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A quick look at Our Rules.

More etc - Sept 21/09

Left-handed throws, bootless hammers, shotgunned beer and general revelry. Thus is the way of the Paul Sim. Happy 50th, big man! In other news, the Calgary Results are up. Writeup to that and many others to follow. Plus tons of pics/video. I have a lot to do.

- Sean

Paul Sim, etc - Sept 13/09

Ok, so we're doing it this year on the man himself's birthday, his FIFTIETH no less, on September 19th. Also, I am slowly gathering all the results for Calgary and will start the great postarama soon. Add to that the fact that I actually WANT to finish off all the writeups and add a ton of pics and it's going to take a bit. Be patient. I also need the local Masters and Women's results for the whole completeness thing.

Oh and if I could have those planning to attend drop me an email HERE!, that'd be awesome. I need to know how much food to have on the ready!

- Sean

Year Endish Stuff - Sept 7/09

Gotta give a huge thanks to Gord Walsh and the Calgary United Scottish Games Association for putting on a World Class event. Awesome stuff. We were treated like kings and everything rolled along amazingly. Great venue, too. I'll be slapping up more about that later. For now, here are the High River Results. Writeup to come.

- Sean

Calgary Information - August 25/09

First off, here's the information on the Meet and Greet on Friday, Sept 4: Calgary Athletes Meet and Greet

And a message from your AD, Gordie Walsh:

Evening Gents,

Entrance to Foothills Athletic Park

I will need a full list of Athletes to give your names to the gate personal. ONLY ATHLETES ON THE LIST will be entered free of charge!! Family members are required to pay! Please be mindful I have to answer to questions at meetings with the Executive as to how many people from Heavy Events are throwing or just accompanying throwers. Please be respectful and pay the fee for the family.

Parking

To my knowledge there will be sufficient parking at McMahon Stadium/Various Parking lots around the Athletic Fields.

Gear Delivery

Please consolidate gear into one vehicle/truck. I am not sure where we will have access to get the gear to the field. I will update later when I get to measure the field again and check which gate we can deliver to. I expect it will be drop off and then go park the trucks outside the field area.

Meet and Greet- Friday Evening

All athletes and significant other are welcome to join in for some social chat and food at the Village Park Inn from 6:30--9:30 Friday Night. I will forward Sean the invitation with the RSVP info. Maybe he can post on the web page.

CSAF Meeting

All athletes are welcome to attend and participate in the annual CSAF meeting to be held at the Village Park Inn from 4:30-6:30 on Friday Sept 4.

Thanks
Gwalsh

Oh, you want your numbers, Bobby? - Aug 24/09

You wanted them, Pretty Boy? Here's your verdammt results. Writeup to come. But you know. SOME PEOPLE JUST AREN'T PATIENT ENOUGH.

- Sean

Games Registration Stuff - Aug 3/09

If you haven't paid your membership by now, registration for High River and Calgary are $20/each. It's a shockingly short list of the guys who HAVE paid this year and I know who they are. I have some exceptions due to out of towners, etc, but if you're a usual suspect, be ready to fork it over so I can make sure you're covered under our insurance.

- Sean

Calgary's Full - Aug 2/09

Ok. We now have 30 athletes PLUS the Canadian Masters. Until further notice, I'm closing up the registration for Cowtown. Gord and I have to ensure we can get through everything in a timely manner and safely to boot. If anything changes, I'll let you know but other than that, if you haven't confirmed by now to me, you're probably S.O.L.

- Sean

More Updates - July 31/09

Ok, so I updated a bit of 2006 results (more to come) and the Pro class of the 2008 Calgary games is up. Lots more work to do, but I'm trying to catch us up. Gordie Walsh is working on the patterning for Calgary but I'd prep for a long day and multiple trigs, kids. We'll have fun, it'll just be a bit of a gong show is all :)

- Sean

Ft. Ed Results and Writeup - July 29/09

Done. And yeah, I know. Ellerslie is still messed up. Working on it. Keep checking here for updates.

- Sean

High River and Cowtown - July 27/09

Ok, I know I have emails galore from everyone coming to the last two, but I'm putting out a call for confirmations so I know exactly how many people we're going to have and how we're going to have to organize this mess. I'll keep track of this on the main page, so if you don't see your name, hit me here with the info!:

High River
AmateursMastersOpen
Aaron AndronykBob BrownJason Johnston
Wes RadstaakTerry HuntSean Langford
Dan LoebMike GilpinDave Roe
Mike KelbertJeff ThomasRob Young
Paul KueflerJaimie Waine*Dave Laidlaw
Chris ParulskiMegan Melham*Wilson Burnett
Matt AndrewsGord Walsh
Mike DesiletsJoe Taylor
Dale MacDonald
*women's competitors
Calgary
AmateursMastersOpen
Aaron AndronykTerry HuntSean Langford
Wes RadstaakMike GilpinRob Young
Dean RichardsTony SnyderDave Laidlaw
Ray SiochowiczJeff ThomasWilson Burnett
Thomas FyvieJamie Waine*Dave Roe
Mike KelbertMegan Melham*Joe Taylor
Paul KueflerNorm LittleLance Barusch
Kelly StrachanTanya Little*Matt Doherty
Mike DesiletsTasha Little*
Norm Pilon
Chris Parulski
Matt Andrews
Dan Loeb
Dale MacDonald
*women's competitors

And NEW U200 Champion of the World...

Our own Bob Brown managed to keep with his consistent ways in the biggest class of the MWC, snagging 2nd in the LH and OS, top honours in the caber and then choking a bit on his money event with a 4th in the HW. The overall result of such a performance?



HUGE congrats to our newest Masters WORLD Champion. Way to represent, Bobby.

World Masters Report - July 18/09

Our own Bobby Brown has been feeding me the information from the U200 Masters group:

Looks to me like our boy is in first at the end of Day 1.

- Sean

Ft. Ed Start Time - July 7/09

Ok! So the decision has been made. Just because we have nearly 20 athletes, we'll split it up as follows:

AM events (8:30-11:30) - AMs/Ladies
PM events (11:30-) - Masters/Open

Plan accordingly. As always, I'll be in there bright and early.

- Sean

Ft. Ed Athletes List - June 30/09

Thus far:

Ams

Chris
Matt
Paul
Wes
Mike K
Aaron

Masters

Terry
Bobby
Mike
Jeff T
Todd

Wimmins

Colleen
Megan

Open

Sean
Joey
Dave R
Davey L
Rob

Keep'em coming, kids.

- Sean

Ft. Edmonton - June 29/09

Ouch. Lots of stuff to input for RD/Ellerslie. AND the results for GP on top of that. But, for organizations' sake, drop me a line here and let me know if you're planning on attending Ft. Edmonton. It'll help me plan for how many parking passes and gate passes we need as well as start time. I'll post the athlete's list up here for reference.

- Sean

Red Deer/Ellerslie - June 25/09

Dual trigs. Probably a 9:30 start time. Athletes should be around for 9am at the latest. We'll discuss Ellerslie on Saturday. :)

- Sean

GP - June 16/09

Much like High River, this one is one of my favorites. Now don't get me wrong, I love me some throwing but really, this one is a lot about the trip up, the guys that make that trek and the crowd at GP. All top notch stuff. Saturday started off much as this one does every year, with Bobby picking me up and then us heading into Edmonton to pick up a certain JT Money. Keep in mind that Joey had no intention of doing this games because he was still in the process of rehabbing the knee he ripped apart last year. But, as with most of us, the allure of the games won out over common sense and he obsessed about it enough over the course of the week that he finally called me up and asked if there was room for him up there. And there's ALWAYS room for Joey Taylor. Monster Mike Staal, Dangerous Dave, Wildman Wes, Pugilist Pauly and the intrepid Terry J. Hunt had made it up over the course of the day and some of us gathered again at Madhatters to watch men punch each other in the face and to have a few pops before the games the next day. Noone was happier than Mr. Bobby Brown to do that after weighing in JUST under the 200# weight limit he was making a dry run for at 199.90# fully hydrated and stripped down to his boxers. We didn't have to get rid of his necklace or break out the Nair or anything. Or even hit the sauna except for giggles and to shoot the breeze. The World Masters website specifies that the athlete has to make weight the night before or morning of the games, so bam.

With only 8 of us total, we got to start the day at a leisurely 10:30ish and with full intentions of doing every REAL event known to highland games. Read that as "no stinking sheaf". Mike likes his slight insanity, so we had a bit of a tweak to the braemar stone: we used half of a 50# hex dumbell. Came out to 24.5# on our official scale, not too bad to throw. The Boy would have loved it. On the Master's side of things, Mike jumped into an early lead on Bobby with Terry trailing behind. By the end of Round 2, Bob had the edge on Mike, which Mike immediately tied up on his third and final at 28'4". With a bit of smack talk and with Bob last in the rotation, he dug a little deeper and just edged Mike out with 28'6".

The Open class was much less of a race for this one. Wes' first pop out at 23'8" would stand as his best, beating out Paul's #2 throw of 21'7" by a solid 2 feet. Considering Joey hadn't even so much as given the implements a dirty look since July of 2008, his push of 26'8" was pretty respectable. I'd have to have a pretty solid day to beat Davey in a standing stone and today wasn't going to be any different. He dropped me like third period French, getting 2' on me with 31'1". All it cost me was some pride and some shooting pain for the elbow tendonitus.

Next up we decided to hit the heavy weights. This, as it turns out, would be our big news for the day. So anyway Terry started it off with a solid, if a little slow 31'2". His third one was a lot faster though, and he lobbed that thing out 34' even. Not too bad for a 49 year old man. Mike's first one was his best and a great arc as it lobbed out 37'. And now, let's talk about Bobby.

You see, there was another reason we wanted Bobby to make sure he could make weight. I mean the big one is to get him comfortably down to 200# as a routine competition weight, what with World Masters coming up in a month. The other is that his heavy weight has been going VERY well lately. So we had grabbed the 42 this Saturday before we left, measured the length of the implement (including cramming it into the vice and making sure it was UNDER 18" total), weighed that bad boy in at 42.4# (bless Bobby Dodd weights for never being underweight) just to make sure everything was legit. We weren't so lucky with the 56 :) Sure, it was 18" and all but it's that ugly block thing and the links weren't exactly allowing for decent rotation. But everyone was on the same playing field, so who cares?

So Bobby steps up for his opener, relaxed and cool as a cucumber. Good spins, good acceleration and then a huge reach and full extension. Didn't even look like he was trying too hard. We measure that thing out, fully expecting a high 30s throw. Did I mention that the current WR for the U200 40-49 class is 40'3"? Because on Bob's OPENER, he nailed a solid 41'. So for those of you playing from home, that's a World Record by 9 inches. It would stand as his best as he started trying too hard after that but there's more in there. Much more. Bodes very well for Worlds, don't you think?

The Open side was a bit less exciting. Paul dragged the snot out of his first throw but cleaned that up on attempt #2 for a best of the day at 22'8", just edging out Wes and his 22'1" opener. Again, the extent of Joey's practice this year was having to move the weights when he cleaned the garage up but he looked better than I'd seen him in a while and managed 28'7" for 3rd spot. And he never even drove for the trig and ended up 2' back of it to boot. There's lots more in there this year. Dave was dragging his weight a little but mass moves mass and big Dave still managed a flat 30' shot that grabbed him second. I managed to win with 32'5" but it didn't feel good in the slightest. Lots of stuff to fix yet.

Moving in a continuously mixed up order, we moved into the pancake-like 16.4# open stone. Terry's 27'6" opener would stand as his best for the day and despite everything he keeps saying, one of these days we're going to teach him to use his legs. Bob opened up at 35'11" and popped that out a whole other whopping inch for an even 36', up by 8" on Mike. Right up until Mike's last one. When you leave the door open, sometimes unsavoury characters wander through and Mike Staal was VERY unsavoury this day. 36'9" got him the event win when he needed it.

If we were playing for accuracy, Wes would have had this one wrapped up as all 3 of his shots landed within 2" of each other, ending with a best of 29'2". Paul actually looked like he wanted that rock to go somewhere today as he OPENED with a PR at 29'8" and then finally busted that 30' barrier with 30'6" to claim 4th spot. Nice work, Paul! Hunting PRs is why we do this. We'll do something about Joey's stones one of these days but today his 34'10" shoulder-throw was enough for 3rd. Dave's opening spin was a travesty in motion so he opted to stand for the next two and we had a beer on the line if he could beat me like that. He couldn't. But he got pretty close with 39'10" for 2nd. My first was an agonizing 40'7" and my next one just hurt my elbow more, so I passed on the third and hoped Dave wouldn't beat me. A little voodoo later and I still got first.

The hammers. Ugh. Noone through particularly well here. Well, one guy did and I'll talk about him in a minute. The 22# started off well enough, I suppose. Mike only went 80'11", so quite a bit off his pace here and Bob was in second at a pretty solid 72'4". Wasn't the best throws I've seen out of him but it's steady enough. Terry reached enough on #2 for a 66'4" and third spot. Fair enough. Joey was actually nervous walking into this event as this was the one that torqued his knee but he dug in and threw anyway. He managed a really solid 84'7"/109'6" when all was said and done for 2nd and 1st respectively. He traded off with Dave who went 85'5"/103'4". My hammers were garbage. Let's just leave it at that. Bobby's light hammer was a travesty and Paul and Wes didn't exactly burn down the house either. I'll let those who are interested check the results (when they're up). It wasn't pretty.

