Kevin Whitworth / Jacurutu

Last Saturday (14 June 2008) was the inaugural Octopush North East (ONE) Cup tournament in Newcastle, with teams from York, Durham and Newcastle. Due to circumstances, both the York and Newcastle teams pooled together to field single teams in the cup, unlike in the league where York played an A and B team (in no particular order of merit), and Jesmond and Byker were competing separately. With only 3 teams, and a full 2-hour pool session, matches were played 15 minutes each way. Getting our excuses in early, we (York) only managed to get a squad of 6 players to the tournament, so we found it hard going with no substitutes.

Up first was York against Newcastle. This started quite well for York, but the tiredness soon came into play, along with the fact that we've only played once since before Easter due to loss of our pool (again, lining our excuses up...). Despite York's best efforts, Newcastle romped ahead to a decisive first victory.

The second match, to give York a bit of time to recover, was Durham versus Newcastle. A closer match, but still Newcastle came through as victors.

The final game was York versus Durham. The first half went Durham's way, but by the second half, despite the fatigue, York started coming together as a team again, and were slowly dragging themselves back into the game. However, Durham got their second wind in the last minutes of the game, and managed to hold York off to win 10-7.

Undisputed champions were therefore Newcastle, with Durham taking second place and York third. Congratulations to Newcastle, well done to everyone who played, and a big "thank you" to everyone involved in organising it (Jamie and Gareth, I suspect) for making it a fantastic event - hopefully to be repeated next year!

Good news at last. This Saturday, 14 June, sees octopush returning to York. It's been a bad year all told for the university club, loosing pool time at the start of the academic year due to maintenance, and there's only been one session now since before Easter. But, at last, we've got pool time from 16.30 to 17.30 at Yearsley Swimming Pool.

Even better news: we're now starting up a junior club as well to cater for under 16s. Although we've had a couple of under 16s come along to play with us, I suspect it's quite daunting being 12 and faced with the uni team bearing down on you (Ali excepted, of course!). The junior session is on at the same time, 16.30 to 17.30, also at Yearsley - it's a 50 yard pool, so the uni club has the deep end and the juniors the shallow end. More details at the York Octopush website.

Finally, it's the ONE Cup this Saturday up in Newcastle. I've no more details than that, but I'm sure York will avenge some of their earlier defeats to bring the inaugural cup to Yorkshire!

After much talking about it, we're finally making progress on getting a juniors (under 16s) octopush/underwater hockey club up and running in York. We're working closely with the university team and York council to get everything in place so we can start on June 14 (2008).

Many of the details are still to be confirmed, but I've just about got the basics of a website up and running at www.yorkoctopush.org.uk. We're also looking for adult members too, so that once the university breaks up for the summer, we'll still be able to keep playing, so if you're interested, please get in contact.

Meanwhile, keep your eyes peeled here or on the above website for further information!

Despite the enthusiasm of my last post, we still don't have a regular pool session for octopush training in York. This is being worked on, and I hope there will be news soon. In the mean time, if anyone knows of another club or team that wants to share the Yearsley pool with us (it's 50 yards, and the octopush club needs the deepend only), preferably on a Saturday or Sunday evening, then please let me know!

Until then, watch this space!

PS We got our mascot, Ferdinand the Duck, back from Durham this afternoon. So we thought we'd better let them beat us in the match that followed...

Unfortunately, York University Octopush Club lost it's pool at the end of the spring term. However, now everyone is back for the summer, they've sorted out a new pool and new training times.

Training is now on Saturday evenings at Yearsley Swimming Pool. The times may change slightly over the next few weeks, but the first session is tomorrow (Saturday 10 May 2008) 17.00 to 18.00. Meet at the pool just before 17.00, or at the Information Centre/Market Square at the University of York campus at 16.15.

Hopefully this information, and the times of future sessions, will be posted on the club's website and/or on their Facebook group.

Fingers crossed, this term should see the ONE League tournament, and possibly a friendly match against Durham (we need to win the duck back...). There are also plans afoot to set up a youth club/team, and perhaps more, so watch this space!

For some unknown reason, Steve decided Easter Sunday is the time for a barbecue. So we wandered over Saturday afternoon, and then headed into York for food and beer. The beer was supplied by Brigantes on Micklegate, with a reasonable selection of draft ales, and decent bottled lagers (ie Czech & Belgian lager, not Heineken), including dark lagers such as Budwar Dark and Regent (yum!). We decided to give their food a go - but probably won't again. It's OK, but nothing special, and my order was delivered wrong, so I had to wait for them to go and cook it properly, and with no appology offered either.)

