KIT ORDER
New kit will be ordered soon. It will be of the same design that we have been wearing since 2005.
Bjorn Stumer is in the process of finding which vendor can best meet our needs. Although the initial ordering process with our most recent supplier went very well, it was difficult if not impossible to order additional items once their stock ran out.
Bjorn needs to know what volume of material we are looking at for an initial order. Please e-mail Bjorn if you want to buy any new kit:
Refereeing jerseys (sublimated) in yellow
Refereeing jerseys (sublimated) in blue
Shorts with society logo
Socks
Warms up
Fleeces
Sweats
Caps
Touch flags
Kit bags
Include the quantity and sizes for each (S, M, L, XL, XXL)
This will enable informed negotiations on his part and the best on-going service on ours.
Bjorn’s e-mail is:
bstumer@comcast.net
TRI-TIPS SEVENS IN SLO
The Horsemen won the Tri-Tip Sevens over Fresno on Saturday in San Luis Obispo.
The Horsemen are comprised of alumni of Humboldt State University and their friends. A number of them have Santa Rosa roots as well.
Bruce Carter was lucky enough to referee both their first and last games on the day, and was surprised to find out that they were not a team that played together regularly. They beat good sevens teams like the Seahawks with ease.
A novel feature of the tournament was the ‘play in’ game to reach the quarterfinals. There were seven pools of round-robin play. The best second-place finisher needed to be determined to join the winners in advancing. Based on the criteria in place, it was a tie between the Seahawks and Fresno.
Each of these teams has won this tournament multiple times. In fact, the two met in the Santa Barbara final only two weeks previously.
Bryant Byrnes refereed this very exciting match, where the teams alternated scoring tries. Fresno won the conversion contest and the game, 21 – 19.
It was nice to run into Jeff Jury and see his two sons playing for Fresno.
There are certain joys of refereeing through the years. Balanced against the inevitable slowing of pace is the accumulation of experience and memories. One of the privileges we have is taking the pitch with skilled and creative players, the kind you remember forever after.
One such was Barry Williams. Back when your writer was at the top of his game, so too was Barry an untacklable phenom for the Los Angeles Rugby Club, the Grizzlies and the Eagles.
And there he was coaching a youth team, the San Pedro Red Rhinos; suiting up for the second half to show his young charges the patterns that produce tries.
His patented “leg-lift left, cut right” is still there, and still fools the defense every time. But the referee – this referee – was anticipating it with glee and feeling the warmth of summers long past every time Barry got the ball.
Pelicus Septenae, Mike Gadoua, renewed his love of the Sevens code. He found a ride from and to Salinas with Scriptoris. The miles were found wanting against the thoughts to be shared.
Sevens season should never end.
WOMEN’S LEAGUE SEASON UNDER WAY
September 2:
Hayward 0 – SACRAMENTO 30 Referee: Isaac Caselis
September 9:
FOG 66 – Hayward 5 Referee: Dave Miller
Saturday was the opening game for a new team in Northern California. The San Francisco Fog Women's Rugby team made an opening statement that they will be a force to be reckoned with in NorCal Women's Rugby beating a mainly Hayward squad 66-5 at the aptly named Crocker Amazon field. Captain Aimee Lee requested my presence early so I arrived at 9:45 for the 11 AM game having encountered little traffic on the drive from Sacramento. The temperature had dropped steadily since leaving the Valley. It was a cool 58 degrees and my windshield wipers were on because of the SF mist. Perfect weather to prepare me for my upcoming exchange to the East Midlands. I found 6-8 Fog members already getting psyched up and prepping the field.