The light weight was a bit more of a high point. By this time, the sun was really blazing and the crowd had very nicely settled in. With the field moved to a new location closer to the play park, I think it allowed the little ones a chance to run themselves silly while the parents relaxed and watched the show. It was a darn fine deal, in truth. Terry had some good snap off the first one and it carried to a solid 45'6" (more legs!). His second one had the Captain Morgan factor, so it didn't count and the third didn't have quite as much sauce on it. As with most of us, Mike's first one was relaxed, smooth and went the furthest. 55'3" would snag him 2nd because Bobby was once again on fire on the weights. His first one at 57'9" was a solid one and near PR levels but when the next TWO are 59'1" and 59'2", it's hard to complain. Although he still did. He was looking for that 60' mark in competition. He just has to remember to actually extend his legs. Still, great speed and release.

I started this event off with a reasonable enough 64' shot that held out for top spot until Dave's last attempt where he was more or less completely willing to sacrifice a lung or a spleen for the throw and snag me by 7". Bob was already smack talking Joe about being out thrown by a little old man. Really, the smack talk should wait until AFTER a man's last attempt. 59'9" for Joe AND he was still 2' back of the trig. Rediculous. Wes looked seriously like he was fast-tracking for a PR when he opened with 49' and he WOULD end up extending it a bit but only by 5". Still some good stuff but I know he wants 50' to be all day any day. Paul, too, was looking like it was going to be nothing but PRs for this one, but he rushed the last pull and could never quite get that lift and speed he needed. Still, 44'3" was a pretty good toss out of the man from Edmonton.

The cursed caber. I really need something to get my caber mojo back because it's been stolen. Everyone did their level best to make the 17'4", 105# stiff as a board monstrosity look WAY harder than it actually is but only Mike Staal could close the deal. For the second year running. The crowd was, of course, very appreciative of the whole thing. But having to deal with the shame of a no turn AND the appropriate gloating from Mike is hard on a man's soul.

The WOB didn't lessen the pain any. Mike had adjusted the standards to account for Matty, so the start height was now 11'. No big deal. Wes and Paul were close but that's a rude shot for a first games. I came in at 11' just to stay warm and sadly it was probably my best pull of the day. Everyone else jumped in at 12. With no misses there, up we went to 13'. Joe took all three attempts to find his groove and then it went over easy, with Dave and I slapping it over first shot. 13'6" put a stop to the open class (sigh) but all the Masters were still in. 14' saw Mike over in 1, Bob over in 2 and Terry dig really deep to pop it over on his last attempt. And that's from the guy who was going to just wave off after 13'6". Bobby took 3 very solid pulls at 14'6" for the PR, but it was not to be this day. 15' will go, though, with a few more tweaks. Terry was game too but the day was starting to wear on everyone. Only Mike was up and over and he was more than willing to call it there. But we cajoled him, the crowd cheered him on and up he went to 16'. And so the guy who didn't even WANT to go above 14'6" stepped up and one shotted it over 16' for the cheering crowd. 16'6" was a bit high today but I think it's in there.

A great day, a great crowd. Some bumps throwing but a bad games is still better than a good day at work, so why complain? A quick stop off at BPs fed us some victory soda and then off we hit the road for home. Despite our best efforts we never did manage to run over the seagulls in the McD's parking lot but it's important to note that we at least took the shot.

Red Deer in 2 weeks!

- Sean

Victoria Highland Games - May 25/09

Yeah, it happened LAST weekend, but get over it. I need results before I can start my yakkins. Results that our charming AD Carl kindly provided me. Now it's no secret that I love the Victoria games. Jim and the boys spoil us rotten, it's a great field (a bit modified due to some resodding this year) and it's usually a beautiful weekend to boot. Add in the evil Greg Bell and the Alberta travelling highland locusts and the weekend is usually a complete gong show. This year, my friends, was no different. The best part about this one? The fact that I had no worries about doing well. Because it didn't matter. The beautiful part about playing against the Canadian champ and World Champ is that you KNOW you're going to get killed. It takes the pressure right off. In truth, I felt kinda bad for Greg Hadley. As the lead of Team Canada, he had a lot of bums backing him up in the form of me, Davey and Adam O. Meanwhile, the yankees had Sean Betz, Andrew Hobson, Greg Bell (who is lethal even with only 1 attached leg) and new Pacific Northwest killer John Odden. To say that Greg was carrying the team is a gross understatement.

I rolled into town around 1:30ish, picked up by first timer and master Fred. We did a quick tour of the field and then headed to the hotel. After some initial confusion, I found the room and Dave was already passed out in it. After kicking him awake, we headed to Boston Pizza for some yam fries and beer ( a common theme for the remainder of the weekend) and on the way back, we ran into Mr. Bell. Greg was suffering from the plague or swine flu or something and I had some brief hopes that my placing would go up through his eventual demise but he ended up mixing a Nyquil cocktail that night after we shared some Johnny Walker Red and was almost fully operational in the morning, the bastard. Somewhere in there we also met Sean Betz and Andrew Hobson as well. Andrew easily won the "Best Inadvertent Cheap Shot" award when he asked me and Dave if we were throwing in the morning (with the Am Bs). I didn't stop laughing about that for a long time. Ouch. On the plus side, I would have had a great chance of winning that one. The athletes get together was that night at the Armoury, so that made for a pretty good chance to see some history and to catch up with the guys. Again, have to thank Jim Maxwell for treating us so nicely.

Breakfast was an amusing little affair where we got to meet John and his lovely wife Brianna and watch as even the waitress took a cheap shot at Bell. That's how you know all is right with the world. Hadley had the hoodie up and was already in the zone and Adam still looked like he was made out of bowling balls, but a little more svelte than last year. The sun was up, we were fed, so it was time to meander to the field. Dave had his 'off to the gallows' comments, so we all were in the right frame of mind for the beatdown.

Starting off the day was more or less my least favorite of all the events, the braemar stone. They alternated with an American and Canadian and put Betz up first and me in last. Which looked great until I realized that meant Sean was following me ALL WEEKEND LONG. Suffice it to say, I made him look AWESOME by comparison. And he didn't need the help on that score. Nice rock, 22 and something pounds, flatish. Our judge was none other than big Bobby Dodd and he'd made up some purely fantastic weights for the Victoria games. Seriously fancy and really nice to throw. More on that later. I knew the beating was going to be bad on the stone, but just how bad I got an inkling of when Betz opened with over 40'. Sean later extended that to 41'6.75" and locked up first nicely. Greg was the only guy near him at 39'4" on his opener. One-legged Greg Bell was consistent at 36 something on all three and his best of 36'9.75 served as his best and got him 3rd. Adam actually got edged out of 4th by Andrew by a whopping .25" as they went 34'10" and 34'10.25" respectively. Dave was actually in that fight too, less than half a foot back at 34'5.5". John and I brought up the rear with 33'4.25 and 32'5.75". I don't know about John, but that was actually a pretty decent shove for me and it got me a serious beating. Off to a flying start!

The nicest part about starting at noonish is that the HW doesn't feel quite so horrible as it does at say, 9am. Greg H. got to open this bad boy up and did it with a 39'6.75". He would go further later but let's discuss young Greg for a moment. Now the vast majority of us have a problem in that we can't get things going fast enough to really travel. Greg, in truth, has exactly the opposite problem. He's pretty much too damn fast. On his opener, he completely blew through his power position and it still nearly hit 40'. This, folks, is the reason he's the Canadian record holder for this one. When he DOES hit his power position right, that's another 5 feet on that monster. Andrew would actually take first after the first round, being the first guy to go over 40'. On Greg's second one, he showed more patience and it went out a big 42'.75", which kept him in the lead until Andrew's final shot which had a ton of hang time (and I mean a ton. Things that high up should have a stewardess on it) and edged Greg out by less than 2" at 42'2.5". Sean "only" went out 41'10.5", so your top 3 guys were separated by a whopping 4". Now let me tell you about John Odden.

John's about 6'1"-6'2" and maybe 245-250 if he's had a big breakfast. Very athletic and very explosive but let's face it, on a HG field, he's a little fella. John opened up with a 34'11.75" and looked kind of disappointed. He'd told me his practice was going well and his PR from 2008 was 35' something. So hitting nearly that on an opener is, in my opinion, a darn fine indication of things to come. Well, his second one, he found his groove a bit more and it went out a whopping 37'9". A big PR and a pretty throw to boot. So we all told him to go crazy on #3 because he already had in a PR and was sitting pretty. His last one was beautiful. Seriously. Watching a 245# guy hit every position and accelerate that monster like that is a sight to behold. After that thing hung in the air forever, it finally dropped down at 39'8.5". ANOTHER PR and just shy of 40', which is huge anyway you look at it. Much less from one of the smallest guys on the field. Great, great skill and speed there, guys. He's going to be a guy to watch in the future. I actually thought I had Bell for a bit. He wasn't turning worth anything because his one knee was killing him, so he had some serious foul problems. He fixed it enough to knock out a 35'4" which bumped out my best of 33'10" by tons. Damn dirty Greg Bell anyway. Did I mention that I beat him in Enumclaw one year? Good times.

I personally think that the best thing we could do for both Adam and Dave would be to keep masks over their heads until just before their throws, then let them loose without letting them think. They both were throwing way better in warmups than they did in the trig. That's what happens when your huge brain gets in the way, kids. Don't think! It can only hurt the team.

Speaking of hurting the team, the light hammer was up next. Now my hammers have felt like an unfolding lawn chair all year and Victoria would be no exception to the rule. Others, however, would find success. Andrew started us off with 121'.75" and that would stick him in 3rd right from go so I kind of knew what was coming. It would get worse, though. That dirty Greg Bell managed to tie Andrew also on his first one but again, big kudos had to go out to Johnny Odden as he hit yet another PR by nailing 120'6.5" on his third. That would earn him 5th. Adam, stumpy little arms and all, still managed to open them up way more than I did and got 108'1.25". Good for early in the season. Gotta love playing with the big kids. Speaking of which, let's go back to Sean and Greg H. Sean's first one was only 24' past mine at 125'8.25" and Greg did him a little better with 128'4.75". Sean's next one was 128+, so Greg knocked it up to 129'6.75". The rest of us were just watching now. So Sean wanders up for #3 and bombs out a 134'7.25". Now I would never call Sean's hammer throw pretty but damn is it ever moving and those arms are LONG. Greg had a great whip on his last too, but fell just shy again with 133'. You know...ONLY 133'. Sheesh. Sean put on a clinic after that in extras, finally settling on 137'7.25" for a new field record. Dave and I had issues. Many issues.

Weight for height. I at least rested easy knowing I was going to get a long break for this one. Kindly, they started the height at 12'. Most of the guys passed, with Dave, Adam and I all in. Up we went to 13' and this time John, Andrew, Sean and Greg Bell hopped in to warm up. Dave was doing that goonie rocking on his toes thing that I'm going to beat out of him eventually but he got it on his 3rd. 14 feet came and Adam, Dave and I didn't quite have it. Hadley finally came in and snapped it WAY over. I haven't seen his WOB look that good ever. If you could call it that, it was his only weak point. If that's settled up, he's golden. Anyway, Greg B took 2 shots at it because he loves how that feels on his knee and up everyone but the dross (hey guys!) went to 15. It was here that Bell sat down with the rest of us and everyone else made it look stupid easy. 4 guys in, so 16 it was. John was willing to sell his soul for 16, but it looks like he (or Bree more accurately) gets to keep it for at least another competition. Greg also started jumping the gun a little on his pulls but the way he's looking, 16 is going to become a regular occurance sooner rather than later. Sean and Andrew had no issues at all with 16, so 16'6" was our next one. Sean actually nailed the bar all three times but couldn't get the rollover. Andrew rang the bell a couple times but overall it proved to be just outside this time around. Sean took a practice extra, reached a bit more and left it out front. At about 17'6". The snap that guy gets is unbelievable. Overall, Andrew won it because up until 16'6", he didn't miss a single shot. That's how you get the big points, kids. Don't miss.

Carl, in his infinite wisdom, actually decided to score the keg toss this year and what a gong show that was. In truth, it was the best overall throwing we'd ever seen out of this thing with everyone going at least 38'+. A few years ago, that would have won it. Not surprisingly, however, the World Champ and Canadian Champ led the way with 47'3.5" and 45'3.5" respectively. Johnny Odden learned fast and ended up with 41'4" and 3rd place, overtaking big Greg Bell on his final shot. Greg had 40'9" and 4th, squeaking past Mr. Hobson by a half inch. The other three placings were spread out over a whopping foot and a half. Tight race.

Day the second started off similarly to Day 1 with the stone. Open, this time. 16.6# rock. Actually kinda nice to throw. Again, not that it mattered personally. Davey got us started, opening up just under 40' with 39'10". It would stick as his best because he had a tendancy to flop around in the trig sadly, but it WAS a spectacle. Both John and I opened with our bests for the day and my best overall event placing as 41'5.25" got me 5th. Andrew was next up with a very high flying 44' and then the madness started. Hadley popped out a huge 48'7" shot on his #3 throw when he waited for it to hit the right position but Greg Bell got some mad on and topped him by a few inches at literally just shy of 49' at 48'11.75". Me? I might have given him the 1/4" on that. Big push. But this event was all Sean Betz as he opened with 50', extended it to 51'7" and then to 53' for the event win and knocking the field record out a bit more to 54'1.5" on extras. Speaking as the guy he followed, it looks a lot further out than 41' does.

