10 Nov 2009 | Rugby
Dear Members, Friends and James Bond fans,
On behalf of the Freeport Rugby and Football Club we invite you to our first Annual James Bond evening “A View to a Thrill.”
This will be a major fundraising event to help in the ever present challenges of keeping our cherished non-profit organisation afloat in these financially difficult times.
Our Club has gone from strength to strength providing more and more young people with a stable and reliable place to practice their skills but providing this environment comes with an ever increasing cost.
These past couple of years we needed more space, we got it. We needed more equipment, we got it. We now need to be able to keep pace with the upward spiral in cost of everyday maintenance and unfortunately the need to rely on supportive, community minded people is necessary for us to keep striving forward as a club we can all be proud of.
With all that said we invite you to join us for what should be a spectacular evening full of fun, surprises and laughter…
Don’t forget, the more Bond trivia you know the better your chance of walking away with the Grand Prize.
It is important for us to know numbers in advance for the night so please let us know how many tickets you need by November 14th, 2009.
See you then,
Tony Johns (otherwise known as “M”)
10 Nov 2009 | Rugby
The Bahamas men’s national rugby team has quite a task ahead, with the North American Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) Sevens Championships rapidly approaching.
The championships, set for November 14-15 in Mexico City, Mexico, serves as a qualifier for more than three tournaments next year. A win will automatically qualify the Bahamas men’s team for the Commonwealth Games, USA Sevens and the Pan American Games. A fifth place finish at this tournament or better will qualify Team Bahamas for the Central American and Caribbean Games.
Director of the Bahamas Rugby Football Union (BRFU) Elystan Miles knows that a lot is at risk for the squad, but is confident that they can win the tournament.
“This is the highest stakes we have every played for,” said Miles. “This is the first time that we have ever done it like this, where there are so many different tournaments to qualify for. That is why we are pretty determined to win this. We haven’t seen Guyana, Trinidad or Jamaica and these are pretty much the powerhouses in the region. If everyone fires on all cylinders, I think we have a good chance of winning the whole thing. We have some of the best players in the region. Four guys on our team have played on the West Indies team. That is four of the seven so we have an excellent team here.
“The team has been training very hard, but we also know that Guyana is a very tough team to beat. They have been training hard, so has Trinidad and Tobago, but we’re in the best shape that we have ever been in, even though I am pretty sure that these other countries are going to be too.”
The Bahamas will play out of Pool A with Guyana and the Cayman Islands. For the first time, The Bahamas will also enter a women’s squad. The team is expected to play against host country Mexico, which will also be entering a women’s team for the first time. Other teams include Trinidad and Tobago, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Guyana.
Miles knows that it is going to be a tough debut for the women’s squad, however he believes that they can compete with the other teams in the region. He said: “It is going to be a real fight for the girls. There are five women teams competing, all the other teams they have competed in the past, but really, we are looking for them to place. We know that Guyana is really strong in both men and women and they are pretty experienced. Our men, they have a chance of winning the tournament, but this is the first time for our women’s team. If they can go out there and get a couple of hits in, we would be very happy.
“We had a team come over from the states to play them in the summer and they did well. The biggest challenge for them is getting competition. Because we only have one team here, it is very hard for the girls to find competition. They’ve been training and have played some games with the men. The men’s team have been pretty hard on them, but they’ve been holding up pretty well.”
The executive members will announce the team members on Saturday after the final seven-a-side match, at the Winton Rugby Field. The match is scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. ( Note this is an old post form oct 29th so please don’t show up saturday !!)
10 Nov 2009 | Rugby
courtsey J Nicholson football365.com
Whatever Happened To…Away Shirts?
Let’s have a recap. Until recently, you wore your regular strip on every occasion possible, only changing to an alternative when you were away from home and your regular colours were the same or very similar as the home team.
This all made sense for a hundred or more years. When Arsenal went to Old Trafford they’d wear yellow and blue and Liverpool would wear white with red collar and cuffs. This sensible idea has recently been abandoned in favour of a completely random system based on absolutely nothing other than having three different shirts to sell to fans.
There are no home and away shirts now because any shirt can be worn on any occasion. The home side can change strip and the away side do so when unnecessary. So it is that Arsenal played at Wolves in navy blue and all because navy blue makes Arshavin looks less like a lesbian hockey teacher…or something.
