Barbecue MasterChef

Anyone for Beetle Cheesecake?

Despite a low flying succulent beetle dive bombing into a mango cheesecake and making it totally inedible for anyone but those of us with the toughest constitutions, there was plenty of meat, salads and cake on offer at the barbecue after training last night.

* Who would have thought that some people only get married so they can have a home cooked meal every night?

* Who would have thought that some people lose all enthusiasm for cooking after two months of married life?

* Who would have thought that some people learn all they know about cooking from watching Junior MasterChef?

* Who would have imagined that one of our members can drive home from the office, fill up with petrol, do a full supermarket shop, slice, dice and delicately julienne some vegetables into a salad, and then add a light touch of home prepared mayonnaise that would stand up in the best 5-star restaurant, and then arrive calm and collected for training - all in less than one hour?!?!?!?

Those stories and more were just some of the revelations revealed last night. There was plenty of food and plenty of time to eat with the cooking immaculately timed to have everything prepared as we stepped out of the change rooms and into the patio area.

Many thanks to Hilary, Barbara and Kevin for organising the evening and doing the cooking.

It was a dark and stormy night ...

... Well, maybe not so stormy but it was definitely dark!

If it weren't for the barbecue flames and the occasional photo flash, it was hard to tell whether the meat was cooked or even whether those at the barbecue were actually members of the club! Anyone could have joined in and we wouldn't have even suspected. Barbecues are on again!

Fortunately, Kevin is an expert in the barbecue department and could cook up fantastic tasting steaks and sausages by the light of a match if he had to. And cook up, he did. Consensus was that everything was cooked to perfection.

It was great to see a group of 19 enjoying the outdoors of the Leisureplex again, lulled by the quiet hum of traffic along High Road.


It has been a huge year for presentations with many certificates, awards and medallions already having been presented. A couple more presentations again last evening. Congratulations to Mark Davey (left below) for his gold medallion and Jason Davey (right below) for his bronze medallion in their age group at the Nationals earlier this year. A massive achievement!

More presentations later in the year. Watch this space.

It was a great evening last night. Thanks to Hilary for organising the event.

Snappers easy meal for Mighty Redfins !

It wasn't quite the start to the day i was hoping for. After collecting my favourite South African, it was time to head off to Challenge Stadium. Cruising along the freeway past the city when Tam asks "Which way are you going"....Oops a quick exit onto Kardinya Rd followed by a swift u-turn soon had us heading in the right direction.
Our arrival was obviously later than we planned so we used the patented "Jason Davey warm up" which involves standing around for a while, followed by a quick 200m swim before being told to leave the pool because the meet was about to start.

What a meet it was....although there was a bit of faffing (yeah i said it) around by officials it was a very well run meet, with all Riverton Redfins swimmers acqutting themselves very well. So without anymore waffle i believe it is time for a good healthy dose of the GOOD, BAD and UGLY !

The Good

• EVERYONE who helped out with the timekeeping....Lane 8 was always under control....Special thanks to Bianca.
  



• Emma finishing her 200 IM...What an awesome swim. Just as awesome was the container of m&m's that came along with her (more on this later)



• Nadine and Simon - Who have just announced their engagement - CONGRATULATIONS - So in true paparazzi style they will henceforth be referred to as NADSI. NADSI swum very well despite the last 2 weeks spent in Bali living it up.....Although Nadine (one half of NADSI) was in my opinion very harshly DQ from her 200IM swim...No official explanation for her DQ was given which was very poor



• Big Jase demolishing his 100 Free and most of the m&m's.



• Murph swimming very well in his 200 Breast and 100 Free. He also took some wonderful pics which appear further down.



• Mark D surviving the 200IM and cranking out great swims in the 100 Free and 50 Fly



• Pauline and her dodgy shoulder surviving a couple of excellent 50m breastroke swims.



• Barbara swimming very well and i THINK it might have been a PB in her 50 Free.....



