Tuesday, July 08, 2008

DOLDRUMS

HAIL, PELICUS!

You didn't miss HP last week - there wasn't one. The editorial board was overtaken by ennui and a summer slumber.

PALO ALTO SUMMER SEVENS THIS SATURDAY

June 28 found the first iteration of this year’s NorCal sevens at Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto.

We have a problem probably not shared anywhere else: so many refs that we only got two games each. The solution is obvious. More teams need to be there this weekend! It’s a lot of fun, playing Sevens. Come on down!

Golden Gate looks to be loaded this summer. The game of the day came when they played the Olympic Club in the last match. Both were undefeated.

With the game tied in the second half, a Gate player received a yellow card. They scored short-handed and then again at full strength to win going away.

Apologies if we’ve forgotten anyone from June 28th's crew:
Bruce Bernstein, Rich Boyer, Paul Bretz, Bruce Carter, John Coppinger, Jim Crenshaw, Mark Godfrey, James Hinkin, Chris Labozzetta, Don Pattalock, Eric Rauscher, Ray Schwartz, Dixon Smith, Pete Smith, Nikola Talemo, Kat Todd-Schwartz, Scott Wood, Tom Zanarini.

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS FOR THE SEVENS PLAYOFFS

The Pacific Coast qualifier for the club nationals will be held at Rocca Field on July 26.

With the nationals two weeks later on the same pitch, this is an opportunity for the Pelicans to work on our team of five support – touch judges and in-goal judges.

Sad to say, but the TJ and in-goal support has been lacking at this event on occasion in the past, requiring the assigned refs to do double- or triple-duty. This will not happen in Pelicanland.

If you would like to be on the sideline crew for the club finals, you will need to attend the qualifier. Consider it an audition. We need six people, which will allow for rotation and rest in filling four positions per match.

The dates will be: Saturday, July 26 and Saturday and Sunday, August 9-10. Please let us know of your interest.

CAPE FEAR EXCHANGE

Report by Tom Zanarini:
Just wanted to thank the Society for sending me to Cape Fear. I had a great time, got some good matches and was able to watch some of the higher level refs perform. The heat wasn't too bad, just made me remember playing 15's in Austin in September and April.

I had four matches on Saturday mixed up between Social, Women's Club, Women's Premiere and Men's Club. The Women's Premiere was NOVA v. Northeast Selects, a very fast paced match with great athletes. NOVA won by three tries which the Northeast coast tried to explain to me that they were all due to missed calls on my part. Right. Pat McNally was on hand to give me some pointers which I was able to execute in the next matches.

One match that I was really looking forward to was the Cape Fear II v. Kenyan Exiles II. The Kenyan I team played the Cape Fear I right before, but the Kenyans were traveling light and ended up forfeiting my match. So, that sucked. David Von Kolnitz managed to tweak the schedule and got me another match right after so I did my four and ran touch for a couple.

The banquet was quite entertaining and Zinzan held court. I got two dings, one for not producing a yellow card after awarding a penalty try for a professional foul. Cherry Point were behind by 21 and we were into full time with a penalty awarded to CP. They kicked ahead to chase for goal and an AHO (Appalachian Honors Society) player grabbed the kicker's jersey with no other defenders chasing. I awarded the penalty try, took the conversion then called full time. I truly feel foolish about that since Dave busted me about the exact same thing in Chico. Sorry! I also forgot a Hawaiian shirt for the banquet. I did get out of paying that fine due to my permanent Hawaiian shirt ink which I had to present to the court. I was wearing my 2008 Pacific Coast Referee shirt and instead of donning the offending jersey I offered it to Zinzan as payment. He told me after that it made his night because he never got a PC jersey or polo when he was a Grizzly and said he wouldn't ever ask for one, but would take one as a gift. So, karma I suppose.

Sunday was another early and on time start. I had Camp Lejeune v. Washington Irish social div. quarter-final. An entertaining match that the Irish ended up running away with in the second half. The military sides were running shallow, Fort Bragg had to forfeit all their matches because most of the team were on recall and couldn't leave base. It was nice to see the Marines and Army playing nicely together. Great athletes that chased hard all match but didn't have the rugby skills or practice to compete with the Irish. My second Sunday match was the Women's open semi with Raleigh Venom v. Maryland Stingers. Raleigh routed the Stingers on Saturday but were a bit gassed on Sunday. The match was 5 all at the half. The second 7 was a different story. The Venom finally found their winger on the outside and it was breakaway tries for the rest of the match.

I ran touch for a couple more matches then had to leave for the airport. I'm glad I got there early since my flight was delayed for 2 hours. A thunderstorm in Atlanta put Delta in a tailspin of delays. The cold Yuenglings at the airport bar made the wait considerably less painful. My connection in Atlanta was delayed as well and pushed my arrival time in SF to 12:20am, twenty minutes past the last Marin Air Porter Shuttle. My wife is on vacation back in Plymouth, MA so I am fortunate to have one good friend in Mill Valley, to whom I owe a steak dinner. 1:30am in bed, 6:30am wakeup call and the coffee is extra strong this morning!

SERRS were great hosts and helpful at every turn. The tournament is very well organized, four fields well marked and in excellent condition. I hope this exchange remains on the NCRRS calendar for other referees to experience.

7's is starting to grow on me and I'm looking forward to this Saturday in Palo Alto.

UPCOMING EXCHANGE

By John Pohlman:
Just wanted you to know I leave July 18th for Edmonton. They have me scheduled for a D2 game on Saturday July 19th. Then probably a game on Friday July 25 in Calgary. Definitely a D2 game followed by TJing a D1 game on Saturday.

Hope to see you all at the 7's this weekend.

THIS WEEK’S PHOTO
Ambassador of the Year
There was an unidentified referee in our photo from the Midnight Sevens two weeks ago. Thanks to several readers for identifying Cullen Lowe, formerly of the BATS and now living in San Diego.

This week we see Don Pattalock receiving his Ambassador of the Year award from Scott Wood in Palo Alto.

HAIL, PELICUS!

For the Senate
Pelicus Scriptoris