RIVERTON SCARE THE BIG FISH

Goodness gracious.....Is it that time of the year ALREADY....Cue the music

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

That's right everybody tell me what the word is.....WORD UP....so grab your black Lycra, Nike hi-tops and red cod piece, we are going downtown on this bodacious track so crank it up nice and loud....Are you picking up what i am laying down???

"Oh for goodness sake Damo enough with the waffling, what happened at the Gala (aka Swimming Carnival) today?"

Yes right sorry about that i digress....well where do i finish? With both hands together.....SNAP !!! That was for you Kazza !

Ok Ok i am now officially "Getting on with it"

WORD UP - 8 Mighty Riverton Redbacks (i am bringing the name back - it sounds scary) rocked up to Tuart College Pool. After our wonderful Christmas Party last night we were all feeling the effects of a little overeating, however, we were not going to let that bring us down.

WORD UP - results can be found here http://www.portal.aussi.org.au/

WORD UP - Our results were in a "WORD" EXCELLENT.

So as not to be accused of waffling anymore than is absolutely necessary here come the GOOD...the BAD and the UGLY (in bullet points of course)

THE GOOD

• First off and big THANK YOU to Jason, Tom and Seoul for helping out with the timekeeping - much appreciated !


• All other team members who also helped to time keep it's a bit like paying taxes - inevitable (unless you are Paul Hogan)
  
• Kazza had great swims in both relays and a very solid 200 Breast.
  
• Barbara took one for the team and led off the medley relay with a terrific backstroke swim.
  
  
• Tammy swam an excellent 200 Free and was a key member in both relays


• Tara one of the newer and youngest (born in 91) members decided to swim and swum really well. I think Tara was pleasantly surprised by her times


• GP REALLY took one for the team when he was volunteered to swim the 50 fly in the medley relay nice one GP !


• Steve J swam an excellent 36.5 for his 50 free more on his other swims a bit later....


• Mark D enjoyed (i think) his return to competition after a few years out of the pool a lazy 26.7 for his 50 free certainly got his heart rate up !


• Your correspondent had a good day in the pool the best part was being involved in the 2 relays !


• Riverton finished 4th with 101 points !!


• 2 state records in the mixed 4x50 Medley Relay and 4x50 Free Relay for 72-119 age group. The team was the same for both swims Tara, Tammy, Mark D and Damo.
  

(Shown here at right is the crowd going wild at the news of the Riverton state records.)

The BAD

• Shane being unable to swim, unfortunately for Shane he developed a severe case of "nocando" which rendered him bedridden for 48 hrs. His doctors tell me he will make a full recovery

THE UGLY

• For the first time we have a TIE in this category....Your correspondent's 100 Breast was truly ugly AND Steve J is swimming his 50 back and goes under the flags nearing the wall and decides it is time to turn over swim 2 strokes of Freestyle roll over onto his back again touch the wall and push off to complete the 50 back in a 3 sec PB....Well done Steve he did not even get DQ !
  

Cliff Notes - The weather was lovely. The meet was well run. Riverton gave a VERY good account of themselves and we came home with ANOTHER 2 state records.

This ends our GALA (swimming carnivals) for 2010. Thank you to everyone for another great year in the pool. As a club we continue to punch above our weight and it is great to see so much enthusiasm at training and at the club.

Yours in Fructose

Damo

Golden Tongs and Burning Embers

When the Social Committee mentions the word 'BARBECUE', no one from the Riverton Masters Swimming Club is backward in stepping forward. In fact, it's all bodies on the pool deck and out to the barbecue area.

With 20 people on hand to swim, eat and socialise, hats are off the Master Shopper Barbara, Iron Chef Damo and Master Chef Steve. We've had some fabulous barbecues in the past but none can compare to this evening's barbecue when the word 'SENSATIONAL' is hardly superlative enough to describe the gathering.

Barbara did a magnificent job in shopping for the supplies and preparing everything for cooking.

Has anyone met a better chef than Iron Chef Damo? Meat that was cooked to perfection and served efficiently. Did someone use the work 'TRIUMPH' to describe the cooking effort? If they didn't, they should have.

But the revelation of the evening surely belongs to Master Chef Steve. What this man whipped up from his mystery box of mango, walnuts, rocket lettuce and mayonnaise was a supremely impressive effort. Did someone use the word 'MAGNIFICENT' to describe that salad? If they didn't, they should have. AND, we can't wait to see what he pulls out of his chef's hat for the Christmas barbecue!

Mark reminded everyone about the AGM on Monday 6 December being held in the creche at 7pm. No training as such that night but members are welcome to swim in the public lanes beforehand and then join the meeting. All Committee positions are open for nomination.

Damo reminded everyone about two more events on the competition calendar: the Osborne Park BACC on Sunday 28 November and a potential road trip to Narrogin in early December.

Thanks to Lesley and Barbara for organising the barbecue. Thanks to everyone else who contributed salads and desserts.

Details will be out shortly regarding the club's Christmas barbecue.

Congratulations Maria

Just over a week ago, Maria Tarandetti travelled to Alice Springs to compete in the Masters Games, held between Saturday 9 October and Friday 15 October.

Maria was just one of a small handful of competitors from WA.

She swam in six events: 50 metres, 100 metres and 200 metres in each of freestyle and breaststroke. All up, Maria turned in some top performances, most notably in the 100 metres freestyle where she shaved 8 seconds off her PB and in the 100 metres breaststroke coming in 11 seconds under nominated time in 2.21.89.