The 22# started off hideously for me when I couldn't let the stupid thing go but it wouldn't even improve my position any throwing it right, so let's just move on from there. Dave had more on his, beating me by better than a foot but again, in this crowd it might as well have been an inch. Adam was in the same boat. Then we took a BIG leap in distance up to 5th where Andrew bombed out a 100'5.5" shot. Huge. On any other day. Johnny was having the games he wanted when he threw 2 PRs and ended with a best of 101'3.75". Massive. Greg couldn't stand for that (or really much of anything on that knee) so he saved his best for last and just beat John by going 102'8.5". Greg started off huge with 110'10.25" and that stayed as his best and the field best until Betz stepped up on his third and bombed out a 112'11.5" toss that would reset the field record and get him another event win. Unreal throwing.

Anyone else seeing the pattern of abuse yet? Yeah, well, the LWFD didn't change that. Let's skip the prelims and say that me, Dave and Adam weren't throwing what we wanted to and even if we did, we wouldn't be impressing anyone and leave it at that. Greg was none too happy about his own throwing for this one either and his opener of 70'2.5" was well off what I'm used to seeing from that guy in the last couple of years. Injury does that. John lit it up again, bombing out a solid 74'4" for 4th spot. He looks so fast going through that stuff. Great positioning. Andrew looked almost effortless lobbing out his last throw of 75'0.25 although he still had that look on his face like he was looking for more. I KNOW Hadley was wanting more out of his 75'11.75" but sometimes the problem with being ALL fast-twitch muscle is that you're going so fast it's hard to catch the weight at the right time. His timing will clear up and then it's 80+ all over again. Speaking of which, have you met Sean Betz? His OPENER was 81+. He'd extended that thing to 85'0.75 by his third and then on extras he bombed out a massive 87'4.75" shell! And let me tell you, that is a long, long way out there.

Carl and co had been kind enough to cut down a new, whippy, 19'6" 127# stick that still dripped sap and hate for us to play with. Early on, there was a lot of talk of wondering if it was going to need to be cut down but I looked it over and said "Hadley will flip it." I wasn't wrong. In fact, I was so right he was the ONLY guy who flipped it. AND to add insult to injury, he made it look stupid easy. He got his caber mojo back and that's an impressive display. The rest of us had varying degrees of "pick-run-FAIL!" so not much changed on that score. Greg only took 2 attempts and then saved himself for that monster challenge stick that noone's managed to flip yet. And still noone's managed to flip it yet. Horrid thing.

When the dust settled and the tears had stopped, it was all Sean Betz at the top of the leader board with Greg right behind him. Unfortunately, the rest of Team Canada didn't help Hadley out much so we got beat like rented mules. Some drinks and lies followed the competition and Greg and I went for a nice walk to grab more after that. Overall, a great weekend and I can't say enough nice stuff about Carl and the Victoria Highland Games Association and how they treated us and ran the games. Solid stuff and they'll do great for Worlds next year.

- Sean

Grande Prairie and RD - June 4/09

Would you believe I have a writeup for Victoria about 90% done and just haven't finished it off? Terrible. But, seeing as it's in two weeks and all, who's coming up for GP? Always an awesome games and a UFC night on Saturday to boot. I haven't discussed it with Mr. Staal but if I had to guess, we're looking at a 10:30-11:00 start time. So far, I believe it's the usual suspects: Me, Bobby, Dave, Mike, Paul. Anyone else feel like signing up for this mess?

While we're on the subject, I really need to know who's coming to Red Deer on the 27th and I need to know by the 14th apparently in order to get it into the program. So, for both of them, drop me a line here: slangfor@telus.net. I promise I'll even start reading my emails again. Mostly.

- Sean

Welcome to 2009 - April 26/09

Man alive, you guys have the laziest web administrator in the world. Winter was long and cold and full of a lot of shovelling. Spring has sort of arrived and I hope everyone is getting a chance to go out and knock off some seasonal rust. Terry, Colleen and I did just that the hard way: by competing. Of course, competing in Hawaii isn't exactly a hardship. Both Terry and Colleen looked fit and were throwing very well. I'd like to say I was too, but that would be a bit of a lie. Still, it was Hawaii so why complain?

The schedule should be up to date so far but if anyone has a correction or the like, feel free to drop me a line.

May has it's fun coming up and I highly recommend a trip to Saskatchewan to support the Regina boys. JJ puts on a solid competition. That can be checked out here: http://www.reginahighlandgames.org/heavyevents.htm. See you guys very soon.

PSBIR - September 18/08

Never let it be said that I don't pander to the masses. Due to overwhelming nagging on the forum, short notice or not, the Annual Paul Sim Birthday Invitational and Regatta will be this Saturday, September 20 at 11-3 for the stupidity followed by BBQ afterward. Drop me a line right here! and let me know if you're coming up. Bring your own boat!

Calgary Stuff - August 26/08

Alright, kids. If you're coming and not on the list below, I need to know. Also, there is a social gathering on Friday night for the throwers. Just the throwers. It's with our lovely patrons from CUSGA and I would highly recommend attendance if you can pull it off. It's at the Hotel Arts in downtown Calgary from 6:30 to 9. Meet lovely folks from Scotland, the US and even as far away as Eastern Canada! Drop me a line so we can get a list to the powers that be. Right here.

Oh yeah and for those of us on the ASAA side, it's a 9:00 start.

Slowly - July 30/08

Starting to add some pics to the Red Deer gallery. Lots more to go through and edit. Be patient!

Oh Yeah! - July 28/08

Seeing as we have that really long break between Ft. Ed and High River, August 9 will be the Beaumont Throwerama and BBQ! Drop me a line if you're interested!

Calgary and High River - July 28/08

As we all know, Calgary and HR are pretty much the only ASAA games left on the roster. What this means is that we need to know who's coming to dinner for it. Now Calgary has the big boys coming out to play on the main stage but we intrepid ramblers of the usual sort will still be active and ready to fly, so the big question is: How many of us are there? Let's keep track of this stuff thus:
High River
Calgary
Ams
Paul Kuefler
Wes Radstaak
Mike Kelbert
Ams
Wes Radstaak
Mike Kelbert
Rob Young
Masters
Bob Brown
Terry Hunt
Aaron Andronyk
Mike Gilpin
Masters
Bob Brown
Terry Hunt
Aaron Andronyk
Mike Staal
Bob Owens
JR
Open
Matt Doherty
Wilson Barnett
Sean Langford
Dave Roe
Dave Laidlaw
Joel Thiessen
Gord Walsh
Open
Wilson Barnett
Sean Langford
Dave Laidlaw
Joe Taylor
Gord Walsh
Dave Roe
Drop me a line right here if you want to be added to the list.

Ft. Ed Writeup and Results - July 23/08

Finally done. And yeah, I know. I'm not done Ellerslie yet. Anyway, you can check it out here or just follow the links from the results page to get there. More information coming up soon about High River and Calgary, so if your intentions are to throw at one or either, send me a shout out.

Ft. Edmonton - July 8/08

We gots our athletes, kids. Throwing as one big group. Be ready to throw at 9:30 (even if we start at 10 ;) ). We'll keep results for the separate classes but we're not separating out flights.

Ft. Edmonton - July 3/08

Just a quick note that I need a decent list of who's coming to Ft. Ed on the 12th of July. This is really important as it's the only way into the park for free. Drop me a line here!

RD Update - June 16/08

Got a couple more names up there and since we're low on Ams/Masters we'll start at 9:30, like I said, but just do the single trig thing. Ams/Masters at 9:30-12:30 or 1:00 and then the Open class can boogie while the Ams drink themselves silly.

Red Deer/Ellerslie - June 14/08

Ok, there's some more updates and I'm still working on video from GP (highlight reel. Maybe a lowlight reel, too :)) but let's talk RD/Elle, shall we? We're aiming for a 9:30 start on Saturday and, like last year, we'll have two trigs going full bore because my early estimates are something near 20 athletes. Because this year seems to be coming up so much faster, fees can be paid on the field but it has to be BEFORE first throw. Mostly because I don't want to deal with people handing me cheques when I'm supposed to be dealing with marking and announcing. K? Further to that, I've heard a lot of rumour about who is showing up for this, so PLEASE, if you haven't already, let me know here if you're going to make it up.

The guys I know for sure are here: Now I've heard rumblings from half a dozen more guys but I'd love some solid numbers, kids. We'll base the Ellerslie start times on who is making it to both.

Peace Out!

Grande Prairie - June 8/08

Back after the long ride and what a day. Equal parts cruddy and amazing in terms of throwing but beautiful weather and I can't say enough nice things about the good folks from The Grande Prairie Highland Games and how they treat us every year. And a big thanks to Mike Staal for dealing with the details of the heavy events. Thanks, folks! But I know what you're looking for, so check here for results.

Comox/Victoria - May 20/08

Hey, I know what you're thinking: "Sean, 6 months is a totally acceptable time to wait between posts. So why do this one?" Want to know why? Because I love the Comox/Victoria weekend. Why is that? Because the BC boys treat the athletes like kings, the games are in fantastic areas, have great crowds and it's a laundry list of guys that make me laugh my self hoarse. That's why. Now, sadly enough I don't have the results in front of me but suffice it to say right off the top that I suck. Like badly. Davey, however, made up for my travesty of throwing. I'll probably give a little more details later but for now we'll start with the general amusement.

I shouldn't even go into the magic of my travel plans and the fact that I voluntarily had originally planned to hop through the US to get to Victoria. Didn't need to on the way there but ended up stuck in Vancouver for a lot longer than I was supposed to. Blissfully, Dave and Jeff Ingram were kings about waiting for me. In any case, we got that settled up and we were on our way despite a waiter that was slightly light in the loafers while we waited for the ferry to drop by. An amusing drive followed by dinner and Ironman was the bulk of Friday night.

Saturday was nice enough to start off with beautiful weather and a mildly locked up back. No worries. Some Ibuprofin, Tiger Balm and disregard of personal safety and away we go. In their infinite cruelty, the folks running Comox decided that starting with the heavy hammer and the sheaf is a great way to warm up the lower back, so while we twirled that heavy bastard around, the B's were testing their bicep attachments. Good plan, Delore! There must have been something in the water, though, because I think everyone but Dave and Bobby Owens was kinda lobbing garbage out there (some of us FAR more than others). Adam at least got to get his first games of the season nerves out when we all looked like crap, so that was a plus. The Brothers Kuefler hit the island and it looks like that'll become a serious family affair as time goes on. I'll get individual marks and the like up later but when the smoke cleared, Joel had taken top spot. By one point. Because of the caber.

I know what you're thinking! "I can't live in a world where Smilin' Joel T is the caber champ!" Well, congrats bucko! You're in Bizarro World now! By this point many of us were approaching social retardation in the beer tent with the promise of a 3.5 hour trip back to Victoria. At least I couldn't feel my back. And Dave couldn't feel the impending doom creeping up on him, either.

Which segues nicely into the next morning at, say, 5am. The first thing I become aware of, beyond the light coming in, is Dave saying something to the tune of "Uh-oh." You see, Mr. Laidlaw had been wearing a sleeveless shirt all day Saturday. In the direct sun. At 28 degrees C. So the line of dark on his arms more or less looked like he currently had detachable limbs. And, considering how he was acting, I can only assume it felt like liquid fire was running over his skin. Me? I had a different problem as I laid there and thought to myself "This is the best I'm going to feel all day." My back was locked up tighter than a snare drum and I had a complete crisis of faith that Greg Bell, Dave and even my wife had to talk me down from the roof from. Some soaking and stretching in the hottub and a fist full of anti-inflams had me "good" to go for the next day.

Mr. Ingram took a different approach as he'd managed to tear a hamstring in the HW the previous day so he used hate and rage to keep him going and managed to actually throw better on day 2 than day 1. That's some macho stuff right there. He pushed big Brett the whole way all morning despite no small amount of injury. That's why they make MP3 players. Focused hate right there. Delore and Greg Bell also had pretty solid days but I know Greg was looking for a bit more as his practices had been going better than that. I don't even know if Delore trains but I was wearing his boot print on my backside all weekend.

The real plus of Victoria is getting to watch Ryan Vierra throw. Ryan's a little different from most pros for a lot of reasons but most notably: 1) He's won world's a LOT more than anyone else. Really. 2) He really LOVES highland games. Like seriously. As in he doesn't do it because he's awesome. He's awesome because he loves it. Very friendly, great sense of humour and a strictly awesome technician. He made us look like bums with things like a 45' HW, an 85' LW, 134' in the hammer, 48' stone, etc etc but even he said that Dave was the star of the show. So let's explore that, shall we?

Dave was a mess. Hung over, burnt, mind on other stuff, hasn't slept well due to work in months. All in all, the last thing Davey was thinking about was throwing. And therein was his mojo. Now Davey had PR'd like 3 times on Saturday. He went 1 better than that and ended up with 4 lifetime PRs by the day's end with a 44'6" stone, a 66' LW, 108' hammer and a 35' Braemar. And that #4 doesn't even include the fact that I think all of his stone throws were PRs. Ryan figured this was exactly the way it was supposed to be. You're so focused on how damaged you are that you can't even think about getting tense for throws. Everything's relaxed, loose and ready to fly. Hard to argue with the results, I suppose.

Mr. 5 Time World Champ wiped us out pretty easily and I got another hit to my ego when someone in the beer tent pointed their wobbly finger at me and said "Hey, you're not Ryan. You're that 220 guy!" Ouch. To his credit, Bell didn't laugh out loud at me. But he did help perpetuate the mistaken identity thing with Ryan. With my tail thoroughly lodged between my legs, we crawled back to the hotel and geared up for some food and social gathering with a lot of Alberta boys, Greg, Brett and Ryan. Good times, a lot of lies and then the magic of getting up at 3:30 to be at the airport at 4:30am. I won't bore you with tales of my 19 hour stay in the airports and airplanes of Vancouver. Needless to say, my back did not appreciate it.