Home and away has been replaced by a more clinical first, second and third strip concept. It’s anarchy and it pleases no-one.
Whatever Happened to….Not Showing Pain?
Until not all that long ago, if some big hairy gibbon kicked you up into the air, you would get up as though nothing had happened. “You think you hurt me? Pah! Bigger men than you have failed, son, get away with you before I lose my temper,” you’d say, brusquely, even if only your sock was keeping your leg attached to your foot. You would rather pass out from the pain than let the man know he’d hurt you. Showing pain was showing weakness.
Then sometime in the late 90s, being a wuss became fashionable. Outpourings of grief were de rigeur as men got in touch with their feminine side – but not any of the good feminine bits, not the multi-tasking, multiple orgasms and sensitive nipples, oh no, we just got the PMT elements of over-reaction and over-wrought emotion.And so footballers began to contort their faces and throw themselves to the ground in anguish at the mere sound of a defender’s footstep.
And today we have the ridiculous spectacle of seeing extraordinary physical specimens of men flapping like a run-over seagull after the merest brush with a defender, sometimes signalling for the stretcher or an ambulance only to miraculously recover two minutes later. Others just walk off if they’ve been hurt and refuse to play on. Man up you simpering nancy boys or hand your genitals in on the way out.
Whatever Happened to…The Sliding Tackle?
The sliding tackle was magnificent. It could only be done on rainy days on a muddy pitch. A defender would begin a tackle ten yards away from the opposition player and using the greasy pitch, would gather pace like a speed skater, ploughing a potato trench of a furrow, taking both man and ball simultaneously to huge applause.
This has stopped recently because any tackle which touches, might touch, potentially could have touched or in an unlikely set of circumstances involving a goat on a bike with a machete, could have been dangerous, has now been outlawed, while the shamefully girlish crime of shirt-pulling is 100% allowable. Shame.
Whatever Happened to…Ex Footballers Opening a Sports Shop?
Back when top-flight players earned just double the average wage – which was typical up until the early 80s – when their career was over, they had to do something else to earn a living. Naturally a sports shop seemed like a good idea.
This was before the existence of the giant emporiums to polyester in soul-less retail parks, staffed by the clinically depressed and inhabited by gaunt pukey-faced boys of the under-class and their fat, pregnant girlfriends. At the time there were still small, family-run shops on your high street and not just identical branches of multi-national corporations run by faceless corporate-speak managers called Gavin.
Such great little shops would sell you everything from dart flights to a jock strap to a table tennis ball. Quite often the ex-player was behind the till. On Teesside, it was Willie Maddren’s sport shop we all went to. Dour players such as Leeds full-back Terry Cooper bought a newsagent, while the more flamboyant would open a boutique. Malcolm MacDonald had one in Newcastle’s Newgate Shopping Centre – a hideous 1960s built pish and vomit lashed concrete alcove.Bestie and Jamie Pollock (surely the only time those two players have been mentioned in the same breath) both had clothes stores for a while.
These days it’s impossible to imagine nipping into a sports shop to buy some dubbing for your caser and being served by Michael Owen. Though I can see Jimmy Bullard running a fruit and veg stall, oddly enough.
Whatever Happened to…Just Running Out and Starting A Game?
It went like this. We sat in the local pub until ten to three boozing. We’d saunter into the ground just before 3pm; the players ran out, tossed a coin and kicked off. Easy.Today, it’s all so complicated. Now players have to line up in the tunnel 15 minutes beforehand. If it’s an international, each player has a kid at their side, both looking vaguely embarrassed. Why?
Where does this inexhaustible supply of kids come from? Why are they often so weird-looking? Are only fat kids allowed? League matches must also have a kid or two per side in the tunnel. On Sunday one of Chelsea’s was a young girl, maybe 11, who had to stand to the front and side of John Terry as he arranged his tackle in his shorts. A lovely bucolic sight. Once on the pitch they have to negotiate the mutant creature in a fake fur suit who does…stuff for some reason that no-one understands nor asked for. After a photo shoot, the kids and the players have to shake each other’s hands in single file before the kids can leave and we can then get on with the serious business of having a minute’s silence, the breaking of which is a crime against God second only to not wearing a poppy.