Well done Maria!

Elie's Tent no Belly Flop on the Social Calendar

When 15 Riverton people arrived at Elie's Tent in Victoria Park on Saturday evening, they were anticipating the taste of delicious Lebanese cuisine - perhaps some hoummos, perhaps some tabbouleh, even some falafel and maybe some shish kebabs. There was certainly that - AND MORE!!!

With more spectacular costumes than you'd see at a Lady Gaga concert, Fatima the gorgeous belly dancer took to the floor.

With all the men on the Riverton table calling "Pick me", she must have known we didn't have the moves as she delicately bypassed us to entice other dancers to join her.

NOW, THAT'S A KNIFE!!!

Where this girl could balance a knife defied imagination.

All up, the evening was a fabulous mix of food, conversation and entertainment.

Thanks to Lesley for organising the evening.

Round 23 - Barbecues: 3 votes; Training: 2 votes; Dynamic Coach: 1 vote

What the Brownlow Medal is to the AFL world, a barbecue with awards is to the Riverton swimming world.

Less bling ... but more T-shirts
Fewer Manolo Blahniks ... but more thongs and sneakers
Fewer cheesy acceptance speeches ... but more awards to be given

On Monday evening, 22 of us barbecued after a short and sharp training session in the pool. The event was to mark the presentation of a series of awards reaped by members over the past few months. As president, Mark introduced the theme of the evening and then passed over to Coach Damo to make the presentations.

First up were the presentations of certificates to everyone who participated in and completed the Bunbury Postal Swim. This comprised swimming 400 metres of each of freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke. Congratulations to everyone who participated. A top effort!

Special congratulations go to Robert Weir who swam the fastest overall time by a swimmer from all the clubs that participated in the event. In doing so, Robert was awarded a medal. (Seen in the picture below being held by Damo). A fantastic achievement Robert! Well done!

Seen below are various members scrutinising and comparing their times recorded on their certificates.

A couple of further certificates were presented to Malira Cocking for breaking her own state records in her age group for the 100 metres and 25 metres breaststroke events at the State Swim held earlier in the year. (See picture below). To continue to break state records is a fabulous achievement. Well done Malira!

Thanks to Lesley for organising the barbecue, her team of helpers with the cooking, and to everyone who attended for helping to make the evening another successful social event.

Riverton caught hook, line and sinker at Snappers

Well Well Well,

Hang on i know what you are thinking....here we go again, Damo is going to dribble on and on about another bloody gala (swimming carnival).

Well guess what...YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SPOT ON McDUFF !!!!!!!!!!!!!

You see what i did there? Goodness me i am clever, am i not?? Oh yes teach you i can....BUT as i sit here in the throes of a sugar coma let me not dribble too much. Instead let me lay it out so you can play it out...

• YES 9 fearless Riverton Masters swimmers went to Challenge Stadium and came away with a 5th Placing....missing out on 4th place by a measly 5 points


• YES we all helped time keep thank you to everyone who took a seat !
  

• YES it was Tammy's fault we missed out on 4th place...Unfortunately Tammy was unable to attend the Gala (swimming carnival) as she was out digging trenches. No really she was apparently this is what South African people do when their rugby team slips out of the top 4 ranked teams in the world.

• YES you can find a summary of the results here
  http://www.portal.aussi.org.au/meets/index.php?EventId=151905&filter=*&split=no&js=on
  

• YES there were many PB's and great swims from our team....


• Scotty Z awesome 35 for his 50 fly, did it so well we got him to do it again in the relay !


• Steve J 36 for his 50 Free great swim


• Hilary pulled a 1.34 out for 100 Free....that's a 9 sec PB !


• Steve-O 31 for his 50 Free (more on this later)


• GP 1.23 for his 100 Free and an awesome Breaststroke leg in the relay !


• Kazza very solid 100 Free with a dodgy foot and slid off the bench and onto the blocks for the women's relay
  

• Nadine held her 50 Free together very nicely


• Barbara swum an excellent 200 Breast


• Even your correspondent was happy with his 50 fly...Hey Tammy i had your nemesis in the lane next to me and guess what....Yes i beat her !!


• YES i have used the word YES far too many times...


• YES the relay teams all swum very well


• YES there was an excellent lunch afterwards


• YES GP WON THE RAFFLE !!! (See picture below)
  


• YES we got a team photo (Thank you Simon) and Kazza was all set to depart as there was much painting to be done at home, however, after some well placed "peer pressure" (thanks for your help GP) Kazza decided to stay and dare i say it....go on dare dare...i think she just maybe, a little, enjoyed herself.

STORY OF THE DAY - A conversation between Steve-O and Myself

Steve - "You know Damo i just really struggled with the last 15m of that race....man what did you have for breakfast?"
ME- "Fruit and oats, why mate what did you have for Brekky?"
Steve- "Ummm oh hang on a minute i did not have any?"
ME - "Ah yes well i think we just might have a solution for your problem"

45 mins later after Steve-O has a) eaten something b) smoked 31 for his 50 free

ME- "Hey great swim mate how did you feel towards the end of that one?"
Steve- "Felt great it's amazing what a difference eating makes isn't it - i just had so much more energy"

For all you kids reading this out there, remember breakfast is the most important meal of the day..Steve will be writing this on the white board 100 times tomorrow night before training

Yours in Powerade
Damo

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