Sunday, January 11, 2009

Two years on and I've come back to Bundyland for some more sun, beer (much more!), Bundy (much MUCH more!), speedway etc., etc. Ye Gods! I'm a glutton for punishment aren't I?

Friday, January 12, 2007

Thanks Brian - you can all speak now!

A quick (cos it's 1.15am here and I'm creamed!) thankyou to Brian from Ipswich for putting me right on blog settings - you can all talk to me now! Just click on comments at bottom of this post or any of the others.

Just back from Gillman...in Adelaide hotel foyer typing away and off to Mt Gambier for Aussie title decider at 8am this morn so need some shuteye!

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Am I talking to myself?

Don't seem to be many comments received so far - hence the title of this post! Feel free to comment - just click on the "comments" text below!
Off to a dinner at a swanky Sydney hotel tonight - meanwhile it's brekkie time and a Sunday morn fry up!

Friday, January 5, 2007

Two down, three to go!

No I'm not talking about the "bloody ridiculous" Pints of Bundy & Coke mein current host Ron Malm here at Manly Beach is trying to feed me - fairly light on the coke they are trust me! I'm talking about rounds of the Aussie Championship.
After a breathtaking first round at Newcastle is was the new Sydney Showground for the second leg last night (Saturday).
The Showground is within the massive sporting complex built at Homebush for the Sydney Olympics - if you're ever this way do go and look for yourselves because merely describing the complex as "impressive" fails to do it justice! Anyway the Showground is where they staged Baseball and thus the track shape last night can only be described as unconventional! As Ron has said on the Yahoo Group the shape is best desribed as "teardrop"
Ron wrote, "the track was very oddly shaped (as compared to speedway tracks as we know them - Bryn). "It was a credit to the riders that they could negotiate the "sharp" corner at all let alone and speed with four of them trying to get there together!" To add I would say that the "sharp" bend was a very short distance from the starting gate and, as I've said, the track was pretty narrow indeed.
As Ron said in his posting on the Yahoo group, despite the above there was some very good racing indeed with Crumpy absolutely outstanding. He won the A Final re-run by a distance from Leigh Adams, Rory Schlein and Steve Johnston - what a cracking series HE'S had so far - the race being re-run after Rooboy Schleiny got a flier at the first attempt.
Today it's time for a bit of R & R although I'll expect we'll "get into it" later once the thirst builds up and then tomorrow night we're off to a dinner at the Pacific International Hotel at Parramatta being staged to celebrate Crumpy's World Championship success.
Then on Monday yours truly sets out on Tuesday on the 12 to 14 hour roadtrip to Mildura for Wednesday's third round. Just had a look at the long range weather forcast and temperatures of 40C PLUS are being predicted so it's gonna be thirsty work!
Talking of thirst, methinks it's beer o'clock so Cya!


Thursday, January 4, 2007

Shots 'n Ladders is a deadly game!

Tis the morn of the second round of the Australian Championship here in Sydney, the Poms duly lost the test match thus losing the series 5-0 and yours truly is having trouble getting his eyes to focus!
To say it was a bit of a "heavy" day yesterday would be the understatement of the 21st century! Started with Sir Ronald's "special" coffees and ended with us playing several games of Shots n Ladders. What's that I hear you ask! Well snakes and ladders basically BUT when landing on certain squares one is required to down a shot of the strong stuff AND, if landing on other certain squares, everyone playing the game is required to down a shot of the strong stuff.
We demolished a bottle of Polish Raspberry flavoured Vodka for starters, a bottle of a rather tasty hazelnut liquer and finished on the Bundy - hence my eyes having difficulty focussing! Hardly surprising.
Just had a shower, hope that does the trick as we're off to the meeting shortly. Will update with news of that later today if I'm sober, tomorrow if not - more like the latter I would say!

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

WE'RE ON THE COFFEE THIS MORN!