Anyway, Grande Prairie is coming up guys! Remember, it's June 8 which is SUNDAY and NOT SATURDAY. NOT SATURDAY! Sheesh. You guys think you can keep this straight? Everything's a little early this year as Red Deer and Ellerslie are up and running on June 21/22 this year. Oh, can I get a quick headcount of who's coming to RD/Elle this year? They're both looking for athlete lists for programs. Thanks! Drop me a line at the new email addy for this stuff!.

I know! I know! - September 17/07

Yeah, I know I'm still missing a writeup for Calgary, some video up for both Cowtown and HR plus some pics of Ft. Ed to conglomerate. I haven't forgotten. But just as a quick note, if you're planning on attending the Paul Sim this weekend (Sept 22/07), let me know right here assuming you haven't elsewhere.

- Sean

Helter Stelter! - August 15/07

Stettler writeup and results can be found here. Video will be up soon, I hope!

- Sean

North American Championships - July 30/07

I just wanted to give a huge congrats to Matt and Joel who placed 3rd and 5th respectively at the North American championships against a very big field of competitors. Awesome work, guys and I hope we can snag a writeup off you!

- Sean

Ft. Edmonton - July 28/07

The writeup is finally done, although the results have been up for a while. I suddenly realize I forgot the women's and juniors but that will be rectified before evening is up. My apologies to Colleen, Cale and Colton for the oversight. Mike Gilpin apparently has some great pics, too, so hopefully the gallery will be filled out soon, although I need to get my photoshop working properly again anyway. Fort Edmonton

- Sean

Ellerslie HG - July 11/07

Ooof. Really long delay here. Sorry gang. This should do ithere or right here for the direct link. I'll get the stuff into the CSAF database as soon as I can.

- Sean

Red Deer HG - June 27/07

Sorry it's taking so long but the home computer is all kinds of messed up, so it's kind of a do it at lunch hour thing right now. Once again, I'm going to point you to this page here or this page here here here for the direct link to the writeup and the competition results. Hope it all works!

- Sean

Grande Prairie HG - June 14/07

You don't know it yet, but the website's under construction. So I'm kind of playing around with a lot of stuff. Be that as it may, I'm going to point you to this page right here for Bobby Brown's writeup and the competition results from GP. Hope it all works!

- Sean

Victoria (Western Canadian Championships) - May 23/07

I'll say this for Victoria: when they decide to have miserable weather they don't fool around. Despite the weather, though, I think we had something to the tune of 25 athletes going over the course of the day. Huge thanks to Carl Jensen and the Victoria games folks for organizing this mess. I understand that we're a pile of princesses, so having us taken care of so well is a huge plus. I'll have to let Jim or that foreigner from oregon write about the morning's entertainment. I do know that Greg went over 100' in the HH and otherwise dominated but I didn't see much beyond that. For all that I bust on him during a games, I have nothing but respect for his abilities as a thrower. I know Jim wasn't entirely tickled by his performance on the weekend, but it does show the promise of things to come.

The weather ALMOST looked like it was going to clear up but then hard reality clicked back in, so we all tossed on a couple extra shirts, grabbed towels to deal with the implements and got to work. The setup this year for the games was great and we had tons of room to play. With that Ryan Vierra fella hanging around to get in some early season marks, the 2007 Western Canadian Championships were underway.

The braemar stone was up first and I was tempted to steal both it and the open stone and haul them back to Alberta with me but I figured Joel would take a hammer to my knees. Nice little 23# rock. In any case, the top three in the event were Joel, Matt and Jason at 37'4.5", 37'3.5" and 36'1.75" respectively. Not too shocking in terms of placement but I know neither Joel or Matty were too terribly impressed with their own performances here. Jason is looking very snappy on his standing throws. That young Vierra fella did ok, too. 38' something. With the exception of Delore and his freakish 35' throw on his last attempt, the rest of us toiled in obscurity between 30 and 32'. Big bad Bob Owens took 5th here with 32'6.5". Inches made a lot of difference here below that mark.

I had to feel for Jeff Ingram on Sunday. His neck isn't exactly problem free under the best of conditions and here he was announcing in the cold and the rain the day after throwing. He was walking around like he was wearing the Batman suit pretty much all day. Sucks, but I'm glad he was out.

More stone madness continued with the almost perfect 16.4# stone Joel must have sold his soul for to find. A quick note about Joel: again, I felt almost a twinge of remorse (or would have if I had human feelings) because I was on that guy's back all day about something or other. I figured he's one of us now and has the driver's licence to prove it, so I might as well abuse him as much as I abuse everyone else. Maybe even a little more. Just for giggles. But I did see him smile. Or grimace. One of the two.

The open stone was all Matt who opened with his best at 50'3.5". I know he wanted a little more but this was day 2 and wet, so it just wasn't snapping out where he wanted. He'll have some big numbers this year if his track stuff is any indication. Joel wasn't quite hitting his positions but managed to snag second with a 44'5" shot. Young Gord Walsh was out and looking very fit (national level volleyball will do that to you) and was about a foot behind at 43'4.5". Delore was just under the 42' mark at 41'11" and that knocked me down a spot and took me by half a foot. JJ did all of his standing and took 6th spot. I also think it was somewhere around here when Ryan came back with a big smile on his face from the whiskey tasting.

He more than made that up on the HWFD, though, looking nothing but controlled the whole time and ending with a monstrous 38'11" and first spot, bumping Joel off by 6". JJ's going to go 40' this year and it's going to be sooner than later. Speaking of 40 footers, despite having some serious, serious back issues in the past couple of months, Ryan nailed 42' something and made it look easy. Matt got 3rd with a 32' throw and I was the only other guy out over 30' with 31'5.5". Not my best effort, I will say. Like with the braemar stone, about 6" made a 3 point difference here with a lot of guys.

Speaking of smiling, I actually saw JJ smile during a competition. I mean granted, it could have been gas or something, but I'm pretty sure it was a smile. He even lent me his towel to clean off an implement. A day to remember.

The LW was up and more of the same, but Joel took top spot this time with 72'5". He looked good, fast and snappy but the weight just wasn't carrying the way he wanted I know. JJ had that same feeling and managed about 71'10". Matt went 66'3.75" and I was 63' something with Gord rounding out the top 5 at 61'6.5". Ryan schooled us again with a casual looking 76' throw. Did I mention the pouring rain? Good. In retrospect, it was kind of mean of me to start cheering Marc when I had a lung full of helium but Mike Staal had handed me the baloon and I can never turn down an opportunity. You know I still love you, Marc! :)

Everyone's favorite event in the rain was next with the heavy hammer. Joel was denied 100' with a 99'10.5" but it was enough for top honours. JJ didn't really get the hammer going exactly the way he wanted and again took second with 93'6". Granted, I think his abdominal wall was starting to talk a little dirty to him during this one. That should hopefully heal up before his next competition. Gord Walsh was up to his usual shenanigans and was only 5" behind JJ for a 93'1". My first would be my best at 89' and Matty rounded out the top 5 with 86'10.5". In cleats. In the rain. It's so easy to dislike this kid sometimes. Because I know you'll ask, Ryan was over 102' or so. This was the event he was kind of worried about, too. Oh and I'd just like to pass on condolences to Harrison Bailey. Campfire talk is that he ended up with a torn bicep the day before on the heavy hammer. Heal up quick, HBIII!

Ah, the weight for height. Probably one of the more entertaining portions of the day as Delore and I continued our usual dog and pony show for the crowd. Neither of us was there to particularly impress the crowd, but I think we amused them. 12' was the stopping mark for better than half the field and then Delore, Ryan and I dropped out after 13', leaving the 3 big dogs to play. On the plus side, I didn't attempt to catch the weight this time around. Joel decided to have some fun and take as many attempts as he could at each height but finally settled on 16' as his mark. JJ nailed 15' and hit the bar at 16' so I think on a nice warm day, that'll die this year too. Matt's timing was a bit off so he got his 14' but was denied 15' for now. Joel took some game attempts at 16'4" but again, I think that's going to have to wait for a warmer day.

The caber was a nice taperless 19', 95# of varnished wood (and no, I'm not kidding about that). On a better day, I think a lot of us would have put up a better effort. As it stood, only JJ and Matt managed a turn (well, and Ryan) with 11:00 and 10:00 respectively, if memory serves. I think Ryan nailed it, but I can't for the life of me remember. We had a couple of scares when the caber slipped and the guys (Joel and JJ) couldn't pull their hands apart to let go of it because of all the tacky. Joel took a swipe at his manhood and JJ took a shot in the ribs and hip but noone was really damaged from it, fortunately. She was slick by this point.

When the smoke cleared, our Western Canadian champion was none other than Joel Thiessen by a narrow margin over Jason Johnston. The boy took 3rd spot and I managed 4th through trickery and deceit. Bobby Owens and Gord Walsh tied for 5th spot to round out our "win-place-show" categories. So congrats to Joel and JJ for a tight battle.

To Jim Maxwell and the rest of the folks in the Victoria games exec, a HUGE thanks. You guys treated us like princes and it was much appreciated. The laughs and fun at the beer tent after were always welcome and dinner that evening was a real treat too. I especially loved hearing Greg Bell telling his wife that he "won it all, even the dancing" and was now the "New Brunswick Provincial Weight for Caber Champion". You can't BUY that kind of entertainment. Looking forward to next year and remember everyone: 2010: The Worlds.

- Sean

Comox Valley - May 22/07

Damaged world champions, solid parenting advice and the mystery of Len LaRue: these are the things that make up the Victoria Day long weekend of throwing. Above all my other comments, I really have to give a big thanks to the folks running the Pacific Northwest Scottish Association, the Comox HG and the Victoria HG. They treat us like kings and really make the athletes feel at home and at ease for the whole weekend. Huge ups, folks!

Continuing on, let me just say that having seen how the other half (specifically MY other half) lives, the dancing judges are spoiled princesses. Except for that whole "sitting still in the cold for 8 hours" thing they kept complaining about. Women. There was a ton of stuff going on this weekend including a novice clinic and the like, but *I* wasn't there for that so we're going to start with Comox. First off, let me say that wandering around the town on Friday did nothing to dissuade my opinion that British Columbia is actually nothing more than a state-sponsored grow op. The sweet smeel wafted out of a hippy coffee shop (obviously), a mountain bike store (expected) and what I think was a cop shop (slightly more unusual). Delore's blood-shot eyes don't help. We met up with everyone that night at BPs but it was pretty subdued. Bob Owens said he was tired from staying up late the night before, but I assumed he meant staying up chewing through a metal bar, throwing cars over bridges and swimming with a ferry tied to him to "toughen up for the games". If he gets any bigger and stands still for too long, he's going to have 14 year old kids spray painting his back. Some time during the day we also found out that the boy (Matt) apparently has enough money now that he can sleep through flights and then just buy new ones, so if you're looking for cash, I'd drop him a line and don't take 'no' for an answer.

The Saturday started rainy but settled up well enough before the games that we all had some pretty high hopes. Unfortunately, some of us would have those hopes dashed by the hard reality known as "throwing". As I don't have the full results in front of me, I can't give you my standard blow by blow reporting but here's what I know: we started off with that horrid granite ball they like in BC so much for a braemar stone. Big Greg Bell and young Matthew were all over that thing going 33'+ and 35'+ respectively. Jim Garrick and Bobby O also manhandled it and only a quarter inch separated the two of them over 31'. My good friend Jeff Ingram had made the trek out for the weekend and saved himself some flight money by netting a bunch of Manitoba mosquitos and then painting an Air Canada number on the side of the bag. He ended up just a few inches behind Bob and Jim. Delore and Davey L were the next pairing to be separated by very little distance and were both just over 30', leaving Marc and I to toil in obscurity below that. With me WAY below that. Junk. Hardly an auspicious beginning to my day.

The open stone was more of the same with Matt and Greg leading the charge at 50'+ and 46'7 ish and Jeff Ingram waiting for his third to go 40'11" and take 3rd spot with the 17# stone. Only Delore would be the other of us to go over 40' and the rest of the dismal performance continued from there. I won't bore you with the comical details.

On the note of comical details, however, let me emphasize that I'm not sure I've laughed that hard at a games in years. I hear Greg's got his own HBO series coming up and with me not having to expend any energy throwing well I had lots left over to be a jerk. But at least I was entertaining myself if noone else.

The LWFD showed a little more promise than the stones but still nothing to really write home about. With the two leaders deciding that fouling out a lot was a plus, I managed to sneak into third behind their 65' and 63'with a 62' something and edge Jim by like 3" or something. Bob was the only other guy over 60', scaring the weight out to a solid 61' throw. He must have been taking it more serious this year as he wasn't in sandles. Marc and Delore were denied 60' by a few inches and Dave and Jeff rounded out the field at 53' and 51'.

The light hammer continued Greg's charge with him opening up with 123'. I decided to give that one to him and only throw 110'. I didn't want to shatter his world view or anything. I know he's quit his job to throw full time and all. Matt hadn't even so much as given a dirty look to any of the highland games implements before this and still went 106'. Bob continued his solid performances and was the only other guy over 100' at 101'. The rest of the guys were all over 90' and Jeff only took one pull because of that "searing pain and partial paralysis of my left arm" excuse. The big sissy.

The WOB had nothing special to it from anyone except maybe Bob who opened up with 16' when the bar was at 12'. Might have something to do with the 675# deadlift he had on his camera. My cleans are slower than that lift was. Scary. Oh, I also had a slight case of "stupidity" when I decided to see if Gary's heart was still capable of taking massive shocks by catching the weight on my sternum on the way down. I'm still trying to figure out what the hell I was thinking there. 10 years and I've never done anything that dumb. In the games and sober anyway.

