing how a good nights kip can sort you out! We put in a good training session to get ourselves back on the right foot and get the lads excited to get stuck into the tournament. With less than 24 hours before we play Poland, we are chomping at the bit to get at them and put our mark on the tournament.

That's all from me now. Over and Out...

Rick