Chatting with them I found that, as I would see later, this was a new team but the players were not new to rugby. Of the roughly 25 players, six were from BASH, 3-4 newbies and the rest had college rugby experience. They were playing only friendlies this year because they were a "probationary" team. Several mentioned that the Berkeley Blues had refused to schedule them. that stuck in their collective craw and you could hear the sound of a gauntlet being thrown. The Hayward team was late arriving showing up shortly after the appointed start time and had only 10 players. The Fog lent them their second backline and we got the game off at 11:45. By kickoff there was a large contingent of the Fog men's team and club supporters there to cheer on the women. It did not take long to send up a cheer as scrumhalf Liz Floyd broke through for a long run to dot down between the posts 90 seconds into the game. #12 Bridget Madell slotted the first of 8 conversions to make it 7-0. Following the kickoff two phases was all that was needed below the ball was swung wide to winger Cherice Mahal who also put it down between the posts. She was followed by Fullback Linda Kilmartin slashing through defenders to score 6 minutes later. The conversion made it 21-0 after 10 minutes. The Fog were not to be denied opening day glory as they scored three more times in the first half. The scorers were Liz Floyd and Cherice Mahal again along with #8 Annah Dominis. Do not think that Hayward was rolling over for the Fog. As the opening blitz the Hayward ladies found their wind and the game became one of the hardest hitting affairs I have seen in a women's game. Hayward spent much of the second half knocking on the door of the Fog goal only to have turnovers cost them. Their captain Sami finally powered in for their only try. The Hayward ladies with a second string backline were game, always fighting hard and playing with spirit. The second half saw 4 more tries coming from Tighthead Dawn Alice Keith, Flanker Kate Starr, scrum half Liz Floyd (scoring a Hat Trick) and Center Abby Gordon. Bridget Gordon slotted all four second half conversions. Bridget has a strong and accurate leg, her two misses coming on long kicks from the sideline. Her strength and accuracy make a danger from up to 35-40 meters.
The final score was 66-5 but was not indicative of the competitive nature of the game. The Fog team showed great skills and teamwork for a side that had been together only three weeks.
The social was held at the Metro in San Francisco where the beer flowed and the food was excellent. The Fog men and women mesh very well and compliment each other socially. The Fog Women are a fine addition to the rugby community and have even added some new verses to the infamous Fog drinking songs.
PRE-SEASON REFEREEING
Schedules are starting to trickle in. There are going to be at least several games each Saturday, increasing in November, with busy slates December 2, 9 and 16 even though the season doesn’t start until January.
Please be thinking about your availability. Any particular weekends you’d like a game for the remainder of 2006, please let us know.
EDMONTON EXCHANGE REPORT
(Note: this exchange took place before the Women’s World Cup began in Edmonton.)
Report by Jim Crenshaw:
Kirsten and I traveled to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on Thursday for our referee exchange with the Edmonton Referee Society. We left Sacramento on Alaska Airlines at 7 am Thursday morning, with a flight from Seattle to Edmonton scheduled to leave Seattle a little before 10 am. Unfortunately, that flight was cancelled, so we had to wait for the 3 pm flight and then after we boarded that plane, we were informed we had to wait for a flight crew that HAD to be in Edmonton that night. The only problem with that was, the flight crew in question was still in Portland. So much for getting to Edmonton in a timely fashion on Thursday as we arrived a little after 7pm.
Paul Cassidy had arranged for John Braim, the Edmonton Referee Society Assignment Officer, to pick us up at the airport and get us to Richard Nally, who was our host for the weekend. Richard was very gracious and took us on a short tour of a small part of Edmonton's downtown where the 25th Annual Edmonton Fringe was just beginning its 2 week run. The Fringe includes a number of plays every day, street artists, street shows and booths selling food, goods and desserts. After a quick Fringe tour and dinner we were back at his house for the evening.
Next morning Richard took us to breakfast and a tour of some of the sights of Edmonton, including the largest shopping mall in the world, with it's own hockey rink, swimming pool with a wave making machine for surfing, another pool with 5 or 6 sea lions in residence and amusement park with a state of the art roller coaster, all indoors, inside the mall. The place is big!