After that was the 37 hour sheafer madness. After dropping out early, I decided to revel in the feeling of my back getting colder and stiffer because I figured it would feel better to throw the caber like that. If memory serves, it was right around here where we found out Greg will be writing a book entitled "You know what you are?". It's a children's book and I, for one, can't wait for the illustrated version. I think Bell won this event with Delore and Marc both over 26' but I honestly wasn't paying that much attention by then. Wonderful event, the sheaf.

Now I promised Jimmy I'd make a point of this so here it is: Jim Garrick won the caber. That's 5 words I really never assumed I'd have to string together. He was consistent, though, managing a pair of noons and an 11:45. I had to admire Gary for the judging here. He told us that he didn't judge closer than 15 minutes and he stuck to it. So if you weren't dead-on, you were 15 off. The stick in question was a pretty sturdy 17' 97# stick but it was going over pretty regularly for most of the guys. Bob O captured second with a pair of 12s and a drop and I stole third on my last one with a 12:00. Not that it really mattered to me for the overall but it was nice to do it anyway.

When the smoke cleared and when we were all settled in the beer tent we discovered that Greg had taken top spot with Matt close behind. Jim took 3rd if you can believe that, with Bob and Delore taking 4th and 5th. The rest of us were bums, so it doesn't matter much beyond that. With several vehicles full of rancid men, we stopped in Nanaimo at the BPs there and helped big Dan Loeb collect at least SOME of the cash the proprietor of the establishment owed him and stuffed our faces, carrying on to Victoria after that. Then with only a slight misadventure of my wife and I potentially spending the night with a guy noone had heard of before, that pretty much wrapped things up until the next day. Which I will continue in my next installment.

- Sean

Another quick one - May 5/07

Happy Cinqo de Mayo, freaks! Anyway, we actually have some members now. All 3 of us. We're also 2 weeks away from the always stylin Regina HG and the double shot of Comox and the Westerns in Victoria. Hope everyone's better prepared than I am for it. The usual rules apply for the year, guys, so get in that membership info. Some small updates to the upcoming competitions section. I'm hopiong to get a full site update in soon, but life's pretty busy in general, so who knows. Keep in touch!

- Sean

Sheesh - February 7/07

2007 already, huh? Been a LONG while since an update and I still have a ton of work to do. Lots of records to be updated, news bits, etc. I'll have to get to that later, though. The magic of real life and young kids. But seeing as guys could start the almighty registration business almost anytime, I'll give this update/reminder from our last AGM: the cost of the association has moved up to $100. Before everyone gets their panties in a bunch, this was voted on by a vast majority and if you weren't there at the AGM, you waived your right to piss and moan. Beyond that, $25 of the registration is also fully refunded after you volunteer for 2 games. We found that it has long been the same crew doing the lion's share of the work and if that's the case, some compensation or at least equalization should be forthcoming. Remember that it's still mostly a "family business" setup here, guys and many hands make light work. More to come in the future. Drop me a line if you feel like talking about it or have questions specific to your situation.

- Sean

Western Canadian HG Championships - September 5/06

For the past 3 years, Calgary has played host to some very big throws and some great contests and this year was no exception. We had 13 of the best athletes in Western Canada out for a solid 7 event day and although we were missing the #1 ranked guy in both the West and in Canada, I think the Calgary HG proved that there is a lot of depth out here and it's just really the beginning of what's to come.

We started fairly traditionally with the open stone or "rebel stone" as we've come to call it here in Alberta with our own venerable Gordie Walsh taking first attempt and starting conservatively-ish with 40'8.5". That survived most of the first round with only British Columbia's Delore Lakusta and myself going over 40. Well, of course, until the boy stepped up. He popped out an easy 45'6.5" on his first shot and that would prove to be more than the rest of us had that day. Jim Garrick had opened solidly at 38'11.5" and on his third attempt managed a 40'10" shot that he aaaaaalllllmost hung onto, but he stepped over the trig and negated it. Tough luck. Manitoba's Marc Morin was hideously consistent with 3 shots within an inch and a half of his best of 39'5.5". The Mike Staal of Auld stepped up on his second attempt to knock out a season's best of 41' and Delore ended up getting him by 6.5" and fouling out his third one, more's the pity. Gordie got close to Matt on his final with a snappy 43'9.5" that I couldn't quite match at 43'5" and JJ saved himself a couple of points on his last attempt with a PR 41'5" for 5th spot. Matty had expanded his best with 46'9.5" and took a couple of extras but without anyone to really push him they lacked some of his usual snap. I suppose we can forgive him as he's competed somewhere between 25 and 30 times since January in olympic lifting, indoor and outdoor track and highland games. Long season for our young star.

Mixing it up a little, we moved into the LWFD and there were a few of us looking for some big marks here. Davey Laidlaw walked out of the trig on his first one, but managed to get a bit of snap going out on his last one and went 62'. What did that get him? 10th. Damn. Delore looked almost surprised by his own throws and went steadily up from his opener, ending with a big 66'0.5" and 4th. He's going to be disturbing next season when he actually starts training seriously again. Mike Staal and Marc both looked a little disappointed by their efforts at 60'2.5" and 62'3.5" respectively and Al's opener of 63'0.5" stuck as his best and was good enough for 8th. Yow! Both Dave Roe and Gordie Walsh were in the 63' range with their openers, with Dave's 63'3" sticking as his top mark and Gord extending his to 63'9" by his second. 5th spot went to big Jim Garrick though, when he dropped a monster 64'8" PB. He's been looking steadily more solid as the season's gone on. Looks like exercise might actually help huh, Jimmy? I was smooth, but uninspired and managed 67'10.5" for 3rd, losing second by half an inch to JJ's 67'11" on the only throw he didn't foul. Miserable flatlander. The boy saved his best for last and hit the 69'2" he needed to win and then extending that in extras to 71'1" and finally 72'7" for a big PR and new Alberta record! Awesome work, Matthew!

The heavy hammer mixed things up a little bit. Ish. Lots of the guys stepped this one up a bit with Joey T hitting out 81'6" on his second for 9th place. 9th. See what I mean about the depth of field? Dave L was having fun by this point I think and relaxed enough for 8th spot with 83'6" on his second attempt. Delore used all his bicep power to grab 85'4.5" on his first attempt. Personally, I think he needs to bench his hammers out more. Matty only grabbed 6th spot here with 86'3.5", but it's hard to badmouth him considering he does it with both heels against the trig and with cleats on. 5th spot took 88'4.5" from Mike Staal and Marc's 89'0.5" only grabbed him 4th. Hitting par all day was me at 89'11" for third and JJ was actually in the lead halfway through the second round with his monster 94'6" with I think was a 5' PR. But Gord Walsh didn't earn his hammer king title by accident or by getting nervous. His second attempt of 95'8.5" stole first place from JJ and would stand as his best from there.

We joined the Ams for the WOB and brought the crowd in nice and tight. We had a lot of people hanging out and Delore was doing a fantastic job of entertaining and educating the folks while the Ams got things under way. On the Open side, we had an interesting little development with the top 4 guys of Gord, JJ, myself and Matt being at 9, 9, 9 and 8 points respectively. Jimmy, Marc, Al and Bob all hopped in at 11 to get some groove going. JJ, Mike and Matty didn't bother coming in until 13. Jim finally got that monkey off his back with his third shot at 13'. 13'6" stopped everyone but Mike, myself and JJ while the boy sat it out until 14. I decided to just throw it straight up and down for that one and Mike had similar success. Matt and JJ took a pair of shots to clear 14 and then up they went to 15. Double J got no love for that today and Matthew was up and over easy on his second. Matt even took a few shots at 16', but that continued to elude him for another day.

Since we already had heavy weight on the brain, we tossed the HWFD after moving the crowd back reasonably again. This event did mix things up even more than the WOB in the long run. Delore started us off with 32'9", which I think was season's best that he extended to 33'1" on his second AND third attempt. Jimmy Garrick continued a streak of solidity with a best of 32'4.5" for 6th spot. Actually, the depth again was shown when Marc got 30'8.5" and only placed 9th for his troubles. I think he's busy looking at buying some Bobby Dodd weights. Alistair cranked out 31'5" as a best and that netted him 7th and I had all kinds of issues and managed 33'2.5". Anyone remember when that was my good event? I do. Dave Roe once again showed that when he's facing the right way, he's really good at this event as he bombed out a 35'1.5" shot and that got him 3rd. JJ used the half-inch to his advantage again to claim second with 35'2" and The Boy once again saved his best for last and took himself from 8th to first with a 36'4.5" bomb from the hip. So he continued to extend his lead at this point.

We were actually keeping up a great pace all day and it was reasonably early and the guys kind of settled themselves out on the stands with the crowd, which was fantastic. Markie Marc opened up with a big 110'3.5" that he later extended to 111'2" for 4th spot. I know he was looking for more of the 120'+ action he'd seen on the east coast but today wasn't the day, unfortunately. Mike Staal started off with a pretty reasonable 107'2" but he missed the power pull on the last one and only extended it by 8" at the end of the day. His second shot where it kind of went "just a bit outside" was pretty entertaining, though. I thought the cabers were doomed. And how about a moment for Dave Roe. Now to say that the hammers have long been a source of frustration for Davey is an understatement, but talk about being torn. I mean a 5' PR is awesome, but being an inch shy of 100'? Man, that'll eat at your guts. And his ALMOST 100' toss netted him a whopping 9th. Jimmy must have also had something click in his thick, overly large skull when he managed a big 97'7" for a 5 or so foot PR. Davey L was in that mix at 98'3.5" and Joey managed a nice 104'9" bomb for 8th! 104'9" was 8th. Think about that. 5th spot went to JJ with 110'8" and third was Matty Doherty with another PR at 114'3.5". I was hoping for more, but had to be happy with a slight PR at 114'10" and second spot. Gordie came out on top with this one too, hitting 117'2.5" on his first and then nailing 120'1.5" for a half inch PR and Alberta record in extra throws. Someone needs to remind Gordie that he's a master and he isn't supposed to be killing us in this event.

The crowd was called back in because, let's face it, this is what they came to see anyway. Caber time. At 19'6" and 90#, she's a tall thing without any serious taper to it and a little warble at the top. 6 out of the field actually managed to turn it, so I suppose that means we'll probably retire it or shave it to 18' and make it a solid Am technique stick. I got to have the honour of being the first to turn it and managed an 11:45. Dave Roe had it stand up and fall to the side enough for 9:15 and JJ followed suit with a solid flip, but he'd turned his body just before the pull. Matty dropped the hammer with a 12:15 and that would stand as his best. With 2 efforts, Gord managed a 12:30 and so did Delore on his first, improving to 11:45 on his second and making it look easy despite that slow, casual walk of his. Must come from running a grow op like everyone in BC does. On his last attempt, JJ managed a 12:10 to edge me out by 5 minutes and take the win. So JJ, myself and Delore made up the top 3 with Matt, Gord and Dave taking 4-6th. The rest of the guys had varying degrees of success standing it up and the side judging made the difference here.

That finished the day off nicely and with 4 event wins and the rest of us battling it out, the 2006 Western Canadian Champion was none other than Alberta's own Matt Doherty. A couple of Alberta records fell and some big personal milestones were met and JJ and I were right back of Matt's 17 points with 19 and 20, respectively. Inches or even half inches made big differences, as it should in a proper competition. I've got to take a minute to thank Wendy Brown for putting up with us all day and doing a fantastic job of scorekeeping and a big thanks to her parents and Jim and Joanne Garrick for whipping up the excellent bag lunches all the competitors but like me and Jimmy had. I hear the sandwiches were excellent. I think Dan Loeb ate mine. And 2 other peoples. But he made up for it by hosting the Calgary after party, which was a gas, gas, gas. It was worth going just to see JJ in that mesh shirt. The Littles came by, too. It's been years since I had the pleasure and I hope they aren't strangers to Alberta games after this. And wonder of wonders, Matty himself even showed up to an after party. Careful, Matthew. It's habit forming. Things started to turn when Al MacFarlane showed up but my mother-in-law came and hauled my wife and I away before the serious tomfoolery began.

But I've heard stories.

Paul Sim on the 23rd, kids. It's not going to make sense, so I wouldn't bother training for it.

- Sean

High River - August 29/06

The highland games travelling road show continued. A quick note of huge thanks to the lovely folks who sponsored this section of the heavy events tour 2006: High River Rentals, Allister's Auto, Lutes Building Supplies, Home Hardware, Highwood Distillers (woo!), Coonie Farm Service and Highwood Dental Centre. This is a community that backs its games, lemme tellya. And now onto the tossing!

Open Class

First off: Joel Thiessen. Who invited this guy anyway? Sheesh. Plus, I'd also like to thank Dave Roe. High River almost requires there to be an injured Dave involved and it was nice of him to take the spot over for Mr. Laidlaw who has taken that responsibility almost since Day 1. Way to go, Davey!

But I digress. The open stone was up first. Nice little 16.5# stone (so HIGHLY controversial), good shape, fit well...and most of us couldn't toss it worth crap. I got the mess going and it felt heavier than it should have. And went a whopping 40'5". Whoop-dee-do. I managed to extend it to a mighty 41'7", but that ain't gonna impress anyone. Marc followed me all day and started his assault on the left side of the throwing area early with a 41'4". I think he might have been the only guy to hit grass on that side. Gordie Walsh wasn't far behind him with a 41'2" and Delore Lakusta (with a "k") had made the trip out to triumphantly hit 43'4" on his last one to beat me. Of course, none of us were anywhere near Joel, who seemed to be the only guy completely unaffected by the stone and knocked out a big 47'8".

