Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Ballina & Arriving at Bribie Island

We arrived yesterday at Bribie Island as part of an NSWIS team entered in the Queensland Open. I have some great pictures to post. We are right on the beach and the place we are staying in is modern and for sale at around a million. After my Ballina flight to Sydney, I woke up early to catch a flight from Sydney to Coolangatta. We hopped in a hire car and went for a roll up at Bribie Island Bowling Club and Pine Rivers BC for a practice session.

The Ballina Invitation singles event was amazing again. It is the third time I have been and this time I made it to the semi finals. There are 32 entrants (4 sections of 8) My first section included Rowan Brassey (25-17), Steve Halmia (25-24) and Brendan Egan (25-23). After a series of comebacks and close wins I managed to get through my section. In the quarter final I played against Kris Leitfeld and won 25-22. In the semi final I drew David Holt. He started well and kept a 5 shot lead until he got stuck on 20 where on 3 consecutive ends I converted with my last bowl. The crucial end came where I had last bowl and the score was 20-17 and I had 2 good seconds and just missed tight with good weight with my third. With my final bowl I could have ripped the bowl out for 2 or try to sit or trail with the same weight I used with my third bowl. I opted to use 2 metres of weight and as I delivered I instantly knew it was very close to the target. As it came down the breeze held my bowl onto the jack and I trialled it the 2 metres I required. The jack however caught on David’s back bowl, like an intercept pass, bounced forward 2 feet and my bowl continued passed another metre. This left me an incredible 4 down due to the forward rebound off David’s bowl. The next end David won a close measure and the game was over. David Holt went on to win the final comfortably. Holty raced out to a 22-3 lead against Mark Casey and went on to win the title.

Whilst at Ballina I met an acupuncturist Tony who is friends with Craig Teys. I stayed with the Teys’ whilst at Ballina and one night came to the club after the Calcutta (player auction) and met a few of the locals. I was introduced to Tony the next night and we started talking about when his treatments were best applied and how to best improve performance. Interestingly, Tony worked with race horses and greyhounds before humans. I ended up winning some money for him in the Calcutta by finishing in the top 8 and he offered to treat me for free before my 5pm flight out of Ballina at his clinic. I had never been to an acupuncturist before. I am interested in the holistic approach to treatment and he was very professional and very good at what he does.

Yesterday when we arrived at Bribie Island we spent some time at the beach. I went to take of my shirt and realised I had huge marks on my back, like tennis balls, from the suction caps placed over the needles throughout the acupuncture session. We found on the beach a carved out a lounge with tv, cup holders and foot rests in the sand.

Congratulations to Aaron Teys who today won the Junior State Singles. I flew down with his Dad to Sydney from Ballina and I know how much time and effort both boys put into their sport. Last time I met up with them was at the Dubbo Master Pairs where they invited me to stay with them next time I was in Ballina. Aaron is in all the junior events and if I had posted this blog last night I would have been right in predicting his victory in the singles. Good luck in the rest of the events.

I am sleeping so well. I had a glass of red wine with pasta last night and instantly fell asleep. Tonight we are cooking a barbecue at our accommodation. Everyone has settled in well and I am feeling the strongest and most confident I have ever felt leading into an event. Ballina was a great lead up and my preparation has been excellent.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Going to Coffs, Ballina and then the Gold Coast

Tomorrow morning I am driving upto Coffs Harbour with Mat and Alan. I will then being travelling on to Ballina for the Wintersun Singles and then onto Bribie Island for the Queensland Open.

I cashed out some poker funds and loaded up my debit Mastercard so this trip should be fun. Strangely, I had to book a one way flight from Ballina back to Sydney to catch a flight to the Gold Coast. It was just the way arrangements were made and the order in which entries were accepted that I have had to back track. We will be travelling as a team to the Queensland Open with the NSWIS.

I plan to be completly ready to play by Saturday. I will prepare at Coffs while the Park Beach singles is on. I seem to go deep there but really want to avenge my Ballina Singles runner up a couple of years ago. I really was not sure if I would go to Coffs but in the end I will be there but not playing. It will be strange to spectate but I really hope it will motivate me to perform well at Ballina and the Queensland Open. I should be peaking at Bribie Island, going for the win there.
Since my holidays started I have been back into training and focussing on getting ready for a series of tournaments along the East Coast. I played in a few zone events and went out pretty early but played fairly decently. I got my gym program renewed at the Institute of Sport and did well in testing today at Homebush. I feel really fresh and excited.

In poker I had a few ups and downs and near misses. I have built up 'W' dollars on Pokerstars (special events credit) to enter the Queensland ANZPT event. I could buy directly in or qualify in the satellites online. Last week I had my first really huge swing where I realised that I am stating to deal with reasonable sums of money. I reached some goals including playing 5k SNG's and 10k profit since Christmas.

My Uncle has traded on the stock market for a living for over 15 years and he set me the task at Christmas to reach 5k profit in poker online and to then see him. So I got to 10k and and I am going to use some money to develop my skills on the market. My Uncle and Aunt got pretty lucky recently and won a car in a raffle! They only bought one $50 ticket. It was a Mercedes!

At the start of July Alan, Mat and myself went of a bit of a road trip to Shelley Beach. The place that we stayed at was a six bedroom, four bathroom behemoth right on the golf course and near the water. I didn't even know what to expect of the place, as Alan had not been before to this place was a pleasent surprise. His neighbours rent it out and at this time of year it was empty. All we had to do was pay for cleaners to come in after.

We quickly entered into a series of bets on random items, activities and things. This all began when we were on a bowls trip to Adelaide last year and we bet on how long we thought a hotel staffer had been working at the same hotel. It was a lot of fun and has quickly built up to plays that lead us to asking random people questions about themselves to see who wins.

One particular series I got crushed where we asked a girl if she still lived at home. We also made a bet about who had bought her the braclet she was wearing. I bet on her or her parents purchasing it (as it looked rather expensive) but her friend had bought it for her and I lost. Nice friend. We have got to meet so many people doing this, and mostly people arn't purturbed by our prying. The more random the better.

By the time we got around to bowls bets I had lost at golf (giving Mat a 15 shot start over 9 holes). Mat grew up on a golf course and it came down to the last hole. Mat rebounded off the club house on a short par 3 and still ended up 10ft from the hole. He sunk the putt for birdie and sunk my chances of even tying.

By the time we had made it back to the house it was dark. On the way home we had procured a Monopoly board from K-Mart after being inspired by the McDonald's promotion on at the moment. I was obviously very determined to make back some of the money ($200) and a pair of Lee jeans that had been won from me when we started up the game of my life.

I was extremely focussed and everything flowed. I seemed to land on the right spots and set up pretty early with some properties. I made some good deals and had a corner plus the railways monopolised...Eventually Alan made a huge play loaded up the dice and landed up on my land busting him! I finally won a bet!

The house was equipped with a darts set and a foosball in the garage. We did not spend as much time as we would of liked. There is a definite return trip in line. We went out to a few clubs and we all had a great time. I think Mat has spent a considerable amount of time travelling between Sydney and the Central Coast in the last few weeks...