Riverton on the bottom but come up PUMPED !

Righto everyone gather around a quick roll call if I may...

Tammy "I really do exist" Souster - Present
Jana "The dirty Collingwood supporter" Van Voorthuizen - Present
Yvonne "Is my cossie too bright?" Yoo - Present
Kazza "Where is my hairbrush" Anderson - Present
Maria "I need to pace myself over 50" Tarandetti - Present
Nadine "6 dogs" Neethling - Present
Hilary "Does this outfit make my bum look big" Vaughan - Present
Lee "How do I do this again?" Murphy - Present
Steve "Checked my 100000 emails but still not sure if entered" Wills - Present
Scotty " Oooh I like the yellow in the Riverton bathers" Zuideveld - Present
Damo "I only open my mouth to change feet" Eyre - Present
Malira "I need a new calendar" Cocking...............Malira? Has anyone seen Malira??? Malira? Yoohoo where are you???

Tammy calmly picks up her mobile and makes the call it goes something like this...

"Hi Malira it;s Tammy" (said in South African accent)
"Are you coming to the Gala" (she means swimming carnival)
"No it's on today we are all here and the gala (swimming carnival) is about to start"
At this point the Club Captain starts swearing and begins to curl up into the foetal position. Tammy calmly continues...
"So can you make it?"
"Well they are about to start but if you leave now you can still make it"
Tammy ends the call, looks at the club captain now frothing at the mouth and mumbling incoherently and says "Malira had it in her calendar for tomorrow, she is leaving now and will be here in 20mins.

Fast forward 22 mins later and Malira comes jogging in, looks around and sees her 1st relay swim about to start. Malira then rips off her clothes prompting Steve-O to comment that he has never seen a woman disrobe so quickly ( I could comment here but moving on) and then sprints down to the starting blocks, dives in and away she goes. By this stage it is all too much for the Club Captain who promptly has some bex and a lie down.

Believe it or not a relay carnival did take place this afternoon at Challenge Stadium. It was lots of fun, well run and our club had some great results...The least of which was Malira turning up ! So onto the swimming and back to my preferred method of bullet points !

The good

• Riverton broke THREE relay records how good is that !


• Our 72-119 age group won a trophy (see pic) how good is that !



• Mens 4x25m IM relay hanging on to FLOG Claremont.How good is that !


• Having 12 Riverton swimmers represent our club with distinction...How good is that !


• Malira turning up - Have I already covered this???


• Collingwood losing to Adelaide


• Swans flogging Brisbane and securing a home final


• Ok ok Freo won.....


• Yvonne taking home "Best Dressed on Pool Deck" award


• Kazza remembering to collect all the caps


• Jana writing all her events on her arm (see pic)
  
  

The Bad

• Tammy how do you spell Nemesis??


• The Club Captain's minor meltdown
  
• Kazza losing a hairbrush


• Steve-O wearing a modesty suit (actually that is probably a good thing)
  
• Scotty Z is running a half marathon tomorrow.


• The Club Captain running out of snakes and thus ending up in Benny's bad books

The Ugly (sort of but not really)

• It almost got VERY ugly when Jana did not want to pull out of the women's 4x100 Free relay and the other ladies did.....HOWEVER it was all for the best because Tammy, Malira, Nadine and Jana set a new record and RIPPED 30 secs off the old mark..well done girls err ladies

Once results are finalised I will update this literary masterpiece with all the appropriate details. Thanks to all the swimmers today it was a top afternoon and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves...

Yours in Glycogen

Damo

Maida Vale/Belmont BACC Meet Report: 22 August

And then there were three...

Sunday 22 August dawned and we tuned in for the morning's headlines:

• Handful of independents hold balance of power
• Indecision and confusion amongst the masses
• Who is our leader?

OK, enough about the swimming carnival. What happened with the election?!?!? Oh, that was the election?!? Funny that. The headlines were the same for both events!

So, without further procrastination, here is the meet report.

On a day when there were more scratchings than you'd find in a men's change room after a tough game of footy, the team of Steve, Maria and Kazza arrived at Belmont Oasis Leisure Centre to represent Riverton. As we checked in at the desk, we found that, once again, Riverton's entries hadn't been added. Oh, great! Shall we go home? No! Fabulous Lynne Duncan from Maida Vale slotted us in to the events we wanted - exactly! Not exactly the heats we thought we were going to be in but that didn't matter. Hey, it's not every swimming meet that we all get to come first in some of our heats!!!