We then had an evening Division 3 semi-final playoff to attend with this tourist selected to be the referee. We arrived at the Strathcona Druids home grounds, consisting of 3 pitches with lights, a very nice clubhouse and team and referee changing rooms. Two local teams, the Leprechaun-Tigers and the Pirates played a very hard-fought match, with the Tigers squeaking out a win 27 to 24. The Tigers led 15 -0 at half and looked like they would win easily, but the Pirates out scored them 24 to 12 in the second half. With a couple of lead changes in the second half, it proved to be a very exciting game.
Paul Cassidy attended the game and provided some excellent feedback and referee coaching advice to me after the match. After a late Thai dinner we headed back to Richard's place for the night.
Next morning we had a leisurely breakfast before heading back to the Strathcona Druid's grounds for a division 1 semi-final match between the Strathcona Druids and the Edmonton Clansmen. The Edmonton Referee Society provided me with Kristi Moorman and Dave Bailey, 2 very capable touch judges and Alan Humphries, one of their assessors.
The match started with the large Druid pack controlling the pace and pushing the smaller Clansmen pack at every scrum. The Clansmen played a very tenacious defense before allowing the Druids to score a converted try, but then denying one Druid try that was held up in goal. A Druid knock-on of a certain try helped a few minutes later seemed to really help the Clansmen's cause. That coupled with the Clansmen centers making some spectacular breaks through the Druid backline and scoring a couple of unconverted tries helped the Clansmen to a 10 to 7 lead at halftime.
The second half started with both teams relying on the same tactics, with Druids controlling the set play, but the opportunistic Clansmen backs controlling the back play, scoring a 2 more unconverted tries to 1 unconverted try by the Druids. With the score 20 to 12 about half way through the second half, one of the Druid flankers decided to (in his words after the match) “fire up his team” by punching an opponent at a ruck. Unfortunately for him he had not counted on Dave Bailey AND me seeing him do it. After the ensuing dust-up, play was stopped and, after a quick consultation between the touch judge and the referee, the captains summoned with one red and one yellow card awarded. Playing 14 against 15 for the last 10 minutes and growing Clansmen confidence was more than the Druids could handle as the Clansmen centers made a shambles of the Druid backline scoring an unconverted try and then a converted try in the final stages of the match.
Final Score: Edmonton Clansmen 32 - Strathcona Druids 12.
We all retired the Druid clubhouse and along with some excellent feedback from Assessor Alan Humphries, we all shared in the postgame activities.
Then Richard took Kirsten and I to a barbeque at one of his old rugby mates house and another pass through the festivities at the Fringe, before heading back home for the night.
The next morning, after breakfast, Richard, Kirsten and I went for a nice hike down to the river for a couple of hours before heading back to the airport for the fight home.
Kirsten and I would like to thank all of the Edmonton referees for being so gracious, to Paul Cassidy and Alan Humphries for some excellent advice, to Kristi Moorman and Dave Bailey for running touch, and especially to Richard Nally for driving us around and putting up with us for 4 days.
I would encourage any our society members to visit or go on exchange to Edmonton. You won't be disappointed!!
LONG-DISTANCE MIGRATION
Dave Miller, Sam Reagle and Bruce Carter will be leaving for the East Midlands on Wednesday, for two weeks of the finest rewards rugby refereeing can afford.
Hail, Pelicus! will appear with increased frequency during these revels, celebrating much of what is best about our avocation: friends, travel and adventures, both on and off the pitch.
FRIENDS IN THE NEWS
Ron Myers has written a how-to guide for clubs to obtain tax-exempt status. This same procedure should work for referee societies. It is published on the USA Rugby website:
http://www.usarugby.org/playing/coaching/Settingupa501c3.pdf
THIS WEEK'S PHOTO
In San Luis Obispo, Mike Gadoua, Gary Patterson of SoCal, and Bruce Carter wish the sun would never set on such a day of Sevens!
HAIL, PELICUS!
For the Senate
Pelicus Scriptoris
