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!

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!

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!

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...

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!

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)!

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...).

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

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).

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.