It’s surprising the players are not asked put up some flat-pack furniture, prepare an artichoke dip and sketch a post-impressionist portrait of the referee to decide who kicks off. Just bloody get on with it!
We’re here to see football, not small children, fake fur animals with giant heads, dancing girls, parachutists or the local radio DJ hosting a spank the monkey competition for a bag of meat.
Whatever Happened To ….The Pink?
The Pink was a local paper which came out on Saturday early evening with all the football, rugby and racing results. In some places it was green, occasionally blue. You’d leave the ground, get down your local club for some subsidised ale and by the time you’d got your first pint in, the Pink was on the streets and being sold by a bloke called Alf, aged 75, with a roll-up permanently on his lip. Same bloke, week in week out.It was essential for the football geek because it gave you results and tables and it was the only source of such info because you’d missed the teleprinter on Grandstand or World Of Sport coming out of the ground. Radios were too big and heavy to carry. There was no other way to know the results.
Think about that. No other way to know what had happened until Match Of The Day or the Sundays paper. Okay, there was. At most grounds there was a bloke who put the half-time scores on a hoarding with a big hook-on number beside a letter. Each letter corresponded to a game in the programme. I’m not making this up, honest. But if you didn’t have the programme this was useless and even if you did, the bloke would deliberately put up wrong scores and rarely did the full-times.
In the pre-digital wi-fi age, you might have been out of touch with the rest of the world, but on the up side, no-one walked into you in the street because they were on their freaking Blackberry oblivious to their greater responsibility to society not to be a dick.What happened to The Pink was the internet and all other forms of mobile digital voodoo. But not even the iPhone has got an app to turn it into a pink, poorly printed, flimsy newspaper, and until it does, I’m not buying one.
Whatever Happened To….Talking About Football Without Talking About Money
Come to this site on any day of the week and you’ll find people stalking about the money their club has or hasn’t spent; talking about the difference between net and gross. The maths nerds have taken over. What are we people, accountants? I never wanted football to become about money rather than sport, competition and art. We used to sit over a pint of Stones Best bitter and consider how players had played, not their ratio of earnings to contribution. Incredible as it might now seem, we never talked about money at all. It was all about the sport itself. This all changed with sponsorship in the early 80s. Once your club had taken the big bucks from Heritage Hampers, it altered everything.
27 Oct 2009 | Rugby
In the world of soccer sponsorhip, there are two big boys. Adidas and Nike. Adidas sponsors footballers like Leo Messi and Ricky Kaká, Nike sponsors footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo and Ibrahimović. Neither are particularly shy when it comes to telling us about this. In fact, after spending millions on getting the players endorsement, they spend millions more making sure we the public know.
Not long ago I asked Chris: Who has assembled the better squad of talent? Which brand could field the best team of professional footballers? The three stripes or the swoosh?
A bit of searching turned up two lists on Wikipedia: A list of all Adidas sponsored players, and a list of all Nike sponsored players. We quickly realized that the only way to decide this was to assemble two starting elevens and send them out to play each other. Hypothetically of course.
So Chris took Adidas, I took Nike, and the results (and lengthy explanations) are below.
All adidas (said properly) XI: (as selected by Chris)
In the tried and true Barca 4-3-3 (4-1-2-3), what with the team being centered around that Xavi guy anyhow:
Edwin van der Sar
Jamie Carragher, Kolo Toure, Alessandro Nesta, Philipp Lahm
Daniele De RossiSteven Gerrard, Xavi
Lionel Messi, David Villa, Kaka
Bench: Julio Cesar, Luis Suarez, Diego Forlan, Alvaro Arbeloa, Walter Samuel, Nigel de Jong, Juan Roman Riquelme.
Sidelines: Carlo Ancelotti.
Petr Cech is in the stands simply because that helmet has zapped all his powers. Why EvdS over JC? Who knows – call it a hunch.
