The results of the extremely competitive 2004 edition of the Capital City Clash tournament which was recently held in Montgomery, Alabama, are now posted on the USQRA Rugby Forum, as well as on John Bishop's results page.

It's worthy to note the parity of the teams, as evidenced by the fact that:

• Phoenix had two 1-point wins, two 1-point losses, & played 7 OT periods
• Lakeshore had two 1-point wins, two 1-point losses, & played 6 OT periods
• South Florida had one 2-point wins & played 2 OT periods
• The Who-Ers had two 1-point losses & played 1 OT period
• Canada Ice had one 1-point win & played 2 OT periods
• 7 games were decided by one point, and four games went to overtime

Final Standings:
1. 6-0, +27, CANADA ICE (seeded 3rd)
2. 4-2, +6, Lakeshore Demolition (seeded 5th)
3. 3-3, +7, Phoenix Heat (seeded 2nd)
4. 3-3, +6, Hoveround Lightning (seeded 1st)
5. 2-4, +16, USA "The Who-ers" (seeded 6th)
6. 2-4, -28, South Florida Rattlers (seeded 7th)
7. 1-5, -34, Frazier TNT (seeded 4th)

The only team to get regularly thumped was the TNT, who lost by 8 or more goals four times.  South Florida had two such one-sided losses but beat the teams that finished 2nd (Lakeshore) and 3rd (Phoenix).  Good luck to those who are going to rank the teams at the USQRA Championships.  At least they won't have to worry about the heavy Can-Con teams such as the Rattlers and the Ice, as the Rattlers are taking the year off from the playoffs, and of course, the Ice aren't part of the league.

The All-Tournament Team at Montgomery looked like this:

0.5 – Charles Ray, South Florida Rattlers
1.0 – Norm Lyduch, USA "The Who-Ers"
1.5 – Patrice Simard, Canada Ice
2.0 – Andy Cohn, Phoenix, Heat
2.5 – Willard Brooks, Lakeshore Demolition
3.0 – Ian Chan, Canada Ice
3.5 – Brad Dubberley, Phoenix Heat
MVP – Bryan Kirkland, Lakeshore Demolition
Sportsmanship - Andy Cohn, Phoenix Heat

There is also a decent article by John Ershek, newly available on the USQRA site, which includes many of his photos.

Results from the last four games on Sunday from the Capital Clash tournament in Montgomery have come in, and are:

US over South Florida by 5-6 goals
PHX over Hoveround by 1 goal
ICE over TNT by 8?
Lakeshore over US by 1 penalty goal at the final buzzer

More details later today, but I have to get back to ZEUS at the moment. If you know what I'm referring to, please login to it and get those clothing details in today! Thanks.

This weekend, we have two teams with significant Can-Con at the 8th Annual Capital City Clash in Montgomery, Alabama.

At this tournament, which has star-studded lineups on every team, the latest edition of the Canada Ice are suited up against many of their Canadian teammates on the South Florida Rattlers team, and a full-rostered Hoveround Lightning team, which features both Canadian National Team deuce Dave Willsie and Canadian National team coach, 3.5 Joe Soares.  In addittion to these three teams are other top-tier squads who will very likely be in the USQRA Division I finals this year.  These include the Lakeshore Demolition, Phoenix Heat, the Frazier TNT, and the US Paralympic traning team, (use your best New Jersey or Tony-Soprano-crew accent) "The Who-ers".

The South Florida team is coached by our High Performance Coordinator, Marco Dispaltro, who runs our Florida Project which has a large number of Canadians of all levels training full-time in the Fort Lauderdale area.  The Canada Ice team, which is so far undefeated over the first two days of the tournament, is coached by Canadian Assistant National Coach, Benoit Labrecque, of Quebec City.

Speaking of Marco, he was able to post many of the results of the first few days up on the USQRA Open Forum.

Results are incomplete, but so far, here is a look at the Win / Loss column in comparison to the original seedings:

5-0 Canada Ice (seeded 3rd)
2-2 Hoveround Lightning (seeded 1st)
2-2 Lakeshore Demolition (seeded 5th)
2-3 Phoenix Heat (seeded 2nd)
2-3 South Florida Rattlers (seeded DFL)
1-2 Frazier TNT (seeded 4th)
1-3 USA (The Who-Ers) (seeded 6th)

There are current or former national team members on every team, and every single one of these teams have future Athens Paralympians on them.

I hope to hear from him soon with the rest of the results, and possibly the rosters from the other teams.