The heavy weight was up next. It felt heavy, too. The writing was starting to be on the wall for me early on. Jimmy Garrick actually popped out a solid looking 31'8" on his first that would stand as his best and net him 5th. Evil Al MacFarlane improved on that shot by a foot and some change with a 33'1" and I edged him out of there by 3.5" at 33'4.5". Ugh. Did I mention that Marc Morin beat me in the heavy weight with a d-handle? No? Because everyone else mentioned it to me. Marc had a great looking pull out at 34'10" for a season's best and just under a lifetime PR. Good on him. I know Davey Roe wasn't too nuts about his 31'3.5" and 30' even only earned Gordie 7th. Joel continued his utter subjugation of the Alberta crew with a monster 42'3" for a season's best. High River, it would seem, agrees with Joel.

The light weight was more of the same with Jim scoring a solid 5th on a 62'10" and Gord ahead of him by a foot with 63'10". Marc snuck in between there with 63'3" and I managed to snag second with a 65'2" that felt a whole lot better than it went. The only other two guys over 60 were Delore and Al at 60'9" and 60'1" respectively. Well, you know. Except Joel. Who bombed out a monster 79'3" for a win by only a 14' margin. He really edged us there. Oh, new field record there, too.

Because Matt wasn't around, we decided to do both stones because, well, it's funnier that way. This thing didn't want to really go anywhere either. Bob took Davey R. out 27'8" to 27'1" and Gord, Al and Jim were within 6" of each other in the range of 28'7" to 29'1". Davey L took Jim by another 6" on top of that at 29'7" and I edged out Marc by 3" 31'6" to 31'9". Delore smoked us by 3' with 34'10" and Joel knocked out another PR (with this rock anyway) and field record at 37' even. I think we should have another stone championship competition in Alberta. Sometime when Matty's out of province or something. You know...because it's funnier that way.

The hammers were up next and everyone was fairly consistent in their placings. Delore wanted to cancel the hammers altogether and went 82'1"/100'8" in the heavy and light for 5th in both. 4th spot on both went to Marc who looked less than thrilled with his 89'10"/106'11" attempts. I wasn't a lot happier with 90'8"/113'2" because something just felt...off. Gotta hate that. Gordie, however, looks well set for the hammers for next week with a huge 97'5"/118'4" combo. I believe the 97'5" was a season's best. He might be killing his own provincial record this weekend if the trend continues. Joel put out every attempt in the heavy hammer to 103'1". Like ALL of them. But the light hammer was a cannon shot way way out to 129'11" for a big season's best and new field record. Monster. I think it was at this point where we all got the searing visual of Joel on his side with one leg over and Aaron grinding away on his hip. Please Lord, let it have been his hip he was working on.

The WOB was next beast up and I was nervous. This event has not been treating me well. Actually, it's been treating me like a baby treats a diaper. Still, I've practiced like...twice with it since last time and was hoping for something. 12' saw a few guys drop out, as Al, Bob, Marc and Jim had issues. You had to really feel for Jim, too, because the weight was going 13' straight up. Just missing that finish to roll it over. Delore pulled something similar at 13', going up and down probably 14' up. Davey R. was starting to suffer by this point and he couldn't quite muster enough oomph to carry it over. Gord was stymied by 14', although he had some real honest shots at it and I one shotted it over and got the monkey off my back a bit. Joel actually left it out in front on his first at 14' so I loudly announced that I was winning. I should have stuck with my original plan of moving the bar up to 18', though, because he cleared 15' by lots and I, well, didn't. He gave 16'4" a really good few pulls, especially his first which sat on the bar for a second before flopping back forward. Man, that's a long way up there.

The comp caber was the 19'6" 95# affair we had in Ft. Edmonton. A good skill and timing stick and 3 of us managed to turn it this time. Bobby actually had a couple great pulls on that beast, but needed a little more foot speed to get it going over. Al was in a similar boat and Marc's last pull looked like it had some potential as it went up 80 degrees before coming back down. Oh, did I mention that at this point, the bugs decided for a full-on assault of anyone touching the caber. It was really pleasant. Davey Roe was in serious turmoil at this point as his spine was killing him but he loves himself some caber. He managed an 80 as well but his body just couldn't drive up enough to get the ball rolling. My first one went nowhere and meanwhile Delore and Gord made it look easy with 12:30 and 11:30 respectively. My second one got me a 2:00 while Delore and Gord went 12:00 and 11:00 to continue to make it look like practice to them. I managed to edge Gordie out on my last one when it went up, up, slooooowwwwwly UP....and fell over to 11:45, to which Joel proclaimed that I was the only guy who would have that happen because it would have fallen back on anyone else. Delore was still the champ though, with his 12:00 taking top spot. But I beat Joel in the caber and that was enough for me.

They "let" us try the 17' HONEST 140# challenge caber, but none of the three of us were even close. I gave up after 2 attempts and the other 2 geniuses decided they needed a workout and tried all three times. Top pull might have been 55-60 degrees. That was a Doug MacDonald caber, pure and simple.

The day was done and the dust had settled and Bob, Jim, Dave L and Al covered the 10th through 6th spots. The top 5 spots had been pretty consistent all day, so no shocking surprises here as Delore managed a solid 5th overall with Marc just edging him into 4th. Gordie solidly took 3rd and there was something to be said for consistency as I snagged second. Having a great day and really looking good going into World's was Joel with a few season's bests and an easy, easy win in ALMOST every event. Although the BC crew did manage to take home all the fancy hardware when it was all said and done.

Am side coming up.

- Sean

Amateur Class

But wait! There's more! There's the poor bastards who had to wake up early and come and throw just so we could go through 10 guys and 8 events in the afternoon. Let's see what happened there. First off, lets thank big Carl Jensen for making the trek to compete with us. Good guy and had some PRs for the day so good on him. Anyway, off to the races.

The open stone was the same one we'd end up using in the afternoon and it seemed pretty reasonable in the morning. Wes started with a good-looking 29'1" opener, but his big push ended up fouling so it stuck as his best. Aaron's battle cry was a little too much like the sound you'd make when your arm is falling out of the joint but he gutted it enough for a 28'1". Dangerous Dan shoved his out a casual 28'10" almost flat and Paul got into a good position on all his shots but had issues with not pushing the rock into the ground so his best went about 25'6". Carl really got those big legs under him on his last shot to go 31'6" for what I believe was a PR and second spot but Mike had pretty much demoralized everyone on his first one when he went 33'7" on his opener. He's starting to get it back.

Our juniors have been out in force this year. A force of 2! But that doesn't mean they aren't putting on a show of their own. Cale had Connor by a foot after the first round and second round he extended that almost 5 inches. Despite his last one going out almost another foot and netting Cale 26'7.5", Connor came back and snapped out a nice 27'4" on his last one to take the event. 14 and 16. Man, do they ever have time.

The lucky guys got to go into the HW after that and Aaron "Flintstone Shuffled" his way to a 22'3.5" on his last one to take 3rd. Carl crushed out a 20'7" which I think was another PR for him but Wes had edged him by 9 inches or so at 21'4". I know the weights have been frustrating Wes a bit as his practices have been higher than that consistently. Trust me, man. We all do it. Mikey G has pulled out a big 24'2.5" on his second and later extended it to 24'4" but it was big Dan Loeb who killed out the winner at 25'3". Noone looked more surprised than Dan. It was a sweet looking single spin, too. The juniors had the 42 well in hand with Connor taking the early lead at 22'11" and then extending that to 24' even to win, although Cale added 2 feet from his first to his second to end at 22' even. Big pulls.

The light weight was up next and it almost looked like it was going to be a repeat performance for big Dan as he opened the event with a PR 44'9" which held up through the entire first round. When his second one only went 38'6", he actually said "THAT'S more like it." On his third, though, he was back up over 44. Paul lost a little power on his finish and went out 34'7" with Carl powering out a 40' for 5th. Aaron got him by 8" on his second and then Mike stepped up and crushed out a big 47'6" which would stick as the mark to beat. Dan almost had second wrapped up until Wes got his groove back on the third attempt and improved 6' from his second attempt to go 46'10" and steal second from him. The juniors were tossing the same implement and had some big marks to show, with both of them waiting for the 3rd round to drop the bombs out at 37'7" and 35'9" for Connor and Cale respectively. Not bad for a couple of punks.

Sorry Dan...only one hammer. This went a little better than it had in Stettler and probably even in Beaumont. Paul was tossing for accuracy, nailing 68'4" twice as his best to edge out Carl's best of 66'8". Wes' opener stood as his best attempt at 75'9.5" and then we had a big jump as Mikey let an 86'6" fly and that managed to get him 3rd. Aaron had opened pretty conservatively with 82+ but nailed a bit more speed on #2 to grab second with 89'6". Big Dan had some groove back and hit another PR at 91'0.5" on his first one. Also proving it wasn't a fluke, his second one was over 90 as well. Although we consider this the junior's heavy hammer, they were right in there too with Connor going 58'10" with a total worm-burner and big Cale smashing out a big 67'3.5" on his last one! 14 years old, folks. Awesome.

The almighty WOB was next. Carl struggled with this one, but being that thick doesn't help with the big reach and pull, so he came up a little shy on 10'. Paul decided he needed a workout, so he took all three attempts to clear it and Aaron took 2 with everyone else one shotting it and Dan just passing. The juniors were up and over without any problems either. 11' was the stopping ground, though. Mike had lots of height but decided to just go straight up and down 3x. Dan one-timed it and claimed his victory. With the 42 and the juniors, Cale took 3 attempts but he knocked it over pretty handily. Dan took 3 shots at 12'6" for the PR, but it was not to be this day.

Funny thing about the caber. Last time we brought this one out, like 2 guys turned it. This time? Shootout. Sheesh. Wes started it off with a big turn of 12:20 but Danny made everyone's day on the first round byt nailing 12:00. Dan Loeb...12:00. He solidified his lead later on and kept first on countbacks. Who'da thunk? Aaron had some "issues" on the first one (how's the leg Aaron?) but came back to nail 12:00 on the second. Paul was just about 5 minutes off the pace and same with Mike Gilpin, who would take Paul's 3rd spot on countbacks in the third round. Carl powered the hell out of it at about 12:30 on his second and unfortunately that managed to be last spot. Even Connor got into the action with a decent pick and run and a slow, evil turn to 2:58. His first caber, though. Good on him.

So with that done and Dan Loeb as caber champ (that almost hurt to type), the totals came in pretty much as they had the whole day. Paul and Carl were 1 point apart with Carl getting the nod. That second place in the stone really helped out. Wes was only a point and a half behind Aaron in 3rd, 23.5 to 22 and then the #1 and #2 spots were for Mikey G and Dan Loeb respectively, 12.5 to 15. The last two then retired to the beer tent for the afternoon and we didn't see them for many, many hours. The sweet taste of victory, I guess. Connor managed a win over his cousin Cale by a few points and both of them just keep getting better each games. I am under the assumption that they were NOT at the beer tent. That is, of course, unconfirmed.

Sets everything up nicely for Calgary, don't you think? See you in a week.

- Sean

Beaumont! - August 23/06

Hooboy, what a gong-show! Don't get me wrong, it was a great day for competition and some of the guys put out some big big marks, but everyone was definitely a little off the wall on Saturday and it made for a lot of fun all day. Once we were done walking around with cordless drills to put together the stage for the dancers, we actually started to warm up and get ready for the day. There were those who were throwing, those who were lifting and a few nutcases doing both. Here's how it went down:

As is typical, we started the day off with the open stone. Nice little rock that Matty had "appropriated" from other sources. Aaron was up first and started less than spectacularly, but he extended it to 29'7" by his third. PatZ mostly just stood and delivered and managed 31'9" on that score with Wes hitting some PR action to be one place behind him with 30'8". Bobby cannoned out a 38'8" and that got him 5th. Sheesh. Al couldn't leave that alone so he hit 38'9" to beat him by an inch. Mike Staal and Dave Laidlaw were within inches of each other at 39'4" and 39'6" respectively for 3rd and 2nd. I'll also take the time to mention that the last 3 guys were the ones doing both events. Crazy.

The big show here, of course, was young Matt. The boy casually opened with 50'10" so we knew things were afoot. His next one was a sideline foul that went out 53'3". Ouch. That's twice he's done that. The last one was 51' even. Of course he wasn't going to let things sit like that, so he took some extras (seeing as he'd won the event by 11') and the next one up was a freakin missile at 53'2". Everyone watching knew what that one was all about. So we immediately tossed the rock into the AD's car and weighed it later that day. 16.2#. Nice and legal. Beautiful.

Which lead us into the farmer's walk. 200#/hand, 150' with a turn at 75. I got things started with 20.54 seconds which would be enough for 3rd and Jimmy was next up with a solid 21.25. Joey was another half a second back at 21.72. Mikey Gilpin was the lightest guy doing the strongman and he managed a nice PR of 25.03 with no drops. Sweet. Dave Laidlaw had some grip issues, but never even bothered resetting before picking the implements up every time. Looked like he was carrying his groceries. 37.31 for him. Mike Staal showed us he's still an animal by nailing the course in a blistering 19.91! But it was big Al MacFarlane by a nose taking the win when he managed a 19.75. I didn't think he could make the course that fast WITHOUT the weights in his hands. Nice.