The back line, much like Barcelona, is clearly the weak spot. Apparently Nike, anticipating one of these little fixtures down the line, attacked the defensive side of the ball with plans to stopping the Xavi/Leo/Kaka/David machine. Lahm was really the only ‘gimme’, and even he’s not inspiring a great deal of big game confidence after Fernando Torres smoked him like a nice ham last summer. Alessandro Nesta is still an injury risk in a hypothetical game, but on his day he’s among the top 1-2 in the world. Since this is technically not a club fixture, Kolo is still getting his Citeh paycheck so he’s playing happy and well. And…oh dear, is that Jamie Carragher at rightback? Why yes it is. Lahm has license to get forward on that left flank as Kaka does his darting in, so I’d like to keep three strong in the back with everybody else joining the much ballohooed adidas attack. Call it a 3-whatever-whatever, if you so choose.
In the midfield, it’s all about protecting and working off Xavi, as my spies have told me there will be a bounty on his head. Daniele De Rossi, slightly insane in the head, will serve as gladiatorial custodian in charge of slide tackles and worryingly disturbing facial contortions. Steven Gerrard will enjoy some off the ball darting runs and license to fire early and often, as will DDR, at whatever scarecrow Nike has put in net, with the hopes that David Villa will gobble up at least 7 goals off rebounds.
Up top, it’s the South American dream team of Lionel and Ricky flanking the man, the myth, the assassin, David Villa. Just as would’ve been the case in real life, I expect him to score double digits being fed by the likes of Xavi and Leo.
The bench was far and away the toughest, and Steven Gerrard so nearly landed here in favor of Luis Suarez. Ridiculous, right? Not so much. Luis’ 21goals in 15games this year are nice, but it was his passing, vision and ability to maintain possession that nearly put him on the left and Kaka hanging in the midfield. In fact, leave that one open ’til the lineup cards are written. Diego Forlan makes it two Uruguayans on the bench for his goalpoachability (official word), though he may not be needed with Villa running rampant. Alvaro Arbeloa solves two problems by his lonesome fairly easily, and Walter Samuel joins based on a lack of in-form options. A smart no-nonsense boss is needed for the midfield late on, and Nigel de Jong’s form would fit the bill quite perfectly.
And, simply because I don’t have to deal with such things as repercussions, there’s a wild card in the house: Juan Roman Riquelme, who will be immediately subbed in the first time there is a free kick 35 yards and in.
Carletto loves him some big games, making it a no-brainer over The Not Quite Special One.
And yes, that’s Lampard, Berbatov, Ballack, Cambiasso, Xabi Alonso, Diego Milito, David Silva, etc, etc, etc, off without a job. What does this say about picking teams? Picking a team isn’t quite the same as picking an XI.
Nike XI: (as selected by Daryl)
A good old fashioned 4-4-2, with a hardworking but technically sounds central midfield, two very attacking wingers and a strong man/fast man partnership up front.
Victor Valdes
Dani Alves, Fabio Cannavaro, Carles Puyol, Patrice Evra
C. Ronaldo, Michael Essien, Andrés Iniesta, Franck Ribery
Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres
Bench: Ricardo, Rio Ferdinand, Yaya Toure, Cesc Fabregas, Alexis Sanchez, Andrei Arshavin, Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Sidelines: Guus Hiddink
First thing’s first: There was no right answer when picking this team. Whoever you choose, you’re leaving someone out. For the longest time I had Nike FC lined up 3-4-3 with an attacking trio of Torres, Drogba and Zlatan: Speed, strength and skills. Sounds nice, but really there’s no way that works. All three like to play centrally, so one of them had to go. Much as I love me some Zlatan, I figured Didier Drogba and Nando Torres made for the better partnership. Pace and power, plus both have pretty, almost feminine features. Which I’m hoping will confuse Chris’ defenders. If not then either Zlatan or Arshavin can come on and mix things up a bit. Also the three at the back plan vs an Adidas team that I knew would feature Messi up front (I have my spies too) sounded like suicide.
On the other hand I didn’t need any inside information to know that Adidas United would struggle for defenders, especially fullbacks, so hit on the idea of going all out with wingers and my own attacking fullbacks. C-Ron might think he’s a striker these days, but when he plays for me he does what he’s told plays wide right, bombing into the opposition area to wreak havoc and make chances for Drogs and Torres. Behind him there’s Dani Alves coming in as a second wave danger, if not good looks. On the other flank we have King Franck cutting in from the left, with French teammate Patrice Evra either overlapping or filling in when Franck drifts infield. Plus he’ll take care of any groundsman that need the racism punched out of them. If either C-Ron or Franck aren’t cutting it, then Chilean dribbly-boots Alexis Sanchez will get a go.
