Published on behalf of Andrew Harley.
Is it really day 4? Things are moving along quickly. This morning was a lie-in morning – quiet anyway. At noon we are having a Canada Team meeting. In the meantime, the Oak Bay team relaxed at the cottage.
When I left Victoria last Sunday on the way out of door I picked up a pack of cards on the off chance that we would have some time to bond with game of cards. Well this morning I suggested a game of cribbage. Well first we had to figure out how we played with five players. Anyway, where is this story going? Well we started getting some high scoring hands, several of them, and when we realized that there two 9 of diamonds, we took a close look at the pack and saw that there were far too many 7’s, 8’s and 9’s. The pack was part of a canasta pack which had not been segregated. For those not familiar with cribbage the cards 7, 8, 9 generate a lot of high scores. We soldiered on because this was the only pack we had, it generated a lot of hilarity!
Anyway, I digress. At 11:45 we put the GPS to work and headed out to the Stromstad Spa to meet the rest of the Canadian team. Much greetings going on with the players from the Toronto area. We finally got to see the program of short mat play. Our singles players, Brent Jansen and Chris Slade had eight players in their pool, so they both play six matches over two days (Friday and Saturday) plus a match on Sunday morning. Similarly our triples players Mitch O’Brien, David Anderson and Andrew Harley had eight teams in their pool and had a similar schedule over the three days.
After the meeting we headed for lunch and spent some time at the bowling venue where we did get some practice time on a short mat.
In the evening, there was a show in the main venue hall with singers, a band and lots of children playing ball hockey and handball followed by a march in of the national teams. With our team in their Canada jackets, the Oak Bay Bowlers, with Mitch on the flag, headed the parade into the gym. Lots of cheering and waving.
Afterwards, Brent was attending a meeting of the World Short Mat Council. This meeting went on far too long and the rest of the team went back to the cottage having had a good meal at “Park”, a local restaurant. Brent finally got home at midnight by taxi….we all crashed out, getting rest for the first match day tomorrow. We shall be getting some results in tomorrow’s blog.
Take care and we’ll see you tomorrow (Friday)
Andrew, David, Brent, Chris and Mitch