I'm afraid I don't have the full set of scores or the final standings from the Student Nationals yet, but I'll make a start on a report for the weekend without them.
The weekend got off to a good start, leaving York about 17.30 with an eventful journey to Kenilworth, where we arrived about 20.00 to a very warm welcome at Hollyhurst Guest House. After unloading, we headed of into town to find some food, and picked an Italian restaurant on the high street to load up with carbs (well, pizza) for the games on Saturday. Afterwards, we went to the pub, and completely failed to consume any beer, before returning back to the guest house for an early night.
Saturday, after a hearty breakfast, we arrived at the pool in Coventry in time to sign in and for Ali & Tom to attend the captain's briefing. The format was to split the teams into two groups initially. Teams would play every other team in their own group, round-robin style, and then the top teams in each group would play each of the top teams in the other group, and likewise, the bottom teams from one group would play the bottom teams from the other group. Points were awarded for a win (3) or a draw (1), and are carried over from the round-robin stage to the final stage to work out the overall standings.
York had a hectic start to the first group stage, with the first 3 games having only a one-game break between each game. Then a 3 game break gave us a chance for a bit of a breather, before a much longer 8 game (lunch!) break before our last group game. The first game, against the hosts Warwick, went well, with York winning 4-1 (I think). It didn't seem to last long, and it turned out to fit all the games in, matches were being played 5 minutes each way. However, things then started going down hill. We were beaten by Stirling, only managing to score one goal, and then were pretty much trying to limit the damage against Portsmouth and Plymouth. The long break before the final game against Oxford gave us a chance to regroup and re-focus as a team, and talk through things like how to deal with advantage pucks (something we rarely have to deal with, and need to practice more). As a result, we played fantastically against Oxford, gelling together much better as a team, and beat them 4-3 (I think).
With the round-robin stage complete, we discovered we were in the bottom of our group, and would be playing against Aberdeen, Bangor and Durham. This was great news, as Bangor is Jodie's former club, so there was a touch of rivalry there (and instructions from Lucy, another Bangor alumnus, to beat them), and we play Durham in the ONE league, and York A were beaten by them last time round, so we had a point to prove! Aberdeen were strong - we played well and put up a good fight, but lost 4-1. (Sorry once again to the person who got a smack in the face from me as a result of a tackle.) The match against Bangor was very close, and Bangor beat us by one goal (3-2?). That was really annoying, as we missed one goal where we had 3 against 1 on a break only metres out from Bangor's goal, but didn't manage to score - we'd have drawn at least, if not won, if we'd scored that goal! Durham was the closest match yet, and was a tie well into the second half, with play heading up and down the pitch. I was subbed out at the time and desperate to get into the water when Anthony decided enough was enough and subbed out, giving me a chance. There was a complete melee in the goal mouth, and I couldn't get anywhere near, but the York defense was doing a sterling job, and I just managed to reach under the scrum and hook the puck out, giving me a chance to get it out to Tom, who'd listened to the advice earlier about keeping the forwards out of the melee to be able to make a run if we got the puck. Tom made a fantastic swim up nearly the whole length of the pitch, to score the winning goal!
Although the scores listed above are from memory (and maybe wrong), I'm confident about which games we won and lost, which are as follows:
- First round (group 2):
- Warwick - York won
- Stirling - York lost
- Portsmouth - York lost
- Plymouth - York lost
- Oxford - York won
- Warwick - York won
- Second round (group Y - York were 'D'):
- Aberdeen - York lost
- Bangor - York lost
- Durham - York won
- Aberdeen - York lost
The final standings aren't clear. There was some confusion when they were read out. As listed, York came 11th out of 13, finishing above Oxford (12th) and the hosts, Warwick (13th). Bangor came 9th, and Durham 10th. However, despite Jamie's protestations about moral victories and being the nicer team, the general consensus is that York came 10th and Durham 11th. The overall winners were Glasgow, so congratulations to them!
Overall, I think the York team played very well. There were some strong teams there, and although we lost our way early on, the way we played against Oxford, Aberdeen, Bangor and Durham shows that we've got a great set of players who can pull together as a cohesive team. Sure, we need to develop our skills and tactics, but we're a young team, with many recent converts to Octopush, and little opportunity to play competitively (although the ONE league is helping to change that). We have a great foundation to build on, and should come back even stronger next year.
Before I finish, a couple of thank yous. Firstly to the York team for showing me a good time (not that sort of good time!). Secondly to Trudi and Ken Wheat at Hollyhurst Guest House for the warm welcome, great accommodation, and lovely breakfasts. Thirdly to the guys from the BOA for providing buzzers and doing a great job refereeing. Finally, of course, to Warwick Uni Octopush team for organising such a great event.
