Issue # 57 - The Massive Month of May

 . May 2012 .

During the busy month we managed to make to the beach maybe just the once!

Hello there avid reader. We're back!  May....wow, what a month!
Plenty of travel. Heaps of sport. A bit of rain too.  We won't hold you up. Grab your coffee, tea, beer, wine, rum or beverage of your choice and read away!

Cayman v Bahamas (Big Boys)

There was another "Big Game" hosted by the Cayman Rugby Club during May. You may recall that the Cayman National Men's team beat Mexico in April to move on to the next round of the Caribbean Championships - which also doubles as a Rugby World Cup qualifier.  Well they traveled away to play Bermuda a few weeks later and managed to lose 7 - 3. A tight match where they lead for 75 minutes.
Their next mission was to beat Bahamas (in Cayman) and score a bonus point as well.  This they managed to do in fine fashion. Now they have to wait and see if Bahamas can knock off Bermuda in Bahamas. If they can, Cayman moves on. If not, try again next year.
As in the previous "Big Game" weekend, the kids were out first as a curtain raiser.  Streamed live to millions of viewers ( on www.caymanrugbytv.com) Jake's team (The Junior Iguanas) managed to pull off a win over the Junior Buccaneers.

Jake on the burst

They victorious Cayman side (still looking for Wally)

The home crowd was pretty happy about the win and since the bar was open, decided to celebrate. Michelle and Dave just happened to be there so thought they would join in.

Getting friendly with the Bahamas boys

Three kiwis

Gaelic Finals Day

The next day was Gaelic finals day. Both Michelle's and Dave's team ended up 4th in their respective leagues and were up to play the first place teams in the knockout game. Michelle's team was looking a bit dodgy first up as a fair percentage of their team was at the Rugby party the night before.  But by half time they were into it and played a pretty good game, just falling short 9 - 10.  So Michelle and Lisa, headed for the beach.

Meanwhile Dave was about 40 minutes away with the kids at their Swim club lunch/prize giving. No major awards this year but they both posted some pretty good qualifying times throughout the year. And they did have a pretty impressive lunch.

Anyway, Dave was sitting at the table with a couple of the Dads enjoying a couple of nice quiet Sunday beers when his phone went.  It was the Captain of the Gaelic team.  "Dave, we've won the first game. We need more players. Try and be there for a 3:20 start"

The prize giving carried on and was finally over by about 3:15. Dave rounded up the kids and headed back to town in the hope that he might make the 2nd half of the final.  In the end he managed to get there in time to watch the last three minutes. His team were winning! And they managed to hold on and win the Cup. It was Dave's first Finals Day win, after winning the league about two years ago.  Even if he didn't play in the final, he managed to help the team with their celebrations afterwards. Dave had a very slow day at work on the Monday.

The Gaelic Football Champions of 2012

Lions Swim Meet

 A busy month for the kids in the pool. The annual Lions meet is always a popular event. This one was scheduled for the same day as the Rugby v Bahamas. Luckily the Stadium is right next door to the pool so we could walk from the pool straight to the rugby at the end of the meet.

Jake hits the pool

 Both Sam and Jake posted some good times and both got a few medals to add to their ever increasing stash.

Sam in action

Photo's from the Big Weekend:
 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150854149463602.405955.766998601&type=3&l=472888db1b

