Olympic Hoops

Hopperational details
Date & Venues	Tuesday 7 August 2012 at the Basketball Arena in the Olympic Park
Competition	The Olympic Games – London 2012 Women’s Basketball – quarter finals
Hopping	Fourth Olympic sport seen live, 11th venue on my courthopping list for basketball
Results	USA 91 Canada 48 Australia 75 China 60
This day in one sentence
More of the Olympics in the East End innit, but a blistered foot from yesterday meant that I could not set a new personal best for the stomp from West Ham station.
So what?
USA will meet Australia in the semi-final.
The drama unfolds
It was a nervy start and a low scoring first quarter, each team making unexpected mistakes like missing uncontested breakaway lay-ups.  Both sides were only making about 25% of their field goal attempts before USA seemed to settle first and they stretched out a 19-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.  The match was already over as a real contest, it would seem. The second quarter saw USA proceeding serenely, having upped their field goal percentage to around 40 but Canada marooned in the 20s.  Several times, the Canadians failed to get a shot away in the 24 seconds allowed.  The lead was up to 21 points (42-21) by half-time and would have been more but for an outrageous hook for 2 from Canada’s Shona Thorburn with microseconds left on the clock. Here is a brief clip of the half-term entertainment which at least woke the crowd up. Here is a clip from the restart – more of the same.  Canada are in red.  It was 66-31 at the end of the third quarter, with USA outscoring Canada 2 to 1 on almost all the relevant stats such as rebounds and assists.  Top scorer was Diana Taurasi with 15 and the USA could afford to leave her on the bench for the rest of the game. The final score was 91-48, a real thrashing for a quarter-final.  We enjoyed a showboat two from USA’s Maya Moore, and Kim Smith top scored for the losers with 13 points.  To be honest, I’d expected something closer as a sporting spectacle. We were all pleased when Australia and China started trading baskets in a much closer contest.  Here is an early clip to set the scene.  Australia are in yellow. China took the lead for the first time at 12-14 but were immediately pegged back to 14-14.  A Chinese attack led to a collision with a cameraman who then started to flinch visibiy every time the ball went to his end.  Aussie Suzy Batkovic launched a 6-0 tear with a piece of athleticism to keep the ball in play before one more score for each side left the score at 22-16 at the end of the first quarter. China played really well in the second quarter.  Australia called a timeout at 25-21 and another one after the game had been tied at 29-29 and 31-31.  Xiaoyun Song threw a three from chest level to give China a one point lead, Batkovic missed one, and there was one more field goal each before the interval.  35-36 at half-time.  Australia had converted about 1 in 3 of their goal attempts whereas China averaged nearer 1 in 2.  All to play for. This clip from early in the 3rd quarter finishes with a technical foul and Australia back in the lead by one point at 41-10. The Aussies hit foul trouble and free throws restored China’s lead and extended it to three points.  However, the game turned again with a six-point swing.  Liz Cambage made a great defensive block, they took two breakaway chances and then Cambage hooked in another two pointer.  China scored to keep the margin at three points, 55-52 at the end of the third.  It appeared that this game could go either way. Australia kept the lead during the early exchanges until suddenly the game slipped away from China in the blink of an eye.  Cambage got a three-point play by adding one from the free-throw line, Lauren Jackson scored a three, Batkovic and Jackson scored again and suddenly it was 71-58 with under four minutes to go.  That destructive burst denied us the chance of a tight finish, and Australia were able to run down the clock on their way to a 75-60 win. For the record, #2 son @yappattack had tweeted that I should look out for Australia’s “big three” who had impressed him in earlier games, and he was spot on.  Cambage, Jackson and Batkovic had 17, 12 and 10 points respectively and thus Zengyu Ma’s 15 and Lijie Miao’s 13 were on the losing side. There was time in the evening for a trip up to the viewing platform of The Orbit, Anish Kapoor’s curvy installation which allows some great views of the Olympic Park and London beyond.
What Next?
Olympic Table Tennis on Wednesday!  FA Cup groundhopping at Sleaford Town on Saturday.

