Courtesy of Bananavan Couriers, Brian the paddle arrived yesterday and I got to try him out this evening in the pool.
If you like Brian as much as I do, then get in touch with Powerplay Paddles who are based in Stirling and who all play polo themselves.
Mmmmmmmmm Brian.
Mmmmm Brian……
The weekend saw us travel to Glenrothes in Fife for the first of the Orkney Voles’ Scottish Division 3 polo fixtures. After an early start, we set off on the 9am ferry to embark on the 300 mile journey south in the Orkney Voleswagen.
Coming off the boat, we encountered some very heavy snow and the journey down to Latheron was very slow indeed.
Eventually we arrived in Brora and were very hungry. We noted a cafe on the high street which transpired to be most excellent and we had good selection of sanwiches, toasties and soup. After the savouries, we made our way to Capaldi’s for ice cream! We compared it with Dennis’ of course!
After our ice cream we had a whistle stop tour of Inverness shops before heading on to Aviemore where we were staying for the evening.
Taking advantage of our location and the suitable weather, we made our way to Cairngorm on Sunday morning for a spot of skiing. I don’t think I’ve skied since I went to a dry slope twenty years ago and needless to say I spent a lot of time on my arse!
In all the excitement, we left the mountain late and after a few false starts finally made it to the venue in Glenrothes. We were meant to be playing second so we literally ran in with our stuff, got changed and jumped in boats!
We (well I) was pretty pumped up for the first match because I hate being late for things. I wasn’t really sure what to expect against St Andrews but we soon settled into the match. We took the game 4 – 2. Next we faced Lochwinnoch and they proved to be tougher opposition, we fought well but lost 6 – 0. Disappointed, we went into our game with Dundee University and again gave it our best shot. We came out on top 4 – 0 which boosted team moral. Finally, instead of a match against Strathclyde University, we played a friendly against St Andrews. The score sheet recorded a draw but we’re pretty sure we took the match 3 – 1. For a full match report see http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/KIRKWALLKAYAKCLUB/news.asp#a1777.
Photos below from the Dundee University game.
After the matches we made our way back to Aviemore to our welcome beds. It was a very early start on Monday morning to get the first boat home. The conditions on the road up were very poor and we had to phone NorthLink Ferries to get them to wait for us to arrive! I think we made it to the ferry with about 3 minutes to spare before departure. Thank you NorthLink!
All in all, a very enjoyable, if rather tiring, weekend.
Today was the New Year’s Day Ba game. The Uppies and the Doonies met at the Mercat Cross just before 1pm to await the throw up.
For more about the game, have a look at this video from a few years ago. It features an Uppie win. Sorry Hairyaker!
