Gurkha Gab August 2001

UNION HAPPENINGS:

Pasadena 7s tournament has been changed to August 18, 2001.

Unicorns 15s tournament will be held on November 11, 2001.

CLUB HAPPENINGS:

This Sunday at 2pm, there will be a BBQ and a game of touch rugby on the beach where we train on Thursdays. Bring your families and enjoy a day at the beach.

Which tournament to go to? Flagstaff 10's or Park City (last weekend of September)? Send your vote via email...

The club is looking to take on Mr. Peabody's as an extra sponsor this season (along with Tetley's).

We have new Gurkha T-shirts for sale for $12, also newly for sale is the Gurkha Beanie, $10. Gurkha Polo's are $30.00 and all Gurkha Garb can be viewed on the website.

Joe Clarke, Decibel Dan Beaulieu, Alan Miles and possibly Clay Orey will be going to a golf tournament in Phoenix on September 15. If anyone else would like to attend let Dan know.

The blood drive is in progress, if you have not done it yet, Call Medcell, 858-946-2000 ask for Marian (x236) or James (x200). We have changed the amount given to each player to a 50/50 split.

The Gurkhas have e-mail for sale, if you are interested in having a GURKHARUGBY.COM e-mail address, it will cost you $20 a year, then it will renew each year when you pay your club dues.

Train Trip to the Swallows. We will be going to San Juan Capistrano on Friday Aug 31 after work. We will meet at a restaurant (TBD) for dinner then head on over to the Infamous Swallows Inn for some nightlife!

Departure Times From Oceanside Station:
3:52pm, 4:50pm, 6:38pm

Last Departure Time From San Juan Station:
11:05pm

Round Trip Ticket costs $22.00/person

25th ANNIVERSARY BANQUET

We had an extremely successful 25-year anniversary banquet at the Olympic resort in Carlsbad. Many thanks to President Joe for all his hard work in making it a reality.
We had over 100 people from as far away as Chicago, and Old Boys from the 70's, 80's and 90's attending. Notable was the fact that we ten ex-presidents of the club (including Bill Matz the founder), and 10 players from the unbeaten 1986 team in attendance.
President Joe Clarke, Coach Ray Steel, Evergreen George Mills, and club sponsor Tetley's Rep' made speeches. Joe presented Ray with a Rugby ball signed by the 1995 All Black world cup team, for keeping the club going though thick and thin since the mid 80's. Ray was suitably embarrassed by these accolades, and pointed out the outstanding efforts of Joe and the current committee.
Emails were read from various Old Boys around the world expressing their disappointment at not being able to attend. Rick Collins presented Ray & Claire with authentic Gurkha Knives, which were then placed on the tables displaying the amazing number of trophies, won since 1984.
After the good food, great company, and alcoholic excesses, the majority danced 'til midnight to former Gurkha Bronco Farwell's excellent band. We then retired to two hospitality suites to imbibe some more, hit golf balls into the night, and watch tape of the 3rd test of the British Lions vs. Australia tour.

Many thanks to all that attended, sorry there isn't enough room to mention you all, but we hope we'll see you again in 5 years for the 30 year anniversary. See the web site for some pictures.

GOLF TOURNAMENT:

The second Annual Gurkha Golf Tournament will be held on September 23rd this year. If you do not know this yet, there have been meetings on the up-coming golf tournament. This one is going to hopefully bigger than last year's if we get the participation from all members of the rugby club. The club NEEDS for everyone to sell FOUR TEE SPONSORSHIPS. The way it has been figured out, if we all sell four tee sponsorships, that money will pay for the entire golf tournament and the rest is solely profit for the club, but WE all have to do our part for this to happen. Tee Sponsorship is $25. The cost for foursome is $95 per person. And a Gold Sponsorship is $500. There will be more to this saga as it develops.

RECRUITING:

Boys, we need for you to get out and talk up our sport to the masses. Hopefully, you'll talk them into playing for our club. Seriously, we need the bodies to replace or fill in for those who are stepping down from playing first side matches. John Gibb is looking at passing the scrum half torch onto someone else. Ray Steel is concentrating on coaching and playing B side games, and the same with Joe Clarke. Get with Dan and get new schedule cards.