• Tammy continues to swim well despite adopting the "Training is so overrated" approach



• Shane- O had 3 awesome swims including a 13 sec PB in the 200IM...Unfortunately all this good work was undone later in the meet....



• Rob Weir our new 50m specialist is still quicker than Trent his soon to be 13 year old son over 50 Free and 50 Fly.....Great swims !



• GP remembered to put some pants on for the team photo and also did very well in the 200 Breast !



• Womens 4x50 IM relay came 2nd !



• Mens 120+ 4x50 Im relay were 1st !
  



• We finished 3rd OVERALL with 133 points....THAT IS NEW CLUB RECORD !!!!



• http://www.mswa.asn.au/results/bacc/WSU%20BACC%202011%20Results.pdf
  



• Full results cut and paste link into browser !

THE BAD

• As mentioned before Nadine being DQ and being given no explanation is VERY poor officiating.



• Jase hogging all the m&m's



• Old and loose fitting bathers...Note to swimmers in certain clubs if they are baggy time for some new ones!



• Poor navigational skills by yours truly....Sorry Tam !

THE UGLY

• Wow no contest on this one.....SHANE-O is GUILTY of being DQ in the mens 4x50 IM relay team 160+.....Got to work on that balance young man.....Yes i am letting him off somewhat lightly as the whole team let him know about it on Sunday !

PHOTOS - Again thanks to Murph see below for some great action shots.

THE TEAM - Note my mouth is full of m&m's but Jase is holding some in his hands saving them for later !


Mark D a flying start in his 50 Fly


Rob Weir also a flying start...


Shane-O Falling not Diving in....



Emma "Doc" Dolby showing us how it is done.....


Tammy wondering what this whole training thing is......



Jase showing plenty of guts in his backstroke start...



Emma and Simon doing it N-Sync...



Digging for gold.....Of COURSE i knew the camera was on me.....


Thanks again to Murph for the pics there are too many to post, however, new club website coming soon !

SUPA GOLF = SUPA DAY

Better late than never i say......Sunday August 28th 2011....

16 of out clubs finest members and their families turned out to see who is the best swinger.....err who can swing a golf club the best. SUPA GOLF at Melville was the scene, the day was bright and sunny and wonderfully organised by Hilary. For the record Richard (Barbs Hubby) had the lowest score of 36...Well done Richard.

Pictures are worth 1000 words so here are some great pics of the day !

Records, Records, Records ...

In a club that is cap and goggles ahead of the rest, and where everyone is a champion, some of us do a few things that are just that little bit more extraordinary and special.

On Monday evening, we gathered on the pool deck before training to present a large number of certificates and medallions, as well as a special glass goblet trophy. Many awards had previously been presented throughout the year but some members were yet to receive theirs.

In the Open Water Series for 2010/2011, Mark Davey was age group champion, seen below receiving his award.


In the Nationals held earlier in April, Graeme Pow and Pauline Southall were runners up to champion in each of their age categories. Here they are receiving their silver medallions.

In the same event, Damien Eyre was third place getter in his age group and received a bronze medallion.

Damien was also awarded certificates for setting not one, not two, but FIVE state records since June. He is now the state record holder in his age group in:

• 400m backstroke


• 200m individual medley (short course)


• 100m backstroke (short course)


• 800m freestyle


• 1500m freestyle.

A massive achievement!


And then there were the awesome foursome ....

Setting a STATE RECORD in the short course 4 x 100m mixed medley relay in their age category at Swan Hills in July was Damien Eyre, Pauline Southall, Barbara Morris and Shane Wallace.

Congratulations to you all!

Riverton lays the SMACKDOWN at the GUN SHOW !

Well it was actually The Annual Claremont Short Course Relay Carnival.

What a gala it was, 14 mighty riverton red fins made the trip up to challenge stadium on a wild, wet and windy Sunday morning. It would be fair to say that your correspondent's motivation had wilted somewhat since Nationals, however, the last couple of weeks have certainly re-ignited things especially our clubs results on Sunday. Here is a pic of the team...minus Shane and isn't Jase happy about that !!