In central midfield it’s the twin engines of Michael Essien and Andrés Iniesta. Both are complete players, with all the skills necessary to make a midfield tick, plus a workrate to match and the discipline to give us some shape while C-Ron, Franck and the fullbacks are going forward. I’m also hoping Iniesta will know the secret to stopping Xavi. And if that secret involves breaking the man’s legs then the Bison is the man to do it. Yaya Toure and Cesc Fabregas wait patiently on the bench.
In central defence I was tempted to start Rio Ferdinand. But this isn’t 2008 anymore, and the guy currently wearing #5 for Man Utd is not the guy I need. Rio still makes the bench just in case the pod people return him. So my starting central D of Carles Puyol and Fabio Cannavaro is all about experience, leadership and quality. Plus a nice balance of long hair and short hair, which I feel is important.
In goal, I very nearly had Hope Solo and Jens Lehmann battling it our for the jersey. Just to see what would happen. In the end I settled on the underrated Victor Valdes, with Portugal’s Ricardo ready to sub in should this game go to penalty kicks.
The players left out could form a whole other team that could still beat the best Puma has to offer (and don’t get me started on Reebok, they barely have a five a side team since the Adidas buyout). The Nike sponsored players I had to leave behind include the likes of Andrea Pirlo, Wayne Rooney, Alexandre Pato, Abby Wambach (100 goals in 129 international games), Ronaldinho, Sergio Ramos, the heavenly right foot of Darijo Srna, Luka Modric, Jesus Navas, Theo Walcott (always injured at the moment) and Lassana Diarra. And some others.
The array of coaching talent I had to choose from was embarrassing. Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Pep Guardiola. But it had to be Guus Hiddink, because I’m assuming this is a one off game and there’s no one better at coming in and immediately getting the best out of a team.
So here are those teams again, lined up against each other:
ADIDAS
Edwin van der SarJamie Carragher, Kolo Toure, Alessandro Nesta, Philipp LahmDaniele De RossiSteven Gerrard, XaviLionel Messi, David Villa, Kaka
Fernando Torres, Didier DrogbaFranck Ribery, Andrés Iniesta, Michael Essien, C. RonaldoPatrice Evra, Favio Cannavaro, Carles Puyol, Dani AlvesVictor Valdes
NIKE
6 Oct 2009 | Rugby
The Grand Bahama Boys’ Youth Soccer Academy:Commences Wednesday October 7th 5pm
After a break over the summer months, The Grand Bahama Boys’ Youth Soccer Academy is scheduled to restart on Wednesday October 7th at Freeport Rugby Football Club at 5pm for all boys aged 9 to 18 years of age .
At present the following age levels will be coached on a weekly basis:
Under 10s,
Under 13s,
Under 15s,
15 to 18 year olds,
The Soccer Academy offers those young male players, looking to further develop their soccer, an additional means of improving their skills and experience in the game of soccer. The Programme provides a framework which complements the YMCA and School programmes by offering players further higher level and qualified coaching and additional organized practices and competitive games.
Now in its seventh year,the Academy continues to expand and has the following plans for the future year including:
· Being able to utilize the new and expanded training facilities at Freeport Rugby & Football Club These include a new full size soccer pitch , 2 new training areas and a 5 a side pitch , all of which will be floodlit, irrigated and provide viewing so that the parents and onlookers will be able to watch the youngsters practice
· Identifying elite players and working in small groups with these players to fast track their skills
· Continuing to assist in young players obtaining soccer scholarships to US Colleges ( seven players have received scholarships in the last 2 years)
· Both hosting and touring against other Bahamian Islands and US teams in order that the players get the correct exposure to different players, other styles of play etc
Any interested players or persons interested in helping to coach can contact Mark Hardy at 357 5403 or come to Freeport Rugby and Football Club from 5pm every Wednesday
Regards
Mark Hardy
Freeport Rugby & Football Club, Settlers Way, Freeport . Contact Mark Hardy – 357 5403
www.rugbyfootballbahamas.com
22 Sep 2009 | Rugby
classic commentary from recent manure v man city epic derby game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYd8yPZWTBM
