Now that I have many of the actual game sheets from the WWG, I've recorded a few new scores on the WWG Results Page of the CWSA web site.  I can't complete the leading scorers table, as I don't have all of the game sheets, although I've contacted a few people who might be able to send me the ones that I am missing.  In case any other reader can help out in this area, the actual game sheets I'm missing include game # 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, 18, 20, 23, 24, and 26.  I have all the others.  You can send them to me at dlane@cwsa.ca or by regular mail.

For those of you wondering about classification, there were no changes to the Canadians who attended, and some may have received PPS, having been seen by three international panels.  The Brits had the most changes to their roster, as one of their 2.5's, Mark Fosbrook, was classed out of the sport.  This means that the Brits effectively had at least 9.5 points on the floor when they beat Canada Ice by a 1-point margin early on the first day.  They had a few other changes to their lineup, as Stuart Russell went from 0.5 to 1.0, Chris Ellis went from 3.5 to 3.0, and Michael Hipwell went from 1.5 to 1.0 (although he was originally listed as a 1.0... guess they were confident on that one).  The Brits will likely protest Fosbrook's classification, but they must be getting good at that, as they're having lots of experience in this process of late.  The only other "change" was for Portland's Lynn Nelson, who was confirmed as a 3.0, and not a 3.5, but there is no big surprise there.  On the classifier's side, our own Jennifer Stodler, from Saskatoon, SK, achieved her International Level III classifier status.  Congrats Jenn!

We'll be seeing some Brits again soon, as the Best of the West tournament in San Diego is quickly approaching, as it is scheduled for this upcoming weekend, Nov. 14-16.  The Midland Bandits, who I believe took the silver medal at the Great Britain National Games last month, will add a touch of international colour to the tournament.  Meanwhile, Canadians will be sprinkled around a few of the competing teams, led by #1 seed California Quake (Garett Hickling), #2 seed San Diego Bushwhackers, #6 Casco Bay Navigators (Mike Whitehead), and #7 seed London Annihilators (David Willsie and the regular London cast of characters).  The roster of the Bandits, once known, can be compared against these rosters, to see if they are even close to the roster from the GB National Games.

“45 hours! It’s a new record!”

However, this was one record we didn’t set out to beat.  That was the amount of time it took at least one of our intrepid travelers to go door-to-door from the hotel in Christchurch to home sweet home.

The original Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Los Angeles was to leave with about half of the World Wheelchair Games Canadian contingent at 4:20pm.  That flight got cancelled due to some sort of engineering problem with the plane, and the departure was pushed back to 9:45.  Our group was protected, and guaranteed spots on the next flight, although it was going to be jammed packed, and our seat assignments would not be able to be honoured.  The airline did give our people meal vouchers at the airport, which at least made the unexpected delay more palatable. (sorry)

One member of our group took that 9:45pm flight.  Maybe it was because ‘London Calling’ was heard playing on someone’s Sony Discman.  I don’t know — I’m just guessing.  The others opted for “Plan B”, which was for a red eye flight, due to leave at 1:00am the next day.  So far, that amounted to an anticipated 8 hour and 40 minute delay.  The ‘Early Bird’ 9:45pm flight didn’t end up leaving until 11:00pm, and ended up turning around and coming back at midnight, for both mechanical reasons, as well as due to the illness of one of its passengers.  That passenger had to de-plane, and then their personal luggage had to be found and removed from the plane, since modern day security rules require passengers & their luggage to travel together.  Eventually the not-so-early-bird flight left (again) at 1:00am, and the ‘official’ red eye flight left at 2:30am.  "Hurry up and wait!"  Isn’t there an existing 'Murphy’s Law' to cover this situation?  The only one of Mr. Murphy’s rules I learned recently was the one which goes something like ‘When in a one-on-one football pool, the only guy you’ll be paired up against will be the only possible guy who will get enough points to beat you.  The Dude, who is the resident football guru on the national team, took me down (again) over the weekend, despite not having access to a computer and using a less-than-complete roster against me.  My Dallas RB and Tampa QB fumbled or threw intercepted passes like they were candies thrown at Halloween kiddies with bad costumes!  Ohhhh, well maybe that’s just me.  Their costumes really were quite lame.

En tout cas, the redeye, much to the team's delight, was a 747 jet, which normally holds over 450 passengers.  This time it had all of 57 people, along with a full flight crew, which meant that our group practically had a cabin to themselves, and were able to stretch out at their leisure.  The Air New Zealand crew were great with our group, and despite the delays, the long 12-hour long flight to LA was quite enjoyable.

As it turned out, the two Auckland to LA flights arrived at similar times, and our ‘early bird traveler’ was met in the luggage carousel alongside our Red Eye Gang.  It took close to two hours to get the next to last piece of luggage, as one small piece went missing.  Hopefully, Steph gets it back soon.  Naturally, our scheduled connection flights had long since left Los Angeles, and another ‘Clash’ decision had to be made – ‘Should I stay or should I go now’?  About half of the group opted to bunk up for the night at a hotel which was paid for by Air New Zealand (thanks!), while the other half continued making attempts to fly out of LA, and get closer to home.