Well Malira is missing too but she had to run off so had a good excuse...Shane was faffing around in the showers as per usual, actually i am suprised that GP was not there with him but i digress...



In the interest of cutting down on my usual amount of waffle i present THE GOOD, THE BAD and THE UGLY ! (bullet points as always)

THE GOOD

• Riverton finished 3rd out of 11 clubs....Yes that's right only Osborne Park and Claremont finished higher than us. An AWESOME effort !


• We set TWO state records Mens (120-159) 4x25 IM relay and Womens (120-159)4x50 IM relay


• We beat Claremont - TWICE and were touched out for 1st place on a couple of occasions


• The whole team swum and supported each other really well !
  


• Playing " Hang shit on South Africans" in the car...one of my favourite pastimes (love you Tam)


• Full results can be found here - http://www.mswa.asn.au/events-pool.htm

THE BAD

• Shane trying to wear his funky trunks at a competition....TSK TSK !


• They had to cancel the 4x100 Mixed Free relay...I think it was bad...I know there are other members of the team (Mark Davey, Malira and Tammy) who all think it was good.

THE UGLY

• Umm err sheesh nothing springs to mind really....Its more a case of what MIGHT have been if they DID NOT cancel the 4x100 Mixed Free Relay....

So a picture is worth a thousand words here is a slightly more formal team photo

Here is the victorious Mens 4x25 IM Relay State Record Holders....Suffer in your jocks Claremont !


Yours in Powerade
Damo

More Awards

Certificates of achievement and appreciation were presented at training on Monday evening to Shane Wallace and Barbara Morris (shown above) and Lesley Robinson for their contribution to the club's 400m/800m swim event held on Sunday 26 June. Congratulations to you all.

Mahsuri Satay Restaurant

The best satay outside of Malaysia and Singapore ...



... so says Mahsuri Satay's advertising byline and who are we to argue?



A small group dined on fabulous satay in the heart of Victoria Park. Plates of meat, chicken, vegetables and rice dressed with satay sauce were delivered to our table while the restaurant continued to fill with many other diners. Prices were very reasonable and this is obviously a restaurant that does a roaring trade most nights of the week. It's easy to see why.

Dishes were to everyone's taste - not too hot - although we may have spied some beads of perspiration breaking out on the forehead of one member, and we also noticed two others reaching hastily for the carafe of water!


All up, it was an enjoyable evening out.

Thanks to Hilary and Barbara for organising the occasion.

Riverton Masters Long Course 400m/800m Event

There are few sporting events on the world stage that we might think of as being big.

• The couple of tennis matches played last week in England? - Not big.


• The little bike ride currently underway in France? - Not big at all.


• The few little soccer games played every four years in different countries? - Definitely not what you would call big.

There is only one sporting event in the world arena that the word BIG is simply too small a word to describe.

And there is only one sporting event in the world arena where the word INAUGURAL is simply too modest a word to describe.

That event was the INAUGURAL Riverton Masters Long Course 400m/800m swim!!!

Yes, bigger than Wimbledon, more massive than the Tour de France, and even more widely talked about than the FIFA World Cup, the 400m/800m event was staged at the Riverton Leisureplex on Sunday 26 June with huge success.

Guided by the firm direction of Swim Organiser Damien Eyre, the man we affectionately refer to as 'Coach', and his trusty side-kick Graeme Pow, the man we reverently refer to as 'GP', all swimmers were checked in on the day and the afternoon proceeded without a hitch - except for one swim where the swimmer didn't have the whistle blown to signal 700m and only two laps to go of an 800m record attempt. However, that was only a minor glitch and all three time keepers have been sacked, thus ensuring it doesn't happen again!

On the day, there were 28 swims with 8 records being set, which is a mighty afternoon of swimming in anyone's language. From Riverton, nine people swam a variety of events and their accomplishments are listed below.