The team ...

Some honourable mentions:

• Steve - Should I go to work or swim in the carnival? Hey, I think I'll swim in the carnival. Correct answer! Work will always be there tomorrow but a Belmont carnival only comes once a year. Remember - there is no I in TEAM! What a fabulous 200 metre freestyle heat! Steve clocked in and everyone else was still doing the 150 metre turn. A top effort!
• Maria - Should I swim in the 50 metre freestyle? I'm not sure I've got time for another coffee. OK, I will. Correct answer! First in that heat as well as first in the 200 metre freestyle heat by a long way. Fantastic work!
• Kazza - Two caps and three hairbrushes! Not taking any chances this time. First in her heat for the 50 metre freestyle. A tidy effort!

A few more honourable mentions:

• Belmont is a nice venue - lovely artificial plants, a beautiful leadlight window (Mmmm... We need one of those at Riverton), and nets hanging from the ceiling. A very maritime feel.
• Des Seery (ex-Riverton ) officiating for Masters WA. Wow, were we impressed by the microphone technique and the red light/hooter start combination. But that was nothing compared to those very trendy officials' uniforms. There is something about a man in uniform ... Great job Des!

All up, we had an enjoyable morning.

An En-thai-cing Evening at Mai Thai

Thai me up, thai me down,
But don't thai me kangaroo down sport ...

A group of twelve met at Mai Thai Restaurant on Canning Highway in Alfred Cove on Saturday evening to dine on a thai-riffic and apperthaising banquet. The food was great (and there was plenty of it!) and the ambience and conversation was even better.

With no pun untendered, everyone had a great thai-m. Thanks to Lesley for organising the evening.

Sunny Side is ALWAYS UP.

Good Afternoon Class,

Ensure you are all sitting up straight - No slouching and pay attention....*sigh* Mark Hevron stop staring out the window i have told you a million times the Dockers will NEVER win the Flag....Rob Weir whatever you are playing with please come and put it on my desk.....Yes Shane you may go to the bathroom.....No Graeme we are not doing ANY MORE MATHS TODAY.....Tammy how many times have i told you stop punching the boys.........Karen Anderson put away your hairbrush or i will confiscate it until the end of term...

Right now listen up

CUE THE MUSIC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4GZFbCqx18


Another beautiful sunny sunday at the Aqualife Centre in East Vic Park. Myself and Kazza headed on down to swim a 1500m. Kazza was sick and tired of waiting around for 3 hours to swim so she came up with the idea to sleep in her car with the intention of securing pole position and thus being the first person to swim. CLEARLY this stratagy paid off for, as yours truly strolled into the pool Kazza was again winding up for a big finish.

The whistle blows signifying 100m to swim Kazza pushes off the wall and immediately breaks out the 2 1/2 beat kick arms whirling like chopper blades BANG she touches the wall 33.08 TOP SWIM Kaz...After a quick debrief with the coach and a brush of the hair Kazza is off to vacuum out her car, apparently she did not realise how much a cadbury flake can crumble....

So this leaves me to kick back on the grass in the sun and wait for my swim...and after watching countless people swim 1500m DOUBLE ARM BACKSTROKE (are you kidding) FINALLY it is my turn. Oh look i am the lucky last swimmer and for the record 19.32 (i think) not too shabby. Although i must mention a swimmer from Perth City, Damon Kendrick this bloke is 50 years old, has ONE LEG and still cranks out 19.42 for 1500m free....amazing and a very nice guy too !

Yours in Vitaman D

Damo

Don't Call It a COMEBACK !

One of the great things about being able to blog on this site is it allows me to talk about myself. So if you don't like me then stop reading now....

Still with me?

Aww gee thanks i love you too....Not that cheap 3am nightclub kinda love either but i digress...

Cue the music....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vimZj8HW0Kg

The Balga Leisurepark (is that an oxymoron?) was the scene as Damo, Kazza and Nadine lined up for the traditional shortcourse 400/800m freestyle swim. Nadine? Nadine? Oh that's right Nadine the Wallabies FLOGGED the Springboks last night, no worries i would be laying low too....

So i arrived a bit late after my wife decided to stay out all night ! Can you believe it? At her age what will people think ! So just as i arrived Kazza was winding up for a big finish in her 800 Free and what a finish it was...Held her stroke together nicely, bi-lateral breathing , 2 1/2 beat kick...AWESOME FINISH KAZZA...Awesome swim all round actually !