7's tournament results:

Dateline: Eagle Rock, July 21, 2001. Having won only one game in two previous tournaments (OASIS and Sun splash) the Gurkhas have not been having what could be called a successful 2001 summer 7s season. Fortunately, if you keep at anything long enough something good is bound to happen. This was the case at Eagle Rock where the team, in a striking reversal of its scoreless outing at Sun splash, compiled an undefeated record on the way to the Black Division finals.

The final was against a team from San Fernando that had dealt us an embarrassing 30-something to zero loss the prior weekend (knocking Aussie Scott silly along the way). The tale of this game was much different, and even though the outcome was not a victory our boys in blue have every right to be proud of their effort. Individual and team play were stepped up a notch as the Gurkhas struck quickly, drawing first blood early on and holding a 7-0 advantage at the half. The game continued to be a closely-fought battle, with the score being tied 14 apiece late in the second half before the opposing team managed a long try in overtime to take the win.

The comical highlight of the day occurred during a game against Godzilla: At one point Dan "The Sheriff" Beaulieu was gang tackled by four of the opposition--or rather, they being much smaller than he, they "attempted" to tackle him and he continued to make his way up field carrying them several yards before passing the ball off.

The next tournament is Sat, Aug. 18, at Pasadena. Mark your calendars.

FUTURE PLANS:

Ray Steel is spearheading (looking into) the purchase of a rugby pitch for the Gurkhas. Hip hip hooray for Ray. It would be better if he explains the intricate details of this venture:

Ray:
Unfortunately my initial efforts have been discouraging. The owners of suitable land in Harmony Grove were not interested in selling a small piece of it, as they had bought it 6 months ago and have dreams of selling it for millions to a developer in a few years. I also talked to San Diego City about leasing a few acres in the San Pasqual valley. This is a non-starter also, as the city must advertise at fair market value any change in land use. And a rugby field is considered 'urban use'. The next idea is to talk to SDG&E about leasing an easement under power lines. If this fails, we will go back to plan A, which is to buy a couple of acres of private land. To do this though, we need a couple of years of successful golf tournaments. We can do this, its just needs everyone to pull their weight! The biggest difficultly of the private land idea is in systematically finding suitable lots, then finding the owner. Any ideas on how to go about this let me know.

In 2003, the Rugby World Cup will be played in New Zealand and Australia. The question has been brought up as to how many would be interested in going to the World Cup in New Zealand? If so, please let Joe Clarke know, as soon as possible. He's looking into it now.

The quarter ton of beer raffle has begun. If you do not have any raffle tickets and you are in dire need of some, contact Ray. $2 gets you a ticket, not a buck and a half or whatever deals you can swing. After you sell your tickets, turn in the money as soon as you can. The drawing will be held the day of the 10's tournament, Oct. 27, 2001.

HAIL AND FAREWELL:

Farewell to the following:
Devo and Lori Cutrell, he will be teaching in Oregon (John Gibb will be taking over as coach of the High School team).
Dave Levine, moving back to New York at the end of the month.
Dave and Tiffany Ericson moved to Washington (state).
Tim and Alisa Kieliszewski, the Navy transferred Alisa to Washington, DC.

Hail to the following:
The newly wed Blaise and Donna Jackson
Ty and Lisa are getting married August 25th, 2001.
Troy and Brea have announced their engagement
Weka and Ty (sat bar exams)
Martin Morozowsky is now the new superintendent at Eagle Crest golf course.
Anthony Martin our part time resident Kiwi is in town for a week

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM:

A story was told to me and I'm going to share it with all of you. Wanna hear it? Here it goes.

After a night of rigorous touch rugby in the sand, a band of rugged men set forth to consume as much of the alcoholic beverages the fair city of Carlsbad had to offer at Mr. Peabody's. After a few laughs and lots of beers, there were only a few remaining. These gents wanted to see if they could find more beverages elsewhere. The plan was told to the remaining what was to take place and where, thumbs up all around acknowledging it. One of the guys had his own agenda but put his thumb up anyway. They get to the secret rally point and do a head count, surprise someone is MIA. So they do the head count once more and yep, a member of the team is missing. Do they go and look for this missing person? No, they did what any thirsty rugby player would do in that situation; they consumed more beer and the ones the missing person would've had. This went on until the sun rose. And the lad that was missing, come to find out it was the one and only, "Bad Andy". He was with the daughter of Mr. Peabody's. It was said later, that they just fell asleep on the beach together. Bad Andy, we already have the sponsorship!