And, absolutely finally:
Well done Yorktopush!
OK, not in the pool perhaps, but York and Durham's joint entry into the boat race at the after-competition party narrowly beat Cardiff to take the most important trophy of the weekend! Masterfully lead by Jodie (York) and Jamie (Durham) the team managed to each drink a pint and a bottle of their choice, one member after the other, faster than anyone else. York, as ever, proved that whilst they may not be the best at playing Octopush, they are most definately the life and soul of the party, with Andy's "Dance Master Shirt" making the dance floor the place to be, and Simon the Snorkel being used to assist with the consumption of beverages - including Ali trying (and succeeding) to drink a pint using it as a straw whilst being held upside down.
Of course, I was simply viewing this spectacle. Any suggestion that I was involved in anyway is a lie, and any photos on Facebook of me drinking beer through a snorkel are fabrications - there's no way I'd be seen dead drinking Tetley's, snorkel or not!
More on the actual Octopush to follow shortly...
Well, it's nearly time: the Octopush Student Nationals are happening this Saturday, and are being hosted by Warwick Uni. Even better news, 2 non-students are permitted per team - so I get to play for York! So, tomorrow I'm off to pick up a minibus, drive the team to the 5-star luxury hotel we'll be spending the weekend at, and grab an early night's sleep so we'll all be fresh and fit on Saturday morning for the tournament, followed by a black-tie dinner in the evening.
Somehow I suspect it might not work out like that. My bet is I'll end up in a B&B, with a buffet, boat races and likely followed up by an even dodgy kebab/burger, and a stinking hangover Sunday morning. Still, who cares as long as we get to play Octopush!
Somehow I suspect it might not work out like that. My bet is I'll end up in a B&B, with a buffet, boat races and likely followed up by an even dodgy kebab/burger, and a stinking hangover Sunday morning. Still, who cares as long as we get to play Octopush!
After last week's failure, I went back to the drawing board for the buzzer system. The problem was it wasn't loud enough in the water. So this time I popped back to Maplins, got a few more bits a pieces, and knocked a new buzzer unit up. As you may recall, last time I used a BDH with a two-tone 105dB (@ 1 metre) piezo sounder. Well, this time I swapped the BDH (which is basically a cylinder) with a square not-quite-waterproof (only IP56 rated - ie splashproof) plastic box (which was subsequently sealed with silicon sealant). This time one piezo siren was glued into the lid (where it fits diagonally), and a second was badly butchered, just to keep the circuit and the two piezo units mounted in their acoustic chambers, which were glued to the side of the box. The idea being that twice the number of sounders is bound to be better, and by glueing them directly to a fairly rigid plastic surface (rather than a rounded, soft plastic tube in the form of a BDH), the propogation of the sound into the water should be better.
The result? Firstly, it's waterproof. Although we didn't use it much, I left it in the pool the whole session, and no evidence of leaks. As for the sound, it's better. It's not perfect, but with the unit placed on one wall in the centre of the pool, it's audible in the far corner. Just.
Next step is to build a second unit - the control box was always designed so that two sounders could be run from it, just in case. Then I'd put one sounder at each end of the pool, behind the steps, which has the added benefit of ensuring the box doesn't get kicked, dislodged, or anyone get tangled in the cable. Unfortunately, I've pretty much run the local Maplins out of piezo sirens and waterproof cable glands, so it looks like it'll have to mail order next time. Oh, and the costs are going up too. I'll try and take photos when I built the next sounder unit, and post a full parts list and set of instructions. And a list of other things I want to do to improve it further. Oh, and I might also try using the BDH, but with a car horn instead.
I hear on the grapevine that Jesmond beat Durham last week, which, according to my calculations, meant that if York A beat Jesmond, we'd still be in the running for winning the league. So with high hopes and the home advantage (a real one this time), we were all looking forward to the game.
From the start it was obvious it was going to be a hard fought game. York started well, and in fact I got the first goal - one of the Jesmond players turned the puck behind him - straight in front of me, so I helped myself to the puck, and headed up the pool. There seemed to be a large gap, and no obvious support, so I kept going all the way into the goal. However, from there on it, Jesmond didn't make it easy for us, and play moved up and down the pool. One minor hiccup was Joe (from York) playing with a black bat - no one had explained to him that the cap should be the same colour as the bat, and when he subbed in, no one spotted he had the wrong colour. Gareth didn't seem too impressed, unsurprisingly, and had some choice (if not actually obscene) words to say. Sorry!