 Sarasota

 Sarasota Sharks Swim Club is apparently one of the best in the US and with a number of their senior swimmers trialing for the US Olympic team they just might be. Sarasota is near Tampa in Florida. The whole family traveled to this meet. Dave had never done a 'swim tour' before.
Sam went to this meet last year. It was her first time in a 50 metre pool (Cayman, in their infinite wisdom, chose a 25m pool over a 50m when they were considering building). Since then she has swum in 50m pools in Jamaica and Bahamas.
This would be Jake's first time, and he was a little nervous, especially when he saw how big the pool was. It was 10 lanes wide, which is almost as wide as Cayman's pool is long!
His first race wasn't just a 50m race.  Michelle entered him in the 200m Medley. So he had 50m of each stroke to do!  In his race he led from the front with a great Butterfly, but the distance took it's toll and his Backstroke was not as aggressive. He was looking around for the end about 2/3rds down the pool and had to stop for a wee rest before starting on the next leg. He did a reasonably good Breaststoke and then worked hard in the Freestyle leg. He didn't place but certainly PB'd in that event.
Not to be outdone on the first day, Sam was entered in the 400m Medley - yes, 100m of each stroke, twice as far as Jake. She chose this event over the 400m Free and would later admit that she would never do that again! She swam a brilliant 100m Fly, which took it's toll but she managed to hold on strong for the rest of the race.  A good experience for her but she won't be rushing to do that one again!

Welcome to the real pool Big Boy!

One of the bridges on the coastal route from Tampa to Sarasota

 We had a great weekend with the swim club. The kids swam Friday Night, Saturday and Sunday afternoons. During the off time we shopped, ate or slept. It was busy but lots of fun.

The Stingray team

Jake did well in the freestyle

 Jake did pretty well in his first outing offshore. He even won one of his heats and he was pretty stoked about that

Sam is one of these!

 Sam had some pretty stiff opposition but to her credit stuck with it and came away with some good times, and even a couple of ribbons for getting in the top 8.

Both kids do alright in the Butterfly

 We ate as a group for most meals. Breakfast was provided at the hotel but the team manager organised lunch and dinner each day. Lunch was usually subway or something like that, although one day it was Pizza.
Dinners were at one of the local restaurants. Friday was an American-type sports bar, Saturday was Italian, and Sunday was Lobster/Steak.  We didn't go hungry!

Parent's Table

And the kid's table - on the far side of the restaurant

Jake acknowledges the crowd

Sam wants to get her driver's licence

Click here for more photos from Sarasota

Our flight back from Tampa was delayed for an hour or two since the arriving flight from Cayman was delayed because of the weather. It had been torrential for two days there. From Sunday night to Monday afternoon, they had 11 inches of rain. And that's a lot for a flat island with a highest point of 40 feet. There were people kayaking in the streets and others getting towed behind cars on boogie boards.

We finally caught the flight and managed to fly in while there was still daylight. We could see cars and trucks moving about with huge wakes behind them. 

The flooding had subsided by the time we got back but there was still plenty of water about. We managed a few pics before the light faded.

This is our front lawn - which was about a foot under water.

Driving back from the airport

Jake and Dave do Bahamas II

Yes, it was that time again. It hardly seems like a year ago when Jake and Dave toured to Freeport on Jake's first overseas Rugby Tour. This year would be his second and would have both Freeport (Bahamas) and Bermuda to play against.
Back to Freeport they went. This time it was as the Cayman Under 12 team. The majority of the team were all under 11, and some under 10 but they were bolstered by some of the under 13 boys, who were still eligible to play under 12. Follow that? Never mind.

The Coast of Grand Bahama

 They flew to Miami and then across to Freeport, arriving about 9pm on the Friday night. They arrived at their hotel only to find that the whinging Bermuda team had complained so much about the accommodation (which wasn't flash, but certainly liveable) that some of the rooms allocated for Cayman had been given to Bermuda.
"No problem" said the Freeport Rep, "we'll take you to another one down the road, and it will cost you less."
And they did. And it was! But not only that, it was so much nicer.
No complaints from the Cayman team! (Especially after the Freeport Club put on a few beers for all of the inconvenience).

 The boys were up bright and early the next morning. After a hearty Bacon and Egg breakfast, they hit the pool for their pre-game warm-up. Once they were finally removed from the pool and dressed in their Rugby kit, they headed down to the Freeport Rugby Club for the rest of the day.
Saturday was to be a 9 a side tournament with teams from all countries, as well as another team of Barbarians, made up of boys from all three.
The Cayman team cleaned up last year. But it was soon apparent that that wouldn't be the case this year.
The Freeport team was much improved and the Bermuda team had one kid who weighed 312lbs!
At one stage it took the entire Cayman side to stop him. It was sort of a rolling maul, but just him. The rest of his team stood about and watched.