So without further waffling i jumped in and banged out an 800 Free that tested out the surgically enhanced err repaired shoulder and the end result of 10.16 was a pleasant suprise !

The feed after was just as good...pumpkin soup, potato and Leek soup, fruit, tim tams...you name it..Sorry Kaz you missed out :-)

SOOOOOOOOOOO what's next i hear you ask? Well we got TWO carnivals coming up Sunday 22nd August and the BIG RELAY Carnival on Saturday 28th August....Details to follow shortly !

Peace, Love and Mungbeans..

Damo

Swan Hills BACC Meet Report: Sunday 4 July

Only once in a lifetime comes a weekend in sport where the word HUGE is simply not big enough.

More MASSIVE than the start of the cycling world's Tour de France ...
More PRODIGIOUS than the tennis world's Wimbledon finals ...
More GARGANTUAN than that little-known and lowly-publicised football World Cup ...

On the coldest morning in Perth in over five hundred years, a small contingent of swimmers from Riverton scraped the ice off their windscreens, shook the icicles from their fingertips and made their way over to Midvale for the Swan Hills BACC short course event on Sunday 4 July. Brrrr ... The team of Graeme, Steve, Scott, Barbara, Nadine, Maria and Kazza were shaped up and poised to take on the might of eight other clubs.

The team (minus Maria) ...

"Young Grasshopper, I've been struck on the shoulder by a lightsaber. You will have to post the meet report."
"Coach Damo Skywalker, must I use bullet points in the report?"
"Young Grasshopper, we ALWAYS use bullet points."
"Coach Damo Skywalker, what if I don't use bullet points?"
"Then, young Grasshopper, I may be forced to say ... that I am not your coach. Use the bullet points, Grasshopper. May the bullet points be with you."

Let's bring on the meet report.

The Fairly Fantastic

• Graeme's magnificent first in his age group for his favoured 100m and 200m breaststroke events. Always a strong showing.
• Steve's fastest Riverton man at the meet 1.08 for 100m freestyle and 31.81 for 50m. A brilliant piece of work to bring home first in his age group for both events.
• Scott's first outing for the club absolutely blitzing the field in his heat of the 100m freestyle. Coming in at 1.14 he posted first in his age group. Great swimming!
• Birthday girl Barbara's first in her age group 100m individual medley and 50m breaststroke. Barbara always goes for the 'different' event. (Does this mean she 'thinks outside the square' or 'swims outside the pool'?!?!? Hmmm ...)
• Nadine's 1.37 for the 100m individual medley and a fabulous 25m freestyle saw her take first in her age group for both. First in the 100m I.M. saw her just pip her fiercest competitor on the day. A brilliant piece of swimming!
• Maria's first in her age group for the 200m breaststroke got her off to a great start for the day. Followed up by a 50.24 in the 50m freestyle, Maria is well on track in her training for Alice Springs later in the year.
• Kazza's PB of 3.54 in the 200m freestyle was also the first time she's made a first in her age group. It's been said before but it's worth saying again - you go girl!
  

The Fairly Tidy

• A cheer squad brought by three members of the team. Great to see!
• Fantastic effort by the women in the 4 x 25m medley relay.
• Magnificent work by the team in the 4 x 200m mixed freestyle relay, led off in fine style by Steve and brought home strongly by Scott.
• The lunchtime catering after the meet. Wow! A fabulous spread of great food.
• No equipment malfunctions.
• Short course events are great!

The Fairly Disappointing

• Sadly, we arrived to find that Riverton's entries had not been entered onto the master list by the host club. Hmmmm ... However, things worked out OK and the officials were helpful in getting us all into our nominated events.
• A very small turn out of swimmers, leaving the stands somewhat depleted.

It was a great morning of swimming and Riverton came in 5th out of 9 clubs.

Parla italiano? Ecco Il Ciao

Buona sera. Come stai? Bene, grazie! Che c'e di nuovo? Non molto. Arrivederci!

If that isn't enough Italian for you, Il Ciao in Applecross served up a fabulous menu of Italian cuisine last evening for a group of about 18 members. The food was delicioso, the ambiance was warm and busy, and the company was superb. What could be better than pizza, pasta and gelati on a Saturday evening?

Thanks to Lesley for organising the event.