Power

My English colleague at work is emigrating to Australia in two-and-a-bit weeks, joining up with his Aussie wife and anglo/canadian/aussie daughter who moved over there a couple of weeks ago. He's been slowly disposing of the unwanted/unneeded contents of their home for the last few weeks. Last night he delivered his vacuum cleaner to me to buy from him. I'd long since grown very tired of the one that I found in the lunch room at work, dumped by one of my predecessors because, to be honest, it wasn't very good. One of those ones that just has a long plastic pipe and the suction power provided by a hamster spinning in a wheel inside. Last night I had some sort of household chore epiphany; the new device you can see on the right is powerful beyond words, such that one lap of the Beige Towers carpet pretty much filled the bucket. It was almost enjoyable. Another lesson learnt. Sometimes, it's much better to buy a proper piece of equipment than try and cheap out on something far inferior.

Playoff Time

Wednesday night saw the last of our regular season games for the summer outdoor season. After the complete collapse in form that saw us finish seventh of eight in the Spring season, after a run of six defeats on the bounce culminating in Sunday afternoon practices* how would we do in the summer season? Answer, a lot lot better, as shown in the league table on the right.

This time, we were able to score a lot more goals than in the Spring, despite losing two or three players to fairly long term injuries. It also helped that we could keep our female contingent numerous, such that they didn't have to play whole games, with the exception of the nutty 6-5 win against KAM United where we played the whole game a player short. I kept the ridiculous goals against to a minimum (the first one against on Wednesday night a case in point. Dear oh dear), and achieved my aim of a goals per game against of less than two. Playoffs for the chance to have our photo taken with a plastic knock-off of the World Cup begin next week. No expense spared, that really would be the reward for twelve weeks battling the sun, high winds and ever shortening daylight.

*practice is really a euphemism for having four or five footballs shot at me very hard for two hours on a rock hard school playing field. It hurts

Locked Out

Tonight should have been the Calgary Flames first preseason games before the hockey season began on October 11th. As it stands, the season won't start on time due to the current lack of collective bargaining agreement required between the players union and the league/team owners. Deadspin has a useful article on the reasons for the dispute for those not familiar with the situation.

Hopefully, they get things sorted out such that the season starts at American thanksgiving, or Christmas or something, since otherwise it'll rob me of the chance of me taking all my colleagues' money in the work hockey pool....

Cup of Cheer

So to carry on from the post below, yet another win for the Bantams this afternoon (or evening, depending where you live). An eighth win from eleven games, and a fourth in a row. It's all very.....disorientating. It speaks volumes for the character they seem to have in the building that they can shrug off an apparently very harsh 2-0 deficit and come back in the closing stages. By my reckoning, that's still only the fourth or fifth time they've come from 2-0 down to win a game in more than 20 years. Winning breeds confidence which breeds more wins.

I have two wishes: firstly, that they are finally rewarded with a plum tie in the fourth round against a top team where they can get some exposure and make some money. And secondly, that they didn't put so much into tonight's game - they rested six players, but Hanson, Wells and Reid still ended up playing an hour - that they come out flat on Saturday in front of some of an expectant crowd. There have been too many games like that down the years. That game will, I think, tell us a lot more about the season to come.

Moan Free Zone

There's a long way to go in the new football season, for sure, but it's a promising beginning thus far for the (once) mighty Bantams. Four home wins on the bounce from the start of a season for the first time since 1957, two wins away from home against teams in higher divisions in cup competitions, merciless dispatch of sides we usually struggle terribly against at home. Fifth in the league and a very winnable home tie in the third round of the league cup next week with the chance of a big payday at a big name. It's all very........disorientating to not have things to moan about.