That's big Marvin

Jake makes a break against Freeport

 Jake's team lost their first match but improved over the next couple to come away with a loss, a draw and a win on the first day.  The serious stuff - The Test Matches would happen on Sunday.

He actually looks big in this shot

Meanwhile Dave renewed friendships with the locals who were still there from last year.

 Saturday came and went and the boys assembled on Sunday for their Test Matches against Bermuda and Freeport.

The National Anthems are played for each team

 The first Test against Bermuda was a fairly one sided affair in the first half. The Bermuda boys were so much bigger than the Cayman team. However after half time the Cayman team came out firing and actually mauled and drove the Bermuda team right back to their line, much to the delight of the home crowd, who by now had decided the Bermuda coaches were a bunch of twats and the Cayman Coaches could do no wrong.
Cayman scored soon after and the boys regained their lost confidence. The match pretty much stayed like that but Cayman couldn't cross the line again and Bermuda came away with the spoils on that one.

Jake the winger

 Cayman played their final Test against the local Freeport side.  Again the Freeport boys had obviously been working hard over the season and had also discovered some growth food.  However the Cayman side took to their task and stuck to the basics in the first half with some solid phases and promising breaks, but they couldn't get across the line. Freeport managed to score two well worked tries and went to the break with a solid lead.

It was Mother's Day and a lot of Mums had come down to support their boys. Many of which were on the small side and were unlikely to get game time.  So, as a tribute to them, all of the big guns stayed off after half time and the smaller boys from both sides battled out the second half.  It was a nice gesture and the Mums appreciated it while downing Daiquiris from their lounge chairs on the side line.  Back to the Rugby. The little guys from both sides were up and all of a sudden there was more space for some fast running rugby. Jake made an impression out wide at times and got slammed a few times in the tackle.Eventually the ball made it into the hands of one of the Cayman boys and away he headed, but not before beating about six defenders on the way. A brilliant solo effort.

The Cayman side got their tails up after that and retained the ball and continued their attack on the Freeport line.  Suddenly a gap opened up on the left. The Cayman Half Back went right...but then realised the gap on the left was still there and re-traced his steps and took advantage of the slow reacting defence to dot down over the line. The scores were tied and that's they way the game finished. Both teams were happy with the result and Mum's were ecstatic.

A couple of last years friendly locals return

 It was a good trip (again) and the boys all went home in one piece, albeit tired, but happy. Watch out for round three next year!

Click here for more fun and pics from Freeport

Stingray Swim Meet

We're back to the pool again for the third swim meet of the month. This time a Friday night sprint meet. This was a bunch of short distance races. Again, both kids did well and came away with medals and ribbons and PB's.

Sam n Ella (Think about it)

Jake retains his lead

National Touch League

The next day it was Touch day.  Michelle and Dave play for the Heineken Brew Crew which was unbeaten so far in the league.
It ended up being a very wet and rainy day and the Brew crew were up against the 2nd and third ranked teams who were out for blood. Michelle had to work and missed the first game, and for the second she was there but wasn't feeling the best so stayed on the sideline.

 The team is a good mix of experience and youth - with the speed coming from the youth. The Brew crew held off the first team reasonably comfortably and then hung on to beat the other team as well.

Some action shots

Non-action shot

On Wednesday night just gone they played their last game of the round, coming away with a 4 - 1 win. Dave even managed to dot down after an end to end move. To Dave it felt like end to end... and back! So, the Brew Crew win the League, but still have finals day coming up in a few weeks.

Click here for more photos from May

Next Month:

• Family weekend on the Brac... with about 4 or five families.
• National Touch League - Finals Day
• Summer Touch League starts
• The Annual One mile sea swim