Three more sleeps till hockey..............

Only three more sleeps till Hockey, three more sleeps till the big fat men in their bright red shirts take the fiels and wave their sticks, three more sleeps till hockey............

Yes sports fans, after the dissapointing events of the cricket world cup, an ordinary (some might say "the usual" ) start to the Super XV season by the hotrricanes, the sporting woprld looks forward to this sunday monday when another season of outstanding sporting action, memorable feats and gentlemanly conduct on the field (Yeah Right) will dawn.

Yes, its that most glorious of events, the first game of the Old farts for 2011.

We men of substance will take the field of valor to do battle against our northern neighbors, Upper Hutt. The powers that be have noticed that the gradual build up of Hockey power in wellington has been "The Farts", and have moved us up a grade to R1 for the promotion/relegation series.

With some defections, transfers and some players deciding to hang up their boots through injury or family commitments (not naming anyone, if its that bad Moses and Needles, you could play for the girls teams - Blouses!) it will be a similar but modified Farts team that take the field.

Hit off is 11.15, so lets be there with plenty of time so that we can warm up, ie have a chat, abuse each other, write down the team names and work out weher we are all going to play!

Were looking for a big effort form the team, especially as there are a couple of positions that will be hotly contested amongst a group of players (right and left back), so the coaching team will be watching the game, reviewing the tapes and taking bribes as to who will be promoted those two key positions.

Now for some important notices (in order of importance)

• Oranges - Trapper will bring the Oranges this week and we will christian the Farts official Oranges bag
• Sideline manager, phsyio, supporters team manager and return trip bus driver (after ive had a couple of oranges) - Ainsley.  Ains will run the interchange bench, under Ash's strict instructions this year, which should make tactical  interchanges smoother.
• Sorry Nuts, sideline physio will consist of cold "magic " spray, probably administered froma  distance
• Player of the day - i'm finalising a deal where player of the day gets a 2 for 1 breakfast voucher at a top Silverstream cafe (no not macs!) they will probably also provide a prize for the team MVP at the end of the year.
• Umpiring - the club is trying to organise it so that each provides each week a umpire for the team below them, which means the young Guns will umpire us etc.  this will kthe pressure of us having to field a team and umpire, but will mean that every week one of us will need to umpire a game.  all the names go on the schedule, but we can also work this out amongst us.  with 20 odd games each of us might do max 2 games in the season.
• see you all there Sunday morning.  PS if you haven't registered please do this ASAP

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