Sunday morning saw a blanket of snow, I saw too much of the engine bay of my car (the battery dies rather suddenly), and Steve got the chance fire up his new barbecue. Alas most of the snow had already melted, but rest assured the odd flurries that fell Sunday lunch time were never going to settle anywhere nearby.

After lunch I dug the camera out (so now photos of the barbecue and snow), and mostly got lots of photos of Steve and Ally's cat, Charlie. Fortunately (for me) Charlie is more inclined to sit still whilst being photographed, unlike our cats Apple (runs away) and Bo (comes to see what you're up to). As usual, there's a couple posted in a set on Flickr, and even more in the Easter 2008 album on this site.

So, a big thank you to Steve and Ally for putting us up for the night and feeding us well (especially the chocolate cookies)!

We were at a bit of a loss for something to do last week, and the weather was too nice just to sit around home all day, so we knocked together a bit of a picnic, and headed over to the RSPB's Fairburn Ings reserve. There's quite a lot going on this time of year, with plenty of new arrivals turning up for the spring.

Even better, they've enlarged the viewing ports on the fence in front of the feeding station so those of us with large telephoto lenses can get shots through them - which is where this shot of a Long-Tailed Tit came from. I tried to get shots of them in more natural surroundings - but they won't stay still long enough! There's a few more shots in the Fairburn set on Flickr, and the full collection on my own photo albums, including a nice shot of a Goldfinch (also on a feeder) and a shot of a Snipe hiding in the reed beds.

Finally, watch this space, as I'm on holiday this week on my own (I had too much annual leave to use up before the end of the year), so I'm trying to work through both recent (ie last week) photos and the backlog I've built up (yes, the infamous Kenya photos...).

My hosting provider is planning on moving their data centre at the end of the week, so I've been advised that there may be a period of unavailability from Friday March 28 for up to 48 hours, although hopefully (fingers crossed!) it will be less. This will affect my blog, and my own photo albums - basically everything on www.jacurutu.org.uk.

Not that I'm paranoid or anything, but I'm off to back everything up before they move it...

I was down in London on Tuesday with some time to kill, so I decided to take the camera along. I grabbed a few photos at the British Museum, but wasn't feeling very inspired (my mind was elsewhere), and didn't fancy getting more shots from the Egyptian section (which reminds me, I've still got those to edit from our last trip there...). However, I did manage to get a few good shots of the Lloyd's Building, the Aviva Tower and 30 St Mary's Axe (aka The Gherkin or Swiss Re Tower) in the City.

I've got some from a previous trip that I don't think I've processed before, but I was trying to find a new angle on these much photographed buildings. On the way back to the tube I did manage a couple. This is my favourite, which is Lloyd's reflected in the glass of one of the other buildings on Leadenhall Street. It could have done with being taken pointing down slightly more, and the street light is a bit distracting, but overall I'm pleased with it.

The full session is on my photo albums, and the higlights are in the London, March 2008 set on my Flickr account.

The session also gave me a change to play with the new Sigma 18-50 mm f/2.8 that I bought off Mark / Shootin' the breeze. It's not the HSM version, but it still seems to focus quickly and reliably. It's also pretty sharp, and doesn't suffer from the vignetting that the Nikon AF-S 18-70 mm does when wide open (although I hadn't noticed until I did a side by side test). However, one thing I did notice was a lot of purple fringing (chromatic aberration) on the high contrast sections of the Lloyd's photos (eg the cranes againt the sky). Photoshop's Lens Correction filter managed to reduce it slightly, but it's still present. Still, for the money, it's a good lens and gives me a few extra stops over the Nikon kit lens. I'll try and do a more in-depth comparison (inclusing playing with it's macro function) later and post it up here. Meanwhile, I'm still contemplating spending my bonus on a super-wide zoom, but am split between the quality of the Nikon 12-24 mm f/4, the price of the Tokina 12-24 mm f/4 and the even wider angle Sigma 10-20 mm f/4-5.6 (or whether I can justify the Nikon 10.5 mm as well as the Tokina).

I forgot to say, we tried the buzzer system out during the Durham match last Sunday. Despite my last post on the subject, I haven't changed it since the last test, mostly due to lack of time. Although it's audible, it's simply not loud enough during the frenzy of a game, and I don't think adding a second buzzer unit will make enough difference. So, the next plan is to get a cheap but loud car horn, and see if I can mount it in the BDH I'd originally bought to use with the piezo buzzer.

Still, we've got more pressing needs than a buzzer. York University Octopush Club (Yorktopush) are currently pool-less. Fortunately, the committee have the Easter holidays to come up with somewhere new to practice, although watch this space as those of us still in York over Easter may try and get something running before the undergrads return at the end of April.