My apologies for getting the second part of this story out so late, but other projects at the office have kept me rather busy.  Where we left off, the maple-syrup enhanced Rattlers and the Quebec Impact were both 2-0, and the Annihilators had done their thing to the Hoveround guys.

In the meantime, another Spokes Ableman story by the Hoveround coach, Ed Hooper, has made its way to the USQRA web site, and talk has turned to predictions of the upcoming world-class 12th Annual Coloplast International in Tampa.  This of course, is followed by the equally tough Demolition Derby, which is being held at the great facilities they have at the Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham, AL.

En tout cas, the first game on Saturday involved the Quebec Impact and the Hoveround Lightning, and if you slept in a bit too late, you could have been forgiven, as it was a classic game of control.  Quebec coach, Benoit Labrecque, had plenty of time overnight to do some math, and a narrow point-gap loss was fine in his books, as it would still secure his team the #1 spot in Pool B, as both Hoveround and London would have identical win/loss records, but the tie-breaking rule would be in Quebec's favour.  Kudos to Quebec for a disciplined game.

After that slow-paced game, things picked up a bit, with the high-seeded teams holding court over the low-seeds.  The South Florida vs. London game became a one-point affair with the Rattlers coming up ahead of the tired Annihilators as the final buzzer sounded.  The day ended with the experienced Tampa team being frustrated by the fast-paced Impact, with Quebec running away to a 13-point margin of victory.  Looking especially impressive was Quebec's Fabien Lavoie, who distinguished himself in New Zealand two months ago, as he's once again pushed up his game a few notches.

Sunday's games had Hoveround in the bad side of the tableau, which is a place they are not accustomed to, and where they won't likely be later this season with our mutually elusive deuce, Mister Willsie.  Meanwhile, in the bronze medal game, Dave's London boys fell out of the medal hunt to the well-balanced Tampa team.  Congrats to the Generals!

The final saw the Quebec Impact against many of their Canadian teammates, currently wearing Rattler attire.  The Impact played a highly disciplined game, with both Steven Dunn and Raymond Lizotte stepping up their games to the next level.  They were to go on to win the game and the Knock 'n Roll, which is the first major tournament win for the Impact, and hopefully, the start of a new trend.

On another rugby related note, the polished up version of the IWRF RULES FOR WHEELCHAIR RUGBY, 2002-2006 have now been posted on the CWSA web site.  The Appendices are also cleaned up, and are available in the zipped package as PDF files.  The entire download is about 500k or so in size.  If you forget this address, it is permanently linked on the main page of the CWSA web site, and is highlighted in yellow.