ATTENTION TO ORDERS
Joe Leisek been promoted to B2 pursuant to three above-grade evaluations that he earned in the past year.
Matt Eason, the REO for the Pacific Coast referee society, announced this on Monday.
Congratulations to Joe! This is another fine feather in the Pelican’s headdress.
UPCOMING EVENTS
This Saturday, September 29: Humboldt State University will be having men’s and women’s alumni games this Saturday. Please let us know if you would like to referee up there during the dry (drier) time of the year!
October 6 and 7: The Pacific Coast women’s championships will be hosted here in NorCal. We’ll need to provide touch judges for this event and could also employ at least one of our evaluators.
There are also a few games beginning to appear for October 6.
October 13: Pelican Refs annual training meeting, Society AGM and election of officers. This will be at the Golden Gate clubhouse on Treasure Island and will run from 9 AM until 3:30 PM.
October 20: The Harlotfest lives! Four to six referees are needed.
October 27: The Stanford Tens, the Baracus Tens on Treasure Island, and at least three more games of which we are aware. This will be a very busy weekend – please try to make yourself available.
ALL BEGINNING REFEREES AND NEW MEMBERS TO THE SOCIETY SHOULD PLAN ON REFEREEING AT THE STANFORD TENS.
Let us know if you would like to referee on any of these dates.
RUGBY GAMES
Sacramento Amazons 5 – BERKELEY ALL BLUES 72 Referee: Scott Wood
TJs: Team supplied
Former Canadian National Team Players turned referee turned assessor spectating: At least one (Kat Todd-Schwartz)
Location: Meadowview Laguna Park, Sacramento
Weather: Cloudy, slight drizzle at halftime
On the final day of summer, the temperature was in the mid-60s and it had rained over the past couple of days. The north end of the pitch featured numerous pools and mudholes. Nonetheless, the turf held up better than some sod I noticed while watching the Rugby World Cup. This match marked the end of the NCRFU D1 Women's Club season. Berkeley was already guaranteed a spot in the upcoming PCRFU playoffs against ORSU and arrived en masse with an estimated 30 players. Sacramento had at least 20 players available for the match and a handful of fans braving the weather.
The Amazons tried their best and played hard but Berkeley was too organized and consistently exploited gaps and missed tackles. Berkeley scored its first try in less than two minutes of play and went on to touch down nine others to close the half 50-0. Tāwhirimātea may have been slightly annoyed by the signal for halftime as the skies opened up with a few minutes of rain upon the referee's whistle.
The second half scoring slowed down as the next try was not scored for at least five minutes. Sacramento was able to defend its position and managed more positive control and movement of its possession. Nonetheless, Berkeley was able to cross the goal line four additional times and convert a penalty goal. To the Amazons' credit, in the waning minutes of the match, they battled down the pitch to within five meters of the try line. A maul made it into in-goal without a successful conclusion. Sacramento won its put-in on the subsequent scrum and managed an 8-man pick to the weak-side. Berkeley's lone wing was outsized by an extreme margin but valiantly attempted to tackle her opponent. Fortunately for Sacramento, inertia won out as the ball touched down for a try--the first ever scored against Berkeley by the Sacramento Amazons.
After the match, we met at Mountain Mike's for festivities including local Fairfield microbrew, song and conversation.
WORLD CUP
The marvels of technology have literally put this Rugby World Cup into our pockets.
Here at the HP World Desk, we download every game from Mediazone to watch at leisure. A couple of 2-gigabyte jump drives are at hand, each of which will hold a match with plenty to spare.
These fit neatly into any computer at work, where our average twelve-hour workday seems to contain just enough spare moments to add up to two forty-minute halves. We have mastered talking on the phone with the sound down, signing charts with one eye elsewhere, and liberally applying the fast-forward to dead-ball intervals.
If you haven’t the luxury of seeing them all, watch the South Africa – Tonga match. This one had us turning the sound way up and leaping about like a teenager falling in love with rugby all over again.
THIS WEEK’S PHOTO
Jim Crenshaw, John and Eileen Pohlman and Lois Bukowski share a forlorn Saturday without any rugby to referee.
HAIL, PELICUS!
For the Senate
Pelicus Scriptoris