And then we got into some hot, hot HW action while we reset and the dancers danced. Gotta thank the Beaumont School of Highland Dancers for coming out for this one. Thanks, ladies! PatZ had some trouble staying on his feet for this one, but still managed an 18'1" PR on his second shot. Young Connor and Wes tied up in next slot with 18'10". Connor has some real potential for this sport as he's knocking this stuff out but leaving a lot of technique on the table. I think Wes was a might frustrated by his efforts, however. Aaron "Twinkle-Toes" Andronyk danced his way to a 22'11" best, with mighty Todd one-spinning a 23'2" on his third, improving on every attempt. Bobby cranked out a season's best with a flat but snappy 27'5" and the other 2 attempts over 26'. Nice. Dave L. opened with 30'0.5" and then had some "I can't stay in the trig" issues after that. Al was next in line with his 31' snappy first shot and Mikey S. finally drove the weight OUT more than UP (how many of us do THAT?) and nailed a big season's best of 32'5.75" for second. The Boy also liked walking the line a bit too much, but managed 34'10" on the one he kept in for the event win. I guess when you're that fast, it's hard to stay legal.

The stupidity continued with the Tire Flip. We originally thought this was a 500-550 tire but according to the manufacturer its about 670 new. Still, it's short and fat so it don't kill you. Dave L had to start the beast off and he assaulted the course in 22.52 seconds. Mike G went up after that and had a couple of slips and it cost him with 33.16s. He was right that we should have extended the course, though. I think the guys doing both appreciated the 50' verses the 75, however. Mean Joe Taylor grabbed 22.40 which held for 3rd and Jimmy was .01 seconds behind him if you can imagine that. Nasty. I was up next and nailed 21.47 and could have shaved her a little more but I slipped on my second last flip. Nertz. Mike Staal was hundreths ahead of JT at 22.35 and Al was only slightly off the pace at 23.10. I think next year we'll add some distance to that to space out the times more.

And away we light weight! Wes opened up the show with 44'6" and later extended that to 45'8". I know he's a bit frustrated, though because he's been hunting for 50' in competition all year. PatZ took him by a foot and some change with a 47'1" snap. Todd continued the same pattern he had with the HW by improving every attempt and finally nailing 50'8" on his third. Nice. Mike S. was a little all over the place and finally managed to keep a high flier in at 56'1". Davey edged him out by a couple of inches at 56'3" and big Bobby really cranked out a big one for a season's best of 57'10". Nice to see that burst of speed from his first to his second spin again.

And then there was Al. Al was definitely in high spirits so he started letting his background show as he spun the LW twice over his head and then went into his spins. The result? 63'3" and a season's best. Sheesh. He then put on a couple of demos of what NOT to do and promptly fouled out both quite on purpose. Matt managed to side foul 2 attempts (big bombs, too) and then just went up and nailed 67'7" for the win. Punk.

Log press was next. 200#, 8" log. reps in 75 seconds. Mike G was up first and got 2 before he called her a day. Short arms don't help the log when you're not used to it. Dave L got 3 and then said enough was enough. Al went into this competition saying he was gonna do 5 reps and that is exactly what he did and then he walked away. Jim stepped up and did a lot of hard bicep curls instead of cleans and then made the press look stupid. 7 reps. Joey hit 5 and didn't quite have the sauce for another. Mike Staal actually cranked out 6 but didn't wait for the down signal (His quote: "There was a down signal?") on one of them so he only got credit for 5. I pounded out 7 reps to tie Jim but had nothing left in the tank so I didn't even attempt another one. I think I was out of breath for the rest of the day.

I've seen better light hammers out of most of this group and when Bobby's 89'7" gets him 3rd, it really hammers that home. No pun intended. So I won't go into great detail here. Watching Frodo (Dave Laidlaw) throw completely barefoot was amusing, though. The boy was a little off here and his first at 105'5" would stay as his best. Mikey dialed it up a bit on his last one, however and nailed 110'9.5" for a season's best and field record. Not bad for a guy doing 2 contests.

Off to the 2" deadlift for max weight! I honestly didn't expect the kind of numbers the guys were ready to pull out so I was glad I grabbed some extra weights. At 450#, everyone was still in this, so we skipped 475 and hit 500. Mike G and Todd (who came in for this bad boy) were our only casualties here. 530 saw Al drop off while Jim kept saying "But I'm a bad deadlifter!" and Joe, Mike S, Jim and I all cleared 550 too. Only Joe and I hit 575 and neither of us could clear 600 although I had it up before it blew out of my hand.

The caber treated the usual suspects well. Aaron managed a 5th with 10:30 and Bobby was not far off noon with 12:15. Al edged him by 5 minutes with 11:50 (thanks, judge!) and the top two fought over placings with 12:00s. It was decided by an hour on countbacks. Matty won out over Mikey Staal in the end.

Ending the strongman was the medley: run a 150# keg 20', load a 185# sandbag, then a 220# keg and a 265# atlas stone (no tacky!) to 51" and then drag the 600# chain 20'. Ugh. Mike G. was up first and really earned that 220# keg, shuffling for position and never letting it touch the ground again. The stone stonewalled him, though. Next time. Al was similar, but faster and the stone was a no go. 39.05 for 3. Jim was up next and was first guy to finish the whole thing at 57.98. Awesome! Mike Staal went up after that and FLEW through the first 3 objects, fought the stone a little bit and then pounded out the chain. 35.40 seconds. Joe Taylor and I did the traditional "scissors-paper-rock" to figure out who would go next between us and he ended up getting covered by paper, so off he went. A great pace and didn't look like he fought for anything, making it look easy. 42.66seconds. I was up last and fought the keg for longer than Mike, but made fast work of the stone (still slipped once, though). When I first pulled on the chain it went nowhere, but I finally managed to finish it up. 35.91seconds or second to Mike Staal. Nice and close.

At this point, it was getting dark out with the clouds and everyone felt a little wrecked. Still, the WOB was up and the boys were game. 10' saw everyone past it one way or another and 11' stripped off Aaron, Wes and Todd. Connor had the height with the 42, but left it out front. We're gonna teach that kid how to keep his back straight and then watch out. 12' saw Dave L, Mike Staal and Al go past and the boy was still passing at this point. 13' was only Mike and Matt and after 14', there was only 1. Having one the event, Matt nailed 14'6" and then went up to 15'9" for some PR attempts. Close, very close, but not today. Still, an awesome finish to a great games.

So when the dust settled, Matty had dominated the heavy events with Mike Staal in second, Al MacFarlane in 3rd and Bobby Brown in 4th with a slightly damaged Dave Lailaw finishing the top 5. On the strongman end of things Mike and Dave tied for 6th, Al was in 5th and jim and Joe tied for 3rd with Joe getting the nod for event placings. Second was mighty Mike Staal and I'd placed consistently enough to win the overall. A lot of fun in that comp. Who knows what next year will bring?

Gotta thank the Garricks for the after party and for putting up with Mike G and I, because we went HARD. My poor wife came by and fished us out of the house at 1am or something and poor Joanne had to work the next day. Yeah, we're sweeties. Hopefully Jim is busy making up the DVD as we speak.

Peace out, punks. See you in High River.

- Sean

Stettler - August 8/06

So here's something funny. Normally after 2 or 3 days people start bugging me about doing a writeup for the website when we've had a competition. Yeah, not this time. Of Stettler I will simply say this: good venue, good setup, hell even a good breakfast sandwich but what a pack of stinkers for throwers. Sheesh. No sense having a train wreck if you're not going to watch it, right?

We started off with the HW. Which kinda sucks at 9am, but such is life. Right away we knew something was wrong, desperately wrong when Davey Roe could only muster a whopping 29'7" on his first. Jim Garrick was an inch behind at 29'6" after the first round, but Dave got that up to a mighty 31'4" on his third. You see where I'm going with this? Dave Laidlaw had his best shot first at 31'2", so I don't think he was too happy about Dave edging him by 2 inches. The boy (Matt) had jumped into an early lead with 33'8" and JJ was on his tail at 33' even with my an inch behind at 32'11". I actually improved to 34'9" on my last one to take top spot but what a mess. Joey and Bob dueled it out to a tie at 26'2" on the last round for both of them.

The scene was no better on the Am end of things. Toddy, our AD and the guy who got like 24+ last games could only muster up a best of 19'4" on his first shot. Wes had been regularly tossing 22'+ and where'd he go? 18'2". Dan started strong with a casual looking 20'5.5" and looked to go further than that before it all went wrong. Aaron was the only guy consistently over 20' with all 3 shots and a 22'3" for #1 placing. Maybe that Twinkle Toes Flintstone thing has something to it. Paul, Pat and Mike made that thing look way too heavy going 16'10", 16'8" and 17'9" respectively and NONE of them looked pleased with that. Although Mike was happy to have got in a mark after 2 fouls early on.

Tracy looked fairly solid, going 20' even on her first and the juniors, poor guys, ended up having to throw the big one and went 11'11" and 14'5" for Cale and Connor respectively. Actually, Connor looked pretty good with that thing once his legs stayed under him. Punks.

And right into the heavy hammer. Thanks, Todd. This, too, was a brutal display of nothingnitude. JJ and Matty tied for top honours with 86'9.5" so only 9 or so feet off Matty's best. I was next up at a whopping 85'10" and Davey Laidlaw was the only other guy over 80 at 81'9". Joey was close with 78'9" and Dave Roe was back a bit at 75'1". Jim and Bob were off a little going 69'6" and 72'7" respectively.

The Ams didn't fair a lot better with Paul and Wes both out over 50' at 50' and 53'7" and Mike a few ahead of them with 57'2". We'll give Mike a bit of a break as he hasn't really practiced this year. Todd's best effort netted him only 64'5" and the normally dominant Dan the Man was unpleased with his best of 68'11". Aaron had a pretty solid lead at 70'11" until Pat came up for his last shot and nailed out a 71'4" for top spot. Tracy was a model of consistency in her first two, going 42'2" and 42'1" and we let the boys toss the 16# as well for the heavy with Cale taking out his cousin by 6' with 63'7" to Connor's 57' attempt. Like I said, noone was tossing PRs yet.

Back to the light stuff. That nice 16.5# pancake we tossed in Ft. Ed. Yeah, we couldn't make THAT go anywhere either. Well, the boy did. After easily beating us, he knocked out a 48'2" for a field record. Show off. The rest of us couldn't do anything. My whopping 39'7" felt a whole lot better than it went. And I think JJ and Dave L. were hoping for more than 38'5" and 38'4" out of that. Bob snapped out a decent 35' to knock out Dave R., Jimmy and Joe out with 34', 34'8" and 33' respectively. Davey and Jim had a pretty funny bet going and were basically braemaring it by the end of things.

One guy over 30' in the Ams? Sheesh. Bums. Anyway, Pat Z was over 30 with everything and 30'8" was his best. Aaron took the pain of a grinding shoulder and managed 29'9" for second. Gilpin's best was 28'11" from a stand because apparently he's forgetten entirely how to use his legs. Danny casually snapped out a 28'9" and then promptly fell apart for his next two attempts. Wes was consistent at around 27'10" or so, but we'll see more out of him in the future, thanks to a practice or two. Todd I KNOW wasn't happy with his 27'7" and I don't think Paul was too thrilled with 23'10" either. Both of the juniors have a bit of snap to their punches and Cale took Connor again on this one by a few inches with his opener of 27' to Connor's 26'5" opener. Tracy got to use a more reasonable stone and punched out a pretty flat 20'11" that had some acceleration to it, but no hang time.

Let's see, what was next on the wall of shame? Ah yes. The LWFD. This might have been the saddest display yet. And that's saying something. Matty got enough snap on the goofy thing to go 66'4" on his final shot but JJ and I stunk the place up with 60'7.5" and 61'9.5". The gravity well was in full effect by this point. Dave Roe put it all out there and managed 60'7" and couldn't help but laugh. Dave L was next back at a mighty 57'2.5" with Jim on his heels with 55'9". I'd actually heard the threat that Jim was going to quit if he didn't beat Bobby's 53'3.5". Joe was literally on Jim's heels with a snappy looking 55'7". Joe's missing a little trajectory and some leg drive upward to get him to 60'.

From there we went into the keg. That was just clean fun. Matty and his damnable training allowed him to do a decent olympic hammer turn with it and his got it out a whopping 49'1" on his second throw. Dave Roe really snapped one out at 38'11" with JJ right behind him at 38'7". Dave Laidlaw had a respectable 36'2", Joey Taylor added 5 feet from first to second to go 34'2" and Gilpin showed off his old keg days with a 32'6". Dan was also over 30 at 31'2.5" and Bobby and Jim were tight at 32'4" and 33'. Young Connor is apparently no stranger to the keg either as he managed a very solid 29'1". Nobody tell his mom.

Oh right. The hammer. Matty actually managed a PR with 113'2.5" and JJ was really consistent with his, ending with a best of 109'9". I couldn't even bother putting my boots on and still stunk the place up even considering that at 102'7". Hammer work must be done. Joey was right behind me with 98'5", edging out Davey L by 5 inches. Dave and Tracey had a pretty amusing bit of banter going on with him jeering her about going over 60' (she got 57'6") and her jeering him about going over 100'. It wasn't going to happen in Stettler, though. Davey Roe was either over 90' or over the trig, depending on the throw and Jim and Bob continued to duel with their favorite event here. We'll fix that stuff up soon.

The Ams faired no better with Pat being the only guy over 90 at 90'7" and Aaron being next guy up at 84'9". Even the normally dominant Dan struggled with only an 82'10" to show for it. Wes was looking a little more solid at 72'3" but I think everyone else was pretty disappointed in the marks they were putting out. Cale and Connor had a little more success with the 12# with Cale edging out Connor by a foot with a final tally of 75'2" to 74'. I do think the 12# hammer is a good thing for the juniors. Lets them develop a bit of technique instead of just hoping for the best.