Water Brave Performance

Hopperational details
Date & Venues	Monday 6 August 2012 at the Water Polo Arena in the Olympic Park
Competition	The Olympic Games – London 2012 Men’s Water Polo group stage games: GB v Montenegro & Spain v Italy
Hopping	Third Olympic sport seen live, first time watching water polo live, first visit to the Olympic Park
Results	Great Britain 4-13 Montenegro Spain 7-10 Italy
This day in one sentence
A walk in the Park followed by water polo viewed from a seat vacated by a member of the Olympic Family.
So what?
Loving the Olympics.  That is all.
The drama unfolds
The arena gave a warm welcome to the Great Britain water polo team, who were playing their final match of the tournament.  They were not expected to trouble Montenegro, and so it proved.  They won the first swim sprint which starts the game, though, for one of the biggest cheers of the night.  The game consists of four quarters of eight minutes.  The teams have 30 seconds to execute a shot on goal.  Referees can exclude a player for 20 seconds for certain infringements.  First impressions are of a lung-bursting and surprisingly physical sport! My first clip shows the Montenegro team getting on the scoresheet in the first quarter – they opened up a 3-0 lead before Adam Scholefield got GB’s first goal.  1-4 at the end of Q1 The second quarter followed a similar pattern – Glen Robinson and Rob Parker scored for GB but the visitors added four goals of their own.  3-8 at the end of Q2 Here’s the start of the third quarter. There were no goals for six minutes until a superb reverse flick from Craig Figes pulled one back for GB.  However, they conceded a penalty and one more almost immediately.  5-10 at the end of Q3 Penalty for Montenegro Montenegro’s 11th goal was controversial – the shot seemed to be executed after a whistle and the GB defence made no attempt to block it.  The coach (Christian Iordache) protested and earned a yellow card.  Montenegro added two more and, as shown in the final clip, Rob Parker missed a penalty as the time ran out.  Final score 4-13 The Montenegro team therefore finish second in the group and would face either Italy or Spain in the next round – a number of their players soon took up seats nearby to size up their potential opposition.  Italy and Spain were already sure of qualification, but their match would decide group placings. Italy scored twice, including one penalty, in the first quarter, and had four on the board before Spain got their first.  They pulled back to 3-5 but Italy scored again before the break, and they increased the gap to 4-8 by the end of the third.  In the final quarter, Italy scored from distance to keep the gap at three, and though Spain briefly closed to 7-9, Italy added another long-ranger for a good win. Final score 7-10 The clip is from the closing moments - if Spain were to make a comeback it needed to be now... but Italy were untroubled and held on.  They leapfrogged into second place.
What Next?
Women’s Basketball quarter-finals tomorrow (Tuesday) … regular FA Cup groundhopping scheduled for Saturday next at Sleaford Town.

The Draw of the Seaside

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 4 August 2012 at The Rush Green Bowl
Result	FC Clacton 2 CRC 2
Competition	Eastern Counties Premier League (Step 5)
Hopping	I am here for ground #466 on the lifetime list and my first of the 2012-13 season, launching Hopping For Moorfields
Pre-match preparation
This is the first round of matches of the season in this league.  CRC are the initials of Cambridge Regional College and are in effect the reserve and development side for Cambridge United.  FC Clacton are the relaunched Clacton Town, but some bits of evidence of the club's previous incarnation are dotted around ...
This match in one sentence
An entertaining and fair score-draw in a match that improved as time went on.
So what?
Much too early to say – mid-table respectability for both sides at the moment!
The drama unfolds
In tentative early exchanges, CRC forced and then wasted an early corner and Clacton’s Darren Bethell clipped a shot over after a flick-on from a long throw.  The visitors took the lead from the penalty spot after 11 minutes, Bobby-Joe Taylor driving his shot low to the right as Ed Wootten dived the wrong way.  0-1 Here is a scene-setter clip, with the “Bus Shelter” stand on the right.  FC Clacton are in the white-and-blue. FC Clacton gradually settled into the game.  CRC keeper Aaron Benstead made a fine save high to his left to deny Bethell and then a driven low cross from Aaron Condon fizzed straight through the six-yard box from the left.  Nothing much else happened of note in the first half. 0-1 at half-time Bonus for planespotters - the ground is on the landing approach for a local airfield Early exchanges of the second half were even but uneventful except for a turned-down penalty appeal for the home side.  However, they got one just after the hour when Benstead flapped at the ball and was adjudged to have fouled the attacker.  From my position in the Bus Shelter at that moment, it looked a soft one.  Bethell stepped up to tuck away the shot in the left corner. 1-1 Both sides went for a win and the last 20 minutes were end-to-end and entertaining.  Benstead kept the scores level with a reflex save and then CRC took the lead with 12 minutes to go.  Wootten stretched to push away a cross from the CRC right, but it fell as a tap-in for Ryan Cooper.  1-2 Wonderfully, straight from the restart, substitute Lee Clowsley played a crossfield ball for his brother and fellow sub Jake.  Jake’s first-time half-volley clipped finish was the goal of the day.  2-2 CRC finished strongly and hit the same post twice in the closing moments, once in each of the final two clips.  The ref blew to stop the game after the second, mistakenly believing that the ball had gone out, so there was a confusing restart from a dropped ball out at the wing.  A Question of Sport can have this for a “What Happened Next?” clip if they wish. Final score 2-2
The programme
Something random
You can soon find out what happened to FC Clacton in The Fake FA Cup here: http://therealfacup.co.uk/
Hopping for Moorfields Update
4 goals scored, no Dutchmen met, no farm animals visible, so £5.60 added to the value of the pledges.  Estimated end-of-season total stands at £489 so far, but if you wish to make a pledge email me at headyapp(at)hotmail.com or message me @GrahamYapp on Twitter.  A penny-per-goal pledge will cost you somewhere between £2 and £3 after around 60 games at the end of the season.  Here’s a link to my son’s blog which helps to explain why Hopping For Moorfields is happening this season: http://yappattack.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/fix-up-look-sharp.html
What Next?
Definitely Sleaford Town v Holwell Sports next Saturday for an FA Cup tie (see recent posts to find out why!), but I would not rule out a midweek hop, so follow @GrahamYapp for details!