400m Freestyle:

• Nadine Neethling in 7.25.76


• Nola Byrne in 8.29.14


• Lee Murphy in 5.16.06


• Simon Innes in 7.51.41


• Graeme Pow in 7.02.22


• Kevin Hall in 7.36.44

400m Backstroke:

• Damien Eyre in 5.27.70

400m Individual Medley:

• Shane Wallace in 7.27.09

800m Freestyle:

• Damien Eyre in 9.53.23


• Shane Wallace in 12.04.34

800m Breaststroke

• Pauline Southall in 18.41.92

Congratulations to everyone that swam on the day. They did themselves proud and the club proud. Well done!

The event could not have occurred without time and effort being given by a team of volunteers on the day who willingly and admirably fulfilled a raft of time keeping duties. Many thanks go to Malira Cocking, Lesley Robinson, Hilary Vaughan, Barbara Morris, Nola Byrne and Pauline Southall for their work on the day. Riverton looked organised and professional and it was a good showing by everyone.

Certificates of achievement and appreciation were awarded to everyone before training on Monday 4 July. Shown below is the Swim Organiser contemplating his speech before making presentations.

Shown below are Simon, Hilary, Kevin, Lee, Graeme and Malira with their certificates.

Another State Record Holder

She's done it again!

At the recent Nationals, Malira Cocking set a state record in the 100 metre breaststroke event in her age group in a time of 1 minute and 27.07 seconds. A magnificent and inspirational achievement! It is just reward for the training that Malira put in before the event. Congratulations!




Malira, along with Tammy Souster, Emma Dolby and Nadine Neethling, was also part of a bronze medal winning relay team at the Nationals. Here are Malira and Tammy with their medallions.

A State Record Holder Twice Over

Setting a state record once is no mean feat but setting TWO state records in the same swim meet is an outstanding achievement.

In last month's Nationals, Mark set a record in his age group in the 50m backstroke event, clocking in with a phenomenal time of 30.78 seconds. He also set a record in the 100m backstroke event with a time of 1.06.03 minutes.

Congratulations, Mark, on a magnificent effort!

Busselton Half Ironman: Saturday 7 May

For many months now, Viet Dang, Steve Geiles, Steve Harvey, Mo Johansen and John Janssen have been putting in the hard yards of training in preparation for the recently held Busselton Half Ironman event on Saturday 7 May. The event consisted of a 1.9km swim, 90km cycle, and a 21km run.

Here are Steve, Viet and Mo proudly showing off their ironman souvenir towels.

Not only did these five gentlemen compete in the event, they also COMPLETED it, which is a huge accomplishment. Their times were solid:

• Viet in 5 hours 39 minutes




• Steve G in 5 hours 32 minutes




• Steve H in 6 hours 37 minutes




• Mo in 5 hours 24 minutes and




• John in 6 hours 34 minutes.

Mo also placed 36th in his age group which is a fabulous achievement.

To spend so many hours engaged in top athletic endeavour in three disciplines is an admirable feat. They are all inspirational and we congratulate them on their efforts.

There is no 'half ironman' about any of them. To the rest of us, they are most definitely TOTAL IRONMEN!!!

Kelly's Cafe or Justin Bieber on a Saturday Night?

A tough choice for many, but a group of eight resisted the vocal charms of Justin Bieber at the Burswood Dome and spent a pleasant evening dining at Kelly's Cafe in Canning Vale.




We've never seen so much delicious food plated up in an appetising manner before and only the strongest of us could manage to clear our plates. And then ... anyone for dessert? And what fantastic looking desserts they were!!!

The venue is highly recommended.

Many thanks to Hilary for organising the function.

Nationals Part 2

Yes that's right...Due to creating a wafer thin layer of excitement and anticipation here is the Nationals Blog Part 2.

Yes it is time to present some awards in category's that are obscure, however, the recipients are no less deserving than our own Karl Stefanovic who took home the coveted Gold Logie award the other night at some piss-weak awards ceremony.

Now i am just waiting on our award presenter...oh look here she is. It's Kristy Stevens from Westcoast. Thanks for helping me present these awards.

