A pretty good day

A brief report on our exploits today in Seattle:
 
We played three games against Sockeye (Seattle), aXe (Portland) and Furious George (Vancouver).  First games as a full squad with the arrival of Lachie and Mike, although we were missing Gus (finger) and Chris (hammy).
 
Our household got up pretty early (mostly) and got ready to go.  Eventuallt Tom emerged and we started to harass him about him making us late and the fact that we were all ready.  All good until Johnno decided he had lost our car-keys.
 
Ten minutes and much ribbing from Tom later, we found the keys and were on the road.  40 minute drive out to the fields, we stopped at a supermarket for directions and to buy lunch.  Tom's car pfaffed around, we hit the checkout with armloads of food and Tom was still wandering around the aisles.
 
"Are you gonna buy some lunch, Tom?"
 
"Have you got enough for us?"
 
"No, buy it with your car."
 
"..."
 
"Tomatoes, cheese, turkey breast, bread..."
 
He wandered off to try and work it out and then returned a minute later.  "We'll get Anna to sort out lunch."
 
Aah, married life.
 
I'll leave it to someone else to describe the games in more detail. We beat sockeye 15-11, after a 8-5 half and looking like we might win it by even more, but happy with that win against a top-notch consistent quarter-finalist team.  First win by an Australian men's team against a genuine UPA Nationals-level team.  Mamy more to come.
 
The format was 90 minute games, with 105 minute cap in 120 minute time-slots - pretty tough on its own, but the weather was oppressively humid which made getting water into us an imperative.  By the end of the day we had lost Matt and Lachie to the effects of heat stress.
 
Second game was against aXe, and we started pretty flat, trading for a few before asserting ourselves.  Apparently we had a 10 point run, that saw us end up 15-6 winners.  Lunch break and watced the end of a tight game between Sockeye and Furious that ended up witha 1 point win.
 
Lunchtime, enlivened with more stories of Tom and Steve's cleat fetishes.  Tom can name the cleat makes and models of everyone in the team, their condition, why that player wears them and what their alternate cleat is.
 
Owen, trying to catch Gack out: "So, what're my alternative cleats Tom?"
 
T: "I don't believe I've seen you in any other cleat."
 
O: "Ohmygod, that's right!  I don'jt have an alternative cleat!"
 
Then Tim recounted a story of waking up in the middle of the night last night and discovering Steve clutching a cleat to his chest.
 
"I just woke up and wanted to check out Jonny G's (our host) new Nike Speed TDs."  That's a fetish.
 
Last game was against Furious with a pretty short roster, pretty evenly matched game, both teams pretty knackered but still some great play, we let them take half 8-6 after being 6-6.  Then they lengthened the lead a bit before we came back to be 13-12 and just needed to complete our offeces to win the game.  A couple of offensive errors later and we had lost 16-14, but to have won 2 and lost a tight one was a great result for the day.
 
We also claimed the overall victory with based on the three-way tie results.  Yeah dingos!
 
We headed for a dip in the Skykomish River beside the park and then to a Korean BBQ restaurant with some of the Sockeye boys - fantastic!
 
Tomorrow a bunch of us are going to climb a big hill.
 
Pottsy.