Tis Thursday Lunchtime and mein host Ron Malm, Sir Lunchalot of BSF fame and yours truly have been drinking coffee all morning believe it or not!
Yep Ron's "special" coffee, the first of which appeared to have slightly more Bundy than coffee - hence the term "special!"
Now reverted to beer for a while (we've temporarily run out of Bundy until Ron's better half Shona brings some back from the shops!)
Having a Barby by the pool this afternoon and us well as Ron, Lunchy and myself, Gavin Elmes from the Gold Coast has now arrived and shortly Sharon Grundy (moderator of the yahoo speedway list) and her mates should arrive - providing they don't get lost!
Blimey there's a lot of Poms out here for the speedway what with Sharon, Tony Jackson (the new Workington manager), Mike Patrick, Randy Owen (from Leigh's sponsors Owen Bros) and Matt Ford all out here.
They, and yours truly, were at the Newcastle Showground last night for the first round of the Aussie Champs and believe me when I say racing there is fast (extremely!) and spectacular.
First time I've seen a rider beaten because of "crutch problems" but that's what happened to World Champ Jason Crump in his first ride. Wearing new Kevlars he caught them on his saddle as he gated second behind Rory Schlein and "split them in a place where you don't wanna 'em to slit" to use Jason's own words!
That was the only defeat of the night though that Jason suffered but also suffering were Schlein whose bike died in the final whilst second and Leigh Adams, on his new GMs, who had something of a nightmare with a chain break another ef and only made the "B" final which at least he won.
Surprise packages were:
A) Youngster Tom Hedley who rode extremely well to reach and finish third behind Adams and Holder in the "B' final and
B) Johno who proved there's life in the old dog by producing some breathtaking passing manoevres throughout the meeting and desrvedly finished runner up to Crumpie in the "A" final after Rory Sclein's Ef passing third place Scott Nicholls in the run to the chequered flag.
Right enough from me, it's beer o'clock!

Sunday, December 31, 2006

A lot has happened since last year!

Starting with me forgetting how to log into this site to update the blog - ok I know I'm a silly old git!

Anyway all - HAPPY NEW YEAR and hope you had a great Christmas etc and didn't get too drunk although I suspect you did!
So what have I been up to? Nothing much only eating at fine restaraunts, getting Brahms on beer and Bundy, sunbathing, watching the Poms (sure am glad I'm Welsh!) getting thrashed at cricket etc - the normal sort of things you do here in Australia. Yes I flew down to Adelaide for Christmas and ate, drank and got merry - well a tad more than merry!
On the speedway front I was at the Aussie Champs qualifying meeting on Dec 30 and what a damn good meeting it was with the top four, Isle-of-Wight bound Cory Gathercole, Tom Hedley, Tyron Procter (two to watch out for) and King's Lynn's Trevor Harding all fully deserving to qualify for the championship proper.
I then flew out from Adelaide eventually to Sydney. I say eventually because, having dashed to the departure gate to catch my booked flight (we got a tad held up en route to the airport!), nothing much was happening in terms of boarding the plane. A tannoy announcement explained that engineers were fixing a fault! Must say it was amusing watching several people turn very pale at that news.
We eventually boarded and took off some 40 mins late and I'd just got my can of Bundy from the hostess managing the drinks trolley in the nick of time really cos this big bloke, heading towards the loos suddenly collapsed like a deck of cards! Panic ensued as you might expect, we wondered if we might have to turn back or divert somewhere so he could be off-loaded and hospitalised.
Anyway the Virgin Blue air hostesses (NOT the prettiest I've come across I've got to say!) administered first aid including giving the bloke oxygen and, eventually I'm pleased to say he recovered and was able to return to his seat.
As we approached Sydney, we started flying around in circles - "congestion of traffic" was the short explanation but, eventually, they let us land and I was pleased to see my mate "Big Ron" waiting as I got into the terminal.
Now like most Aussies, Ron's language can be somewhat colourful at times so, as young 'uns might well view this literary masterpiece he basically said "where have you been?"
Wasted valuable drinking time hadn't I?!!!
Anyway it was back with him to his family home at Manly Beach where I am now - we saw in the New Year in some style - went to the pub this lunchtime and now he's akip as I type. To be fair though he was up and off to pop into work before I surfaced.
So plenty of more drinking to be done before we head off to Newcastle later this week for the first of the five rounds of the Aussie Champs.