Generating an Inspiration

Maley & Jeffrey (Australia) lead off in the men's C2 semi-final

Jana Dukatova of Slovakia would end up in sixth place overall

Brazil and USA pounding volleyballs into submission at Earl's Court

Britain leads the world in the Synchronised Sweat-Mopping event

GB v Italy eventually started at 2230h

Note to self: new "Olympic" category needed for programme filing systems

Hopperational details
Date & Venues	Thursday 2 August 2012 a)    Lee Valley White Water Centre b)    Earl’s Court Arena
Competition	The Olympic Games – London 2012 a)    Canoe Slalom semi-finals & final: Men’s C2 and Women’s K1 class b)    Men’s Volleyball group stage games: Brazil v USA and GB v Italy
Hopping	First Olympic events seen live, first time watching canoe slalom and volleyball live.
Results	Gold for Baillie & Scott (GBR) Silver for Florence & Hounslow (GBR) Bronze for Hochschorner & Hochschorner (SVK) Gold for Emilie Fer (FRA) Silver for Jessica Fox (AUS) Bronze for Maialen Chourraut (SPA) USA 3-1 Brazil Great Britain 0-3 Italy
This day in one sentence
A personal victory over the idiosyncracies of online ticket purchase and travel logistics so that I could experience a small but significant part of this great event.
So what?
I now want to go to Rio in 2016 !
The drama unfolds
I had spent a number of very frustrating hours trying to get tickets through the online purchase system, which seemed full of anomalies. Eventually, I was lucky to get a volleyball ticket at about twenty minutes past midnight.  It was more out of curiosity than anything that I logged in next morning – to my amazement I was able to secure a canoe slalom ticket within three minutes, timed at 9.14am, for an event starting at 1.30pm.  The voices in my head were telling me that this could get logistically tricky, but, hey, I may never get the chance again.  To the Yappmobile! I left the house at 10.00am, parked in Cheshunt at 10.40am, collected the day’s tickets after a 45min walk (good job I’d had the presence of mind to take ID), and was in position in plenty of time.  The signage was excellent, the volunteers were friendly, the security checks were smooth and courteous, the atmosphere was multinationally superb – I couldn’t have asked for more.  Give me British troops rather than independent security firms every time, by the way.  I made an early decision that I would have to skip the medal ceremonies in order to have any chance of getting to the evening event. A series of good audio-visual presentations explained some of the technicalities of the  sport and the big screens would prove crucial in helping spectators to follow what was happening.  I had a great view of gates 5 to 11 in particular but needed the screen for the rest of the course. Team GB had two pairs in the C2 semi-final, which would reduce ten nations to six for the final.  In the C class, the participants are kneeling and have a single-bladed paddle.  The Australian and two Czech pairs preceded David Florence and Richard Hounslow, and here is a part of their run, which turned out to be the fastest in the semi. The Slovenian paddlers were slower too, so even at that point, Florence & Hounslow knew they had made the top six for the final.  A Polish pair posted a good time and then came the other British canoe, with Tim Baillie and Etienne Scott.  They had an eventful but fast run – finding themselves reversing through gate 12 where fast forward had been the plan – but they avoided penalties and had the third best time at that point, and knew immediately that they were in the final.  It’s fair to say that the crowd were loud and partisan. Semi-final: Baillie & Scott reverse (as planned) through gate 10 Even though all three remaining pairs (China, Slovakia and France) went faster than Baillie & Stott, no-one beat the Florence & Hounslow time.  The crowd cheered somewhat unsportingly as the later canoes picked up penalty points, including the Hochschorner brothers, looking for a fourth consecutive gold medal for Slovakia in this event.  Both Slovakia and France were behind Florence & Hounslow because of a two-second penalty for touching a gate. On to the women’s K1 semi-final, which would reduce 15 nations to 10.  In the K class, the athlete is seated and holds a double-blade paddle.  There was plenty of support for the young Aussie, Jessica Fox, and of course for Team GB’s Lizzie Neave.  Stepanka Hilgertova was representing the Czech Republic at the age of 44.  As it turned out, Neave had a disappointing run, picking up six penalty seconds and missing out on the final in 12th place, by over a second.  Pacierpnik (Polcand), Chourraut (Spain) and Fer (France) had the three fastest semi-final times. Jessica Fox of Australia in the semi-final Lizzie Neave (GB) picked up penalty points and went out at the semi-final stage In the men’s C2 final, Baillie & Scott went first and posted a penalty-free run of 106.41 seconds.  None of the drama of the semi-final, it was a very solid performance.  