So far, I know a few of the rosters, and a few incomplete rosters.  The rest will be posted when I find out:

CANADA ICE:
3.0 Ian CHAN
3.0 Fabien LAVOIE
3.0 Mike WHITEHEAD
2.0 Raymond LIZOTTE
1.5 Dave HARRISON
1.5 Patrice SIMARD
1.0 Gordie PUBLICOVER (from Halifax, NS)
0.5 Charlie BROWN
0.5 Daniel PARADIS

SOUTH FLORIDA RATTLERS:
3.5 Garett HICKLING
3.0 Steven DUNN
2.0 Allan CHARTRAND
2.0 Susan McRAE
1.5 Erika SCHMUTZ (from Toronto, ON)
1.0 José DEBENITO
1.0 Pat ROGERS
0.5 Charles RAY

HOVEROUND LIGHTNING:
3.5 Joe SOARES
2.0 David WILLSIE
...

LAKESHORE DEMOLITION:
2.5 - Willard BROOKS
2.0 - Bryan KIRKLAND
...

PHOENIX HEAT:
3.5 - Brad DUBBERLEY
2.0 - Andy COHN
1.5 - Lance SEDBROOK
1.0 - Scott HOGSETT

USA - The "Who-Ers":
2.5 - Will GROULX
1.5 - Norm LYDUCH
...

FRAZIER TNT:
2.0 - Cliff CHUNN
0.5 - Eddie CROUCH
...

I thought I'd give a few regular readers a few interesting links to some online journals and articles which you may or may not have come across yet. They're listed in roughly chronological order, so open the links into new windows, and have a good read over a bowl of Wheaties, or whatever it is that is your breakfast of champions!

01-12-04 Andy Barrow's journal - The Brit's year in perspective

01-12-04 Brett Boylan's journal - Preview to the upcoming season [Edit: link fixed]

01-14-04 Andy's Barrow's follow-up journal entry - Squad training before Tampa

Jan-04 Ed Hooper's latest Spokes Ableman story - Ed coaches the Hoveround Lightning

02-08-04 Curtis Palmer's Journal - A lengthy and entertaining look on the Kiwi tour

Feb-04 John Ershek's Demolition Derby article - John coaches the Frazier TNT

For those of you interested in international wheelchair rugby sites, our Rugby Links page has been updated, and includes a new listing from our Polish friends.  Thanks Natalia!  Their site is currently only available in Polish, but English language content is being planned, and will be posted within the next few months or so.

The final results can now be seen on our Demolition Derby results page.  In summary, here are the final results, and the All-Tournament Team:

  1. New Zealand                7–0
  2. Canada                       6–1
  3. Australia                     5–2
  4. United States              4–3
  5.        Lakeshore Demolition  3–4
  6.        Frazier TNT                3–4
  7. German Rebels           2–5
  8. Great Britain              3–4
  9.        Can-Am Slam              3–2
10.        Texas Stampede         2–3
11. Japan                         1–4
12.        East Beasts                 0–5

Best 0.5 – Eddie Crouch, Frazier TNT
Best 1.0 – Bill Oughton, New Zealand
Best 1.5 – Patrice Simard, Canada
Best 2.0 – Bryan Kirkland, Lakeshore Demolition
Best 2.5 – Curtis Palmer, New Zealand
Best 3.0 – Wayne Romero, Frazier TNT
Best 3.5 – Garett Hickling, Canada
Sportsmanship – Sam Gloor, United States
Most Valuable Player – Geremy Tinker, New Zealand

Thanks for checking back with us at the Rugby Road Journal.

While the Bronze medal action is still going on in the second gym, the Demolition Derby is effectively all over, and the New Zealand Wheelblacks, the Kiwi National Team, has come out on top after a hard fought 31–29 battle against the Team Canada.  The Canadians were up by 1 at some point late in the 3rd Quarter, and Garett got a solid steal, but was called for clearing out by the referee, so instead of going up by two points, the Kiwis tied it up.

It's hard to tell from up here what the score in the Bronze match is.  The Americans might be up 33–23 or down by the same score - my sources from the front desk at Lakeshore aren’t sure.  More on that game shortly as I'm expecting an e-mail to arrive from them at any moment now.

The Can-Am Slam finished off their last opponent in their pool, the Japanese National Team, and secured 9th place.  I hope to get some quotes from some of the Can-Con members of that team in a little while, as well as from the members of Team Canada.  Don't be shy, give me a call.  1-613-286-5233 or by e-mail at don.lane@rogers.com.

I'll be posting up some new scores momentarily, but things are running a bit behind schedule, and it's not over yet.

In the Bronze game, AUS is up 22-17 over USA. [Edit: Who knows who is leading... hopefully I'll get an answer to this question shortly...]

Meanwhile in the Gold game, with 3 minutes left in the 4th Quarter, NZL is leading CAN by 1, with the score sitting at 30-29.  Stand by...