At the end of the first half, it looked like York had the advantage, and at the restart, I managed to repeat my start to the first half, but then it started going down hill. Defending the deep end started to take its toll, and Jesmond swam in a series of 4 or 5 goals in a row. Towards the end, York started to pull it together again, although we nearly conceded one last goal as I got mixed up with the timings. Andy, who was timekeeping, said there was something like a minute to go, and by the time he'd counted down to the restart, I figured there wasn't much time at all. I knew the scoreline was close, so I figured we needed to try for one last goal, and decided with very little time, the best approach was simply to sprint for the puck and try and hammer up through Jesmond's attack and defence. If it all went wrong, I reckoned there wasn't enough time for them to get the puck back to our goal (which, given I was playing centre back, might not be too difficult, as there's be a gaping hole in our defence) - in fact it was questionable as to whether there was enough time for me to score. It turned out there was more time left than I thought, and Jesmond very sensibly relieved me of the puck before I hit their goal, but Sam and Tom did a good job filling in at the back until time was called.
And the final score? 10-7 to Jesmond. Ali's got the score sheet (titled "Geordies v Yorkies" - not by me I hasten to add!), so more details to follow (probably on the One League pages - see below) on who actually scored. As I said, it was a close and hard fought game. If it wasn't for the lapse in the middle, it could have gone York's way. Still, it didn't, so congratulations to Jesmond, who now look set to win the One League (although it may yet depend on whether the One Cup counts as part of the league, or a separate competition).
With all of York A's games played, the table looks like this (although without the Jesmond v Durham score, I can't confirm the actual goal difference):
| Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goal Difference |
| Byker | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -6 |
| DUUHC | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | +5 (- DUUHC score) |
| Jesmond | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | +7 (+ DUUHC score) |
| York Uni A | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | +8 |
| York Uni B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -14 |
Full official results tables and scores are available on the One League pages:
The Student Nationals are coming up in 2 weeks time. Everything looks sorted (provided I remember to book the minibus tomorrow), and we should have a strong team.
Well, I started writing about a buzzer system for Octopush that I put together last week. The idea being that the ref on the side of the pool can press a button to stop play (eg for goals, fouls, time etc) resulting in a sound underwater that all the players can hear. Fortunately, I decided not to post it until I'd tested it. The good news is that the underwater part seems to be waterproof. The bad news is that you need to be right next to it to hear it.
So, back to the drawing board. Unfortunately, the waterproof sounder unit I made is kind of permanently sealed, and as all the sound generation was sealed inside, I'm going to have to try and open it up again to change it, and then see if I can re-seal it. This time I'm off to research underwater sound propogation and the frequency response of water to sound - Gareth Ayres suggested trying lower frequencies. I'm also going to see if I can tune the acoutsics of the speaker output to the container it's housed in, hopefully to generate resonance and better propogation from the sealed unit into the water, and/or coupling the speaker (currently a part of a two-tone piezo siren unit) directly to the outer case. Failing that, I need something even lounder (I picked the one I'm using as it's rated at 105dB @ 1m)!
Last Sunday was the long awaited York derby in the ONE league - York A versus York B. Strictly speaking, York A were at home*, and that home advantage clearly showed, with York A taking the win 13 to 3.
Despite the scoreline, it was a hard-fought game. York B defended well, making scoring difficult, and their strong back line kept making breaks out of defence, keeping the game from being played solely in front of their goal. York A's defence held well against the breaks, but on 3 occasions, York B slipped through York A's tight net to score well deserved goals (2 from Andy Latham, 1 from Ben). Inevitably, under the constant pressure from York A's attack, York B couldn't keep them out for ever, and with their defence pushing up in support, the 13 goals York A scored were spread throughout their team (5 from Ali, 4 from Kev (me) and 2 each from Peter and Lucy).
Congratulations to York A, especially as they had very few subs, and one or two players playing in unfamiliar positions. Congratulations also to York B for a valiant effort! All that's needed now is for York B (or someone else in the league) to beat Durham, and they York A can hope the 10 goal advantage from this game might come in to play.
With 4 games played, the table looks like this (note I've fixed the mistake in the original showing DUUHC had played 1, won 1 and lost 1!!!):
| Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goal Difference |
| Byker | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -6 |
| DUUHC | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +5 |
| Jesmond | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +4 |
| York Uni A | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | +11 |
| York Uni B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -14 |
I'd say head over to the ONE league fixtures and match reports site for more detail, but most of the content it seems to originate here!
The next match we've got coming up is the Student Nationals, at Warwick on 23 February. If York can pool the best of their two teams, then they should be able to deliver a strong performance in the competition. Fingers crossed!
* OK, I know both teams are part of the same club and only exist as separate entities for the purposes of the ONE league!