Both of the next two canoes (China & Poland) picked up penalties and were over 6 and 4 seconds behind respectively.  The French pair (Klauss & Peche) moved into second place, guaranteeing at least a bronze for Baillie & Stott.  The crowd worked it out before the commentator. The Hochschorner brothers were quick, but with a 2-second penalty they could only take second place, upgrading Baillie & Stott’s in-the-bag status to silver with only their Team GB teammates to go.  We were on our feet creating the oft-mentioned “wall of noise” as Florence & Hounslow came down for a silver medal … less than half a second behind Baillie & Scott, who therefore took gold in an amazing 1-2 for Team GB.  Hochschorner & Hochschorner were pushed into the bronze medal place, and their incredible achievement has been largely ignored outside Slovakia and the canoeing fraternity. Slovakian legends would have to settle for bronze this time Florence and Hounslow on a smooth route to silver for GB The women’s K1 final seemed rather an anti-climax after that, and two or three participants picked up early penalties so that completion of the course was a matter of pride and formality rather than threatening the leaders.  Fox led for Australia with the top three to come.  Chourraut was narrowly slower and took the provisional silver position, but then Fer went fastest so far with just Pacierpnik to come.  However, her run hit problems early on and she finished 7th overall.  So to summarise, Gold for France, Silver for Australia and Bronze for Spain, but I was already on my way down the steps from the stands as the applause died down at just after 4.30pm. I’d decided to abandon the car in Cheshunt and it proved to be a good decision.  I used the free travelcard that came with the tickets and got a train to Liverpool Street, then the tube to Earl’s Court, getting there in plenty of time for the security checks and a pre-game falafel wrap.  (Yes, shock horror – I am off the burgers for the new season.)  Again, the rules and features of the game were explained for those unfamiliar with the sport. I must read up on the physics of "hanging" sometime! The first two sets of the men’s volleyball game between USA and Brazil were compelling, feisty and of the highest quality.  It was a privilege to watch, and there was plenty of yellow-shirted support for the South Americans in the crowd.  If their reaction is anything to go by, Rio 2016 will be a lot of fun.  Both sides had 3-0 records so far, and neither had even dropped a set.  Something had to give.  USA held an occasional slender lead on and off during the very tight first set.  Here’s the end of it … USA are in white. So, Brazil took the lead, 25-23.  USA took initial control of the second set but Brazil came back strongly.  Again, here are the final few points. USA drew level with that 27-25 set win.  The next two sets were competitive and hard-fought, but the USA supporters found their voices as their team gradually took charge.  Team USA ran out victors by 3 sets to 1, (23-25, 27-25, 25-19, 25-17). At 10.30pm, the match between Great Britain and Italy started.  The scorebook will show that Italy won comfortably by 3-0, leaving Team GB looking for their first set of the tournament at the bottom of their group.  They had their moments, and this was a competitive game with GB’s body language positive to the end even as the crowd steadily filed out as we approached 11.30pm.  Neither side had the raw power of either USA or Brazil, and there were more examples of delicacy and finesse at the net.  It was always entertaining but the truth is that the result was never really in doubt.  I was heading out of the door just before midnight.  The final set scores were 25-19 25-16 25-20 to Italy. Here's a short clip to set the scene.  Italy are in blue. The Tube to Liverpool Street station was fine, but there were no more trains to Cheshunt.  After a quick chat with staff, I just made the 12.40am to Chingford which was at least heading vaguely in the right direction.  After a short and reasonably priced taxi journey, I was reunited with the lonely Yappmobile at 1.40am and back online trying (unsuccessfully)  to get some more tickets at 2.30am.  There is no cure.
What Next?
The regular football hopping season will start on Saturday with a Step 5 trip and the beginning of “Hopping for Moorfields”.  I also had the experience of being a studio guest on BBC Three Counties radio last Tuesday – Kate Robbins was sitting in for Nick Coffer and some groundhopping chat appears two to two-and-a-half hours in to the three-hour programme.  She thinks I’m mad, and I am absolutely delighted with that.  This listen-again link will work for another day or two.  Please send me a penny-a-goal pledge (or something of your own choice) if you can – price of a pint or a pie and a great cause, and you don't have to pay up till next June. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001d7nr/broadcasts/2012/07 (It is the 31 July programme)