Must be.

Ice Blacks clean up Luxembourg. Still to play Mongolia, and South Africa, SA should be the only competition.

Photos of the Ireland game here:

http://www.pigsflymedia.com/teamireland.php

I’m going to try and make my picks a bit early this week, as I missed last round due to… well, missing.

A grade starts on Tuesday, but we haven’t sorted teams or anything yet, so I’ll make those picks during or after the weekend.

B grade, coming to the end of the first round-robin. That’ll give us a good idea of where the teams stand.

John McGlashan vs Bears: Bears have had a rough time of it so far, with a couple of losses, but so have Johnnies, so this will be an interesting to game to see relative pecking order. Johnnies have a good all-round team and good team play – passing, shots on net, working for rebounds, and shutting down Bears offense should see them take the game. For the Bears the task is harder. They’ve got a bunch of talented kids on the team, but they just struggle with skating speed, which means their attacks get shut down in the neutral zone a lot. Plus, they’re all having to carry their ‘olds’, so that’s hard. Their last game saw a great team goal however against the Beasts, and if they can continue to work on putting players into gaps with good passes, they might see a couple more. Probably their best hope of an upset though is for a couple of their better players – Hellyer, Kinraid, to head up ice and look to score a couple of non-assisted goals. Their ability to work well on defense and shut down Johnnies and help out goalie Jaimee Wood, who’s looked good so far, is also crucial. My pick: Johnnies to take it 5:2.

Kings vs Beasts: Top of the table clash here. Beasts are looking like the money team to date, but Kings have also had two good wins, and have improved well over last year. Both teams have some players that can score goals – King had a nice effort for Kings last week up the ice, and Beasts have three or four that look likely. For Kings to stand a chance, I think the Beasts goalie is going to need to have a rough night. If there’s only 10 – 15 shots, 3 or 4 of them are going to need to go in. Similarly, Kings goalie and defense is going to have to find form. My picks: Beasts to take it 5-3 with a late goal making it safe.

Off Ice: Janey’s car to turn up abandoned, in seriously bad condition. Sorry Jane ” title=”Sad” /> Kyle to referee four games over the weekend and to finish a third weekend in a row ‘seriously knackered’.

I’m hoping we’re going to see some more A grade entries real soon, as currently we don’t have enough people entered to run a competition.

People who were hoping to play A grade, but who haven’t entered yet…. send me an email or post here or phone/txt me on 021-113-0236, or best of all, bring a registration form tonight to me between 6 and 7 to the rink with money.

Obviously we need entries soon so that we can put teams together and put out a draw. If we don’t get a bunch more people soon, we’ll have to look at the numbers and think about whether it can go ahead.

The Ice Blacks kick off today (I think they’re playing at the moment if I’ve got the time difference right) in Ireland. Armenia have pulled out of the tournament due to visa difficulties, so their first game turned out to be a bye.

The Ireland Ice Hockey Association are threatening to webcast the games, but they’ve been having some difficulties, so it’s not up and running yet. Keep an eye on http://www.iiha.org/ and see if they come through however.

Scorecards can be checked out at http://www.iihf.com.