Theme song please



Finally before we commence remember my GOLDEN RULE of this blog - NEVER MUCK UP A GOOD STORY FOR THE FACTS.

The prestigious PAIN-IN-THE-ARSE AWARD - a VERY close tussle here between England and South Africa, however, the judges decided that the constant bleating about another bloody royal wedding was the clincher so EMMA DOLBY - CONGRATULATIONS !

FLIRT-OF-MEET-AWARD - No contest really for this one. After conducting her poolside interview wearing a rather low-cut top (a wardrobe change happened between getting out of the pool and walking the 10 metres or so for the interview) and listening to the pool announcer call her name about 20,000,000 times. NADINE NEETHLING - CONGRATULATIONS !

PATHETIC -LIGHT-WEIGHT-DRINKER - Again a no contest please see pic below - DAMIEN EYRE - CONGRATULATIONS! (No Damien you only get to shake her hand!)


BEST-EFFORT-TO-GET-COACH-BEATEN-UP - Yelling out the coach's name at 2am whilst in bed with your partner is probably not the best idea. Although allegedly asleep when this occurred TAMMY SOUSTER - CONGRATULATIONS !

FINISH-OF-THE-MEET - After a sizzling 50 Free leg in the men's 4x50 IM relay this chap was so eager to finish that he broke his finger on the touch pad. MARK DAVEY - CONGRATULATIONS (OK Mark you got your award now stop harassing the female presenter!)

BEST-DRESSED-ON-POOL-DECK - Proving once again that crocs and budgie smugglers are always in fashion - GRAEME POW - CONGRATULATIONS (No Graeme wait there i believe we have something else for you)

MOST-ANAL-RETENTIVE-LIST - Another no contest.We all love our blue caps and what better way to make sure that they are received in the same condition as they were handed out in. Yes make a list....GRAEME POW - CONGRATULATIONS ( we still love you big guy !)

BEST-SUPPORTED- SWIMMER - Getting your wife's sister's best friend to sit at a masters meet ALL DAY is pure brilliance - MARK DAVEY - CONGRATULATIONS

GUTSIEST- SWIM-OF-THE-MEET - Another very close decision but this swimmer's effort to swim 100 Fly and then back up for the 200 IM was outstanding. In fact her 100 Fly was so fast that nobody actually saw her swim it. TAMMY SOUSTER - CONGRATULATIONS !

BEST-SHAVED-LEGS-ON-POOL DECK - Despite repeated pleas from his wife to buy some new razors, this swimmer rocked up looking like Jack the Ripper had shaved his legs and then proceeded to BLEED all over the spectator seats. - MARK DAVEY - CONGRATULATIONS.

MOST-SCARY-LOOKING-SWIM - 50 Backstroke has NEVER looked so awkward. GRAEME POW - CONGRATULATIONS (It is also rumoured that upon returning to the stands Graeme was overheard saying "I really should work on my backstroke!")

BEST-WARMUP-OF-THE-MEET - Some of us have it and some of us don't. This swimmer makes us all look ordinary as all he does is actually LOOK at the pool before his race and still swims fast - JASON DAVEY - CONGRATULATIONS ! (eyes up Jase)

and now for the FINAL award of the evening......

PUTTING-THE-COACH-IN-HIS PLACE AWARD - My spies tell me that the group pictured below hatched an evil plan. This plan was devised through a set of circumstances that were NOT the coach's fault. Sure he should have double checked the combined ages of the relay team. He is ONLY human ! This error also escaped his trusty off-sider. (GP you are fired - until the relay meet in August). ANYWAY they all bought the coach a gift. The coach was utterly taken aback and extremely humble until he opened the gift - SQUASH - BACK IN YOUR BOX COACH !
The sneaky crew....Note the VERY sneaky guy in the green shirt. It's always the quiet ones...


The suprise !
THE SLEDGE - Yes that's right a F***ing calculator !


Well that concludes our awards ceremony. Thanks for attending and i truly hope you all had a wonderful time.

Yours in Watered Down Sucrose

Damo