For those making their way towards Ottawa, where the local downpour of rain was quickly devolving into freezing rain, the latest delays were almost expected, coupled with extra security checks on all the electronic gear our group had the misfortune to carry on board.  While dusting the video camera for explosives, the security crew probably got a sneak peak at what wheelchair rugby at the World Wheelchair Games looked like.  I'll be able to do the same when the game tapes come in, and I hear there are a lot of them, so it's something I'm looking forward to.

Meanwhile – here’s a rugby related story from the Games.  Shades of Ireland and GB at the 2002 Worlds, another international player has been classed out of the game, and it might not be who you’d normally think it might be.  More on that when the RRJ gets back at you, sometime soon.

~That is all~

Two new rugby sites have come to my attention lately, one from the AQSFR, as they have launched a new site for the 2004 Canadian Wheelchair Rugby National Championships, which is to be held in Montreal at the UQAM gym next May.

The other is from the organizers of the Athens Paralympics Games, as they have featured wheelchair rugby as their Paralympic Sport of the Month.

Flight problems have been par for the course today, as engineering problems with the Air New Zealand plane delayed the 12-hour flight out of Auckland.  Connections were missed, despite a minimum of a 3-hour window of safety scheduled into their flight plans on arrival in LA.  Thankfully, the airline paid for the accommodations and meals of those stranded in LA, while others caught whatever flights would bring them closer to home.  40+ hours later, some of our group are still not quite home, but at least have called in from Toronto.

Those landing in Canada today were greeted by rain, freezing rain, hail, sleet, or snow.  Take your pick, but it looks nothing like New Zealand up here.  At least the new snow is pretty and a change of scenery.  Florida – bah!  They've got gators!

Meanwhile, still in New Zealand, here is another report from Whitey's Wheelabout which confirms for the first time that the Ice took 5th place at the World Wheelchair Games:

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Hello from Franz Joseph Glacier,

Kerri and I have made through an exciting week of rugby with the Canadian Nordiques finishing 2nd to the host New Zealand team and Canada Ice finishing a proud 5th.  The Ice had several 1 and 2 point losses to strong teams.  We improved as the tournament went on and that was one of the goals.

The 4-hour train from Christchurch to Greymouth was a non-stop ride of fantastic scenic backdrops of mountains, rivers, farm fields and sheep.  We picked up our car in Greymouth and were surprised to see it had a manual transmission.  The adventure of driving began!

Kerri adjusted well, only turning the wipers on for the first ten turns.  The wiper switch is situated were the turn signal would be back home.  If you can imagine us getting a little lost, me looking at the map upside down and sideways trying to get my bearings straight, and Kerri driving with the wipers on and me reminding her to turn right into the left lane all at the same time it was too funny.

The drive to the Franz Joseph Glacier was a drive like no other.  Our first view was the Tasman Sea on our right and mountains on our left.  As we drove, we were constantly being amazed at the scenery.  Mountains, rivers, glaciers, and then heading into the rain forest.  We basically traveled through all four seasons in six hours.

We are heading to Queenstown to be adventurous today – can’t wait.

Have a good day.

— Mike —

Well, the World Wheelchair Games have wrapped up in Christchurch, with our top rated team, the Canada Nordiques earning the silver medal.  There was no All-Tournament team announced, similar to the policy used at the Paralympic Games.

After the pool round, the Nordiques were ranked 3rd, behind both the eventual winner, New Zealand Kea, and the 10-member team from the United States.  The semi-final had the 'Diques facing a confident American team, led by Paralympians such as 2.0 Cliff Chunn, and 2.5 Dean Maccabe, along with 2002 World Championship team members 0.5 Rob Krows, 2.0 Andy Cohn, and 3.0 Mark Zupan.  The Nordiques, led by 3-time World Championships MVP Garett Hickling, edged past the US team by that hauntingly familiar 1-point margin, which set up a Kiwi-Canadian final.

The Americans came back strong in the bronze medal game, kicking the Kiwi Kaka by a score of 55-37.  In the World Wheelchair Games final, the Nordiques came as close as any team did to the undefeated Kea, getting to within 4 points of them, and eventually losing to the charming host country by a score of 35-31.  Incomplete results are posted on our site and will be updated as the game scores become available.

There are finally some Canadian-content rugby photos on the WWG web site, with the photo to the right a sample of what they have on their site.

It is certainly been a great multi-cultural experience for many of our athletes, and a first multi-sport international competition for several of them.  For example, on the first day of competition in the sport of Athletics alone, there were athletes competing from Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Chinese Taipei, Croatia, India, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Kuwait, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Russia, Samoa, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, and the United States.  There are a total of 12 sports in the World Wheelchair Games program, with Canadian athletes involved in three of them.

Now that the rugby, powerlifting, and fencing events have been completed, there is still a little time left to check out Christchurch, although not enough time to thoroughly explore New Zealand, although some of our team members have opted for a longer stay at their own expense.