Aberdeen Touch Ball 11/11/11

On the 11th November 2011 Guerillas and several other Aberdeen clubs gathered at the Forum to let their hair down for the annual end of season ball and prize-giving. The event was well attended by Guerillas with over 3 tables of players making it along to party with, amongst others, Leopards, BP, NHS, Hoodlums and Subsea Sharks.

With Graeme Buchan standing down as event organiser and compère the microphone was handed to Guerillas Simon and Mark to MC the evening in their own inimitable style. After spending many years running the Aberdeen leagues and weekend events Graeme is stepping back to concentrate on other things but it is worth taking a moment to consider his contribution to the sport in Aberdeen and this was recognised with a presentation on the evening.

Mark and Simon get the evening’s event under way

Guerillas still active over the winter

The Guerillas are keeping active over the winter. Training under floodlights at Hillhead is booked up to Monday 12th December (7pm-9pm) on the bottom astroturf pitch. Turn outs have been good with 17 along this past Monday on what was a cold and blustery night.

On Wednesdays Guerillas have been taking part in the first ever indoor Active Touch league in Aberdeen at Dyce Academy sports hall. Active Touch is a fast-paced game of 4-a-side that’s a hybrid of touch, netball and basketball. Initially one team, and latterly two, has taken part. The league enters the semi-final stages next week but there already discussions on a further league commencing in January.

So we’ll likely have a short break from activities while everyone is full of Christmas cheer but we are already looking at options for training early in the new year. This winter period is a great time for new players to join as there the opportunity to get up to speed with the basics well ahead of us getting into the more intense spring training and spending more training time in our league teams. We’ve already picked up some new players these past few weeks but anyone who wants to give touch a try is welcome.

Of course for our large number of players engaged with the Scotland squad training there is no real winter break with regional coaching sessions in Aberdeen on Saturday mornings and weekend sessions with the full squads at intervals over the winter. The Scotland players are building towards the European Championships in Treviso, Italy, next September.

 

Guerillas record clean sweep of Aberdeen trophies

It’s been a strong finish to the 2011 season for Guerillas as two more wins on Monday 19th September at Woodside meant the club completed the clean sweep of all the available top Aberdeen summer and autumn league trophies. A 5-0 win over Genesis secured the autumn league title for the 5th time. This was followed by a 6-2 win over Leopards to claim the Cup for the second year in a row. During the league final our 2nd team had a close battle with BP for the Quiach, unfortunately missing out in a narrow 3-2 defeat.

Unofficial STS & ATS update

No official update on the ATS & STS scores yet but by my reckoning the current STS table is as below after 3 of 4 events. As you can see our 2011 points total after 3 events almost eclipses our final total from 4 events last year. So a massive step up in performances. In Glasgow we cut down the gap to Meerkats and WM ahead of us, such that it is just feasible we could catch one of both of them in Edinburgh, and we’ve increased the gap ahead of Superhands to 16 points.

2011 Standings

1st Geckos 84

2nd Meerkats 74

3rd Wallace Monumentals 72

4th activitymix Guerillas 68

5th Superhands 52

STS Round 3 – Glasgow Open

Event write-up by Monica Coyle…

This was round 3 of the Scottish touch series, in Glasgow this time. The draw had been sent out, and the standard was looking high, such that despite always being optimistic, I wasn’t sure top 4 was achievable on this one – apologies team! We had a squad of 10, which meant we were going to be tired by the end of the day!

Lets hear it for the girls

2011 has certainly been a milestone year for Guerillas. The most obvious aspects of this have been our sponsorship agreement with activitymix, a significant increase in player numbers, lots of new players being introduced to the sport and big step up in on-field performances across all teams.

However a less obvious trend has been a swing towards a more even gender balance. Historically we’ve always had a male/female split of about 60%/40%. This has worked well with having one mens team and two mixed teams competing in the Aberdeen leagues. However active player numbers currently stand at roughly a 50/50 even split of men and women. This is a positive shift in several areas. This is the first year the club has been able to submit entries for two mixed teams to weekend tournaments, and we’ve managed this on three separate occasions. Whereas in previous years we have been limited in team entries due to a lack of girls the step towards a third league team was as much driven by the number of female players we had as anything else.

 The guys are starting to get outnumbered

Guerillas Touch World Cup exploits

Below is a brief summary of the achievements of the Guerillas players at the recent Touch World Cup.

In the M40s Dave Matthews demonstrated his knack for scoring netting 7 touchdowns, almost a quarter of the teams’ total. Dave’s daughter was born only a few days before the World Cup started but clearly the lack of sleep and a drive to Aberdeen and back was not affecting him too badly! The question is has Dave signed off on his international scoring record with a last second touchdown against World Champions Australia?

Guerillas in action at the World Cup (Gallery)

Some pictures from the World Cup showing Guerillas in action.

Guerillas secure Aberdeen’s top two league titles

Going into the final round of matches activitymix Granite Guerillas needed a win over Genesis to  seal a league championship. As it turned out there was a slightly anti-climactic end to a long campaign as with Genesis only being able to field 4 players the game was conceded and a friendly played instead. However a win is a win and this means the team remained unbeaten through 10 league games, bringing to an end a 7 year Surf Rescue / Meerkats title run.

Eve of the World Cup – rain & draw changes

On the eve of the first touch world cup to take place in Europe the talk has mainly been of the weather and last minute changes to the draw.