My own personal woes continued on the WFH and noone else was lighting the world on fire either, except Davey Laidlaw and JJ. Davey got some of his issues settled and cleared 13' and had 3 very reasonable attempts at 14'. JJ got the monkey off his back and cleared 15' and made it look easy to boot. A real student of the sport, that guy. Dan won the Am side with an easy one shot at 11' but, like most of us, he was under par and didn't clear 12. Pat and Mike were the only other guys to clear 11 and they shared second for that one.

The sheaf. I should practice this event. Really. There was some controversy over this event but really why? I could go on a long rant, but again, why? It should be noted that by this point in the day, Bobby didn't even like me anymore and was trying to make me cry every time he got on the microphone. It didn't get any better after he started stealing my beer at the BBQ either. Let's see...highlights in the sheaf...uhm Todd cleared 20' for a PR and Wes finally had the hideous intro to this event. He cleared 16' though and was probably good for 18' but we'd gone straight to 20'. Joey also cleared 20 but missed 23'. I actually managed to clear 23' (where was that at Nationals?) but Dave L did it in one shot and JJ made 25 so it was pretty much a non-issue anyway. Long event. Still fun, though.

The caber. Man, by this time it had got hot. Earlier in the qualifying caber, Connor actually showed a remarkable amount of snap and power with that thing and he made some really good attempts at a very heavy short stick for the competition. It was impressive. The one the rest of us had to play with was only 16' long but the freakin thing was HEAVY. None of the Ams turned it but Aaron had it on degrees, despite his bitching. Bobby snapped it over on attempt #2 for a 10:30 and 4th place. Matty was 3rd with a last second (read as: parallel to the ground) snap that got to 1:15. Ah to have limitless power. My first effort of 12:45 would be my best and enough for second and JJ continued his string of caber wins with a bang on 12:00 on his last pull.

Honestly, the best part of the day wasn't the throwing, it had to be the BBQ after. Todd knows how to put on a spread and the few of us that were there were treated to some good potatoes and beans plus sweet, tender steaks the size of a dinner plate and no small amount of stories. None of which are suitable for repeating on a public website. My recommendation for those who didn't make it over to Todd's after is this: plan for next year. Between the food and the tour of the basement ("It puts the lotion in the basket"), the night is just nicely completed that way. HUGE, HUGE thanks to Todd for organizing this games and next year I'll remember scoresheets and stuff. I promise!

- Sean

Uxbridge - CSAF Canadian Invitational Championships - July 25/06

Trapped at an airport, living in residence, cabers floating in rivers and gum on Christoph's chair. Welcome to the Canadian championships. I'm going to take a really quick second to tell you that the guys out there that you see on the ranking board are every bit of good guys as they are tremendous throwers. This was, looking at the results, the most depth of field I think the Canadians have every had. Of course, we were missing Dirk and Gord as they were representing Canada at World Masters, but I don't think this lessened the talent we had one bit. 8 events, 2 days and 10 athletes. Away we go!

We started with the open stone which was an ugly 20# hunk of rough granite. A couple of the guys had some nice hickeys from that thing by the end of the three rounds. Nova Scotia's Lyle Barron got to be first guy up with that pig of a rock. A little bit about Lyle: Lyle was quick to point out that he was the lightest guy on the field but kind of neglected to mention that he probably had the most meat on his hands. I think it was Greg he poked at when he was trying to get what looked like a ladies small glove onto those mitts before the light weight. In any case, Lyle opened up a little over 38' at 38'4" and we were underway. Lyle would later extend that by a half inch on his third. Greg was up next and I have a nice little 20 second clip of him at the back of the trig adjusting his grip on the stone. Maybe I'll post it. Greg launched it out (finally!) at 44'11" to grab the lead. He'd hang onto that lead for the rest of the rounds, too, culminating in a huge 47'1" on his last attempt. Kevin Robinson opened with 37'7" and that would stick as his best. Neil Lowry added nearly a foot from his first to his second at 35'2.5" and Christoph's first would be his best at 40'5". Mostly because when you step over the trig, they don't count the throw. As Christoph discovered. Twice.

Younger brother Markus had a bit more success on his second one, snapping out a 43'4.5" bullet that would stand as his best because he watched Christoph too closely and stepped out on his third. Marc Morin opened with a foul and then improved that by 37'5" and added another foot and some change on #3 with 38'10.5". It's gonna be odd when Marc moves back to Quebec and isn't touring the West as much as we're used to. All the best there, Marc!

Young Matthew was next in rotation and he started off with a standing throw of 43'6.5" just to get a mark in. His next one at 45'9" would get him second spot but he really went for it on the last and couldn't hold it from going over the trig. I don't think he was too crazy about his distance, but its a nice way to start off the competition. It took yours truly 3 attempts to end up an inch behind Christoph at 40'4", but as it was a 20# stone, I'll take it. The last guy in the east to west rotation was big Joel Thiessen. Joel opened up with 43'10.5" and that stood as his best and enough for 3rd although the foul on the third looked like it had more on it.

A quick note of thanks to Kevin and Joel for being patient and hanging around in a van while we used the Internet for something besides porn and managed to get me a ride back from the airport. I mean Joel even put his FOOD on hold for that. Not that he let me forget it, but he did do it. What a sweetie.

Straight into the HW, Greg started the show with 39'7.5" and that right there would have been enough for the win. Now about 15 minutes before that, we'd fixed the handle to the weight and made sure the implement was under 18 inches and Greg proclaimed "Well, noone's throwing PRs with that one." So I (of course) piped back "A REAL Canadian champion wouldn't say that." Greg went on to prove why he is Canadian champ on his third one by bombing out 43'3.5" for a new PR and a field record. Told ya, punk! The rest of us were kind of all over the board and I know Joel wasn't too happy with his 38'10.5" even if it did get him second. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Matt was thrilled with 38'3.5" as he his a monster PR and got the Alberta record to boot. It almost made up for him stripping most of the skin off of one finger. A little surgery put that to mostly right though. Back to the throwing, Markus and I tied for 4th with 36'6". His was ugly and mine was a total worm-burner. Just goes to show, doesn't it? Kevin was next up at 35'3". And that got him 6th. 35 feet with the HW and he got 6th. Nice, huh? All told, everyone was at least ~32'. Like I said, welcome to Canadians.

The heavy hammer flipped a couple of things around after we'd had a chance for a nice long cooldown for opening ceremonies. Did I mention that the humidity was killing me? Everyone else seemed fine but the poor guy born and bred in Alberta felt like he was breathing underwater. I dunno. Maybe I'm just naturally sweaty. In any case, I knew trouble was afoot when Kevin "Alicia" Robinson opened up with 89'6" and Neil followed it with 86'2", later adding an inch to it. Christoph was busy accusing other people of stealing about 7' off his hammers and managed 87'7" anyway. Markus slapped out 91'6" and then extended it to 92' even. Marc's best would sit at 88'1" and that damn boy touched the implements again and threw 3 PRs, cumulating in a huge 95'2" on his third shot for 3rd. This one would be my one and only PR at 91'8.5" and that got me 6th. Sheesh. Lyle has some great winds on the hammer but he actually releases the thing shorter than he is and that's saying something for a heavy events guy. His 93'2.5" at least had something of an arc on it and it got him 4th. Now Greg had opened with 104'4" and that had him sitting pretty until Joel's second one went out to 106'2". Greg added a couple of inches to his opener on the third one but it wasn't enough to take Joel, who also decided to take a couple extra pulls and nailed one out over 111', setting the new field record if I remember correctly. Huge throw.

Here in Alberta, we have this tendancy toward shorter, thicker sticks. It doesn't help us, boys. I'm here to tell you that right now. The one we had to play with was 22'10" long and weighed about 100# with a lot of the weight near the top. This one went fast but worse than that it was made of rubber. Seriously. You started dropping down to pick it and it would just start whipping. Now Neil had already given another stick a pull and crushed it and then went to the AD and told him it was too easy and to get this one, so he actually threw the caber 4 times. He'd end up in 5th in the end with a 12:15. A lot of good caber tossers were there and it came down to countbacks for placings. I didn't even know Christoph could run that fast when I saw his first turn. He was moving! And we didn't even need to get the oxygen out after or anything. When the dust settled, Greg, Lyle and Christoph made up the top 3 with Markus sliding in just after. Matt showed a lot of power and control in setting down the stick, but he's still at the point where he's getting comfortable with the pick. Once that's settled, all that explosive power is gonna be scary useful. Joel's improved his caber a lot but it's still his nemesis and it hurt him, but his money event was coming up anyway.

Weight for height. Ugh. This event is a constant source of frustration to me this year. And, unfortunately, it really came to a head for me here. Everyone either was over or passed at 11&12 and then onto 13. My own struggles began early by missing twice and clearing it on the third. Leaving it out front sucks. Doing it 3x at 14 sucks worse. Going into 14'6", Lyle, Greg, Christoph, Joel and Matty were still on track. 14'6" saw everyone in and then they went up to 15'6". Only Matt, Christoph and Joel made that mess and Christoph took 2 shots to everyone else's 3, so he was in the lead. 16 proved to be the stopping point for everyone, despite partial nudity when Matt stripped off the shirt to take his last shot. This led Dan Markovic to the conclusion that we could probably sell or rent the boy out and make some coin. Seemed like a solid plan to me.

Thus ended day the first. A few of the guys pitched a caber into the river to let it suck up some weight for the challenge caber the next day and while waiting for our ride back to the U, we sat in the Guiness Zone and suddenly heard a sound like something driving over a flat full of empty beer cans. Coincidentally, that is apparently the EXACT same noise it makes when someone drives a cart over a pair of drums from a pipe band. Yeesh. We also had a charming little CSAF meeting and decided the entire fate of heavy events in Canada. We were like kilted Illuminati. It was awesome. Apparently the more savvy among us also figured out how to steal food and stuff from the VIP tent. Matt, Joel and I ended up at Shoeless Joes for some good food and poor service. And we even made Joel walk and stuff. The horror.

Onto day 2. We started with the light hammer and it wasn't the most spectacular event of the whole weekend. I think Lyle alone might have had what would have been called a decent throw for him at 117'7" and even that was 6 feet back of his best. Joel and Greg were around the 120' mark apiece and most of the guys kind of putzed around between 105 and 110. A few of us will not speak of our lacklustre hammer attempts. Ugh. Moving on.

In an almost exact opposite situation, there was the 28. Wow. I mean just wow. Almost everyone (read as: not me) decided to throw PBs or at least season's bests for this one. Marc opened conservatively at 61 and then nailed out a SB to 64'1.5" on his second. The boy also opened up a little light for him at 62'4.5" but on his last one, he got his first turn issues settled and snapped out a 70'2" for a PR and a new provincial record, not to mention being the first guy from Alberta out over 70'. I only managed a 67'5" and what did that get me? 8th. Again, welcome to Canadians.

Lyle and Kevin also stepped up to the plate by going 68'11.5" (just couldn't give him 69 apparently) and 68'2" respectively. Going into his third attempt, Christoph was ahead of little brother by an inch and a half and was already gloating about it. Usually, this kind of story would end with "until Markus' last attempt", but that isn't the way it played out. Christoph hit his second turn perfectly and had a LOOOOOOOONG pull and great height. We knew it and so did he when he said "That's it!" just at release. The verdict? Seventy-five freakin feet! About a 3.5' PR, if I remember correctly. Massive! Not to be terribly outdone, Markus dug down and nailed 71' on his last for 4th spot. Competition PR if not a training PR. Young Greg had already popped out a 76'8.5" shot earlier in the round, so he had second spot sealed up. I say second because Joel launched a cannon on his third to nail 81'1.5" for I believe a season's best. Very close to the field record. So 8 guys over 67', 5 over 70 and 1 over 80'. Nice.

Going into the sheaf, it was pretty much decided who the champ was. The math don't lie. Still, some other positions needed to be fixed and the rain was coming so we got at her. I suck at this event, got the opening height and that was about the end of my weekend. Hardly spectacular, but a great experience. Kevin and Joel joined me after that and the other guys all cleared 23 and went to 26. It's amazing how effortless these guys make the sheaf look, because I sure make it look like hard work. Maybe I should practice or something. Neil is a snappy little bastard at this event and I tried to get him to teach me but apparently I can't be coached, considering my performance. Markus was the only one to get the slightly damp sheaf over at 26 and that really made a difference. To be precise, it made the 5.5 point difference that he needed to sneak past Matt into third spot overall. By one half point. It was that tight.

We had a challenge caber and farmer's walk in there too (Markus won. Shocker), but for scoring events that was all she wrote. So the fat lady had sung, the dust had settled, the smoke had cleared and whatever other cliches you like were done. Your 2006 Champ was none other than defending champ Greg Hadley. Joel was in second spot with Markus third, Matt fourth (go Matty!) and evil Christoph Wand in 5th. Lyle, myself, Kevin, Marc and Neil rounded out the rest of the field. After that, the pictures and accolades were handed out and we got a great shot of Greg with his younger brother. Hopefully we can post that bit of video evidence soon.

On a personal note, I wasn't nuts about my overall performance but I was extremely glad of the experience. I met a group of fantastic gentlemen (and saw Christoph again), got to laugh a lot, throw some things, see some great throws and even voice my opinion once or twice. Those of you from Alberta know how rare THAT is. Huge thanks to Bob Whitman for taking on the logistical nightmare that is being an AD and announcer and a big thanks to the Highlands of Durham Games for putting us up and putting up with us. If you get the chance, head east and compete but be ready for ring handles and evil humidity. Hopefully we can ship a few of those boys west some time. I'm out for now. See you punks in Stettler.

- Sean



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