Spring Update

After a very relaxing holiday, I was straight back to work at a two-week training camp with GB. It was the first time this year that the squad has been fully together as we welcomed back the Florida boys and Manny from his travels in Phoenix. Everyone was excited to get some good training in and really start our preparations in earnest for this year’s European Championships in Switzerland.

The first week at Norfolk was taken up with testing and running new line-ups before we de-camped to Stoke Mandeville and welcomed the Finnish national team for a four-game series. This was our first real test this year and we were relishing the prospect. Finland are a good side who use pinpoint passing to open up the court so their star player, “Leevi Ylonen” (3.0), can tear opposition defences apart. Ylonen is one of the world’s most elusive players, but if you stop him, you stop Finland!

All in all the series was very successful for GB, who won three out of the four games. We always seemed in control and there was more depth to the team, with some great new line-ups proving their worth. Seasoned veterans slotted in beside newer members of the squad and we played an attractive style throughout. Plaudits go to Aaron Phipps (3.5) and Myles Pearson (1.0), who have made great improvements to their individual games, showing that their time in Florida was used wisely!

After ending camp on a high, my thoughts turned to the forthcoming, “Coloplast Super Series” meeting in Liverpool. But before that, I had a couple of engagements to fulfill with my sponsor, “Chaucer”. Firstly I gave a presentation at its London office to explain more about Wheelchair Rugby and my career over the last decade. The talk went really well and I was very pleased that there was such a good turnout with some great questions from the floor.

The next day I was in Richmond for the Lloyds RFC Sevens, where a team from Chaucer was competing. It’s my second year at this event now and once again, it was a fantastic day out. Chaucer managed two wins out of three, (one of their best ever showings) but paid the price with a couple of injuries along the way. Despite this everyone was on great form and I spent a wonderful afternoon watching the latter stages of the competition. After the tournament, I stuck around while the team awards were announced and then joined the guys in Richmond before heading home to pack for Liverpool.

The second Super Series meeting was always going to be challenging. Crusaders were bolstered by the return of Steve Brown (2.5) from Florida and German National squad member, Artan Semanaj (3.5). These two alongside myself and Kylie Grimes (0.5) game us a great starting four, but some key absences meant we lacked depth after this line-up.

A great first day saw us notch up a hard earned win against a strengthened Cardiff Pirates team, as well as comfortable victories over the North Wales Dragons and Gaelic Warriors. This put us into a semi final the next day against the newest team in the country, “West Coast Crash” who were also the home team this weekend. Crash have a great squad coached by three-time Paralympian, Paul (Tez) Shaw and held together by GB veteran, Alan Ash (2.0) but Crusaders just had too much experience and eased through to another final showdown with London rivals, “Storm”.

Unfortunately a full strength Storm proved too much for us, exploiting our lack of depth and powering to victory. This leaves us all square on points going into the final weekend at Surrey Sports Park on the 9th and 10th of July. For a full report go to… http://www.gbwr.org.uk/main/index.php A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I was doing a video diary for the “Channel 4 Paralympics” website. I’m pleased to say that two more installments have been cut since my introductory interview and you can see them by following the links below… http://paralympics.channel4.com/the-athletes/video/videoid=1229130/index.html and http://paralympics.channel4.com/the-athletes/athleteid=420/index.html#Andy …Once again, sorry for the long break between this entry and the last. I hope this has brought you right back up to speed with all things Rugby. See you again soon!

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