Emails about the 2004 Aspen Tour

Players who have not signed the waiver will not be allowed to play. Any team with unregistered players is subject to ejection from the tournament. Please register your players!!!!

Players must be in their 45th year or 44 years of age to participate in the 45+ Division. This means the player's birth date must be on or before 9/16/1960.

Players must be in their 50th year or 49 years of age to participate in the 50+ Division. This means the player's birth date must be on or before 9/16/1955.

If a team has not submitted a roster as described above, their first match will be shortened by the length of time it takes to sign the waiver, provide proof of age and verify the information is complete.

A player who is playing in both the 50+, 45+ and 35+ team for a club must sign a waiver and provide proof of age for each team.

A player must represent the team on Thursday to be eligible to play on Sunday.

Matches will consist of 20-minute halves unless both captains agree to a shortened periods prior to kick-off. Substitution in the 45+ matches is unlimited and can be made at any time.

Complete rules and regulations will be published in the Ruggerfest program.

I will be at McStorlies between 8 PM and 9:00 PM on Wednesday 9/15 to accept rosters.

See you in Aspen,

Doug Cigliana,Tourney Director
303-884-1541

Cary, weather looks like mid 30's at night out in Aspen. Guys should pack appropriately, especially since we'll be playing a morning match or two. Mid 60's-lo 70's during the day. See ya all out there.

Good day Cardinals,

Its less than 10 days my friends. Our roster is loaded with talent,experience, and competitive desire of epic proportions. Do not expect any changes with the confirmed roster at this point,but our steadfast and dedicated Team Manager,Bill Gardner, has been known to come up with some devastating and valuable last minute roster additions.

We hope that all our mates are squared away with travel and accomadation plans? If not, reply immediately. We may be able to help.

Your jersey and polo will be issued at our thursday 5:30pm practice session at Rio Grand Park. Skip Yeager ,also, has some Cardinal Armour Shirts for sale. See Skip for that aquisition.

skippo9@yahoo.com

The brackets for friday are still in flux; there is a possiblity that we will receive a bye in the first round. Meaning two victories on friday could put us into the finals on sunday.

Special thanks to Bill Gardner,Steve Yeager,and Keith McLean among others with all their help in recruiting and forming the roster. Our side is trully a collaborative effort,everyone is important and essential for our success.

Our side has much promise,yet we need to remind ourselves that our success ahead is less about reputation and more about how we respond as a team. We play to our stengths. Deny our opponents their advantages. Tackle low. Run hard. Play smart. We win.

Very respectfully,
Cary

Kind of you,Chris, to donate your share of the tourney fee. We will have a few rounds courtesy Chris Porter. See ya around this fall.

rugby always,
Cary

--- Chris Porter wrote:

I'll take the jersey and polo. The difference is my contribution to the club for extras while in Aspen. Use the difference to buy whatever drinks you can or put it to our trip to Ft. Lauderdale. I will be well on my way at school and definately want to defend our title. Here is my address for the gear:

1139 Blackduck Ct. Va Beach, VA 23451 Best of luck in Aspen.

Peace,
Porter

Cary Kennedy wrote:

Hello Chris,

Sorry to hear the news. I know you are disappointed and so are we. Yet, there is always another rugby day and hope you and Barney can join us again Feb 2005 when we defend our title in Ft.Lauderdale.

Could we get Spicer interested in Ft.Lauderdale?

I am prepared to refund your deposit in full. Do you still want your jersey and polo? That would help the club; and we could refund the difference. Your call my friend.

Your mailing address?

Kind regards,
Cary

The location: The LA Colliseum (home of the College National Champs Southern Cal; former home of the LA Raiders)

The time: 2:13 am, Aug 28th

The thing happening: Gladys Knight is dressed in high heels and an evening gown and she's running away from a dozen menacing men.

How do I know this? I'm one of the menacing men.

Rewind - the time: 5:30pm yesterday

Your humble narrator arrived at the LA Colliseum with the promise of cash and fun. My mission was to film a commercial for MBNA (bank and credit cards). About a month earlier at a local rugby tournament, a casting director was running around taking photos of all the rugby players playing Sevens. For some of the players, including me, the casting director interviewed the players on tape and took down their phone numbers. I thought little of it (forgot about it completely) until I got a call last week informing me that I was selected to be in the commercial.

I didn't know the nature of the commercial other than that we would play rugby in front of the camera. Well little did I know, we would be playing rugby as...

The English Nation Team and Australia's National Team!!!

My role was Australia's tight head Prop (which really really sucked; its probably the toughest, least fun position on the field). Because we were picked by a Casting Director who didn't know anything about rugby almost all but 8 people selected were backs and you need 16 guys in the scrum between the two teams (for you rugby guys, I know you're laughing right now). Well my front row mates were a Div 2 scrummer and a Div 1 Back (Chester, Kyle, it was Chester); our opposing front row had a Div 1 scrummer, an Eagle Prop, and as the other Prop only the MVP of the US Rugby Superleague...

...it was going to be a long long day of full contact fun.

Now I will shorten this email drastically by saying that when we arrived I knew most of the guys and we started goofing around and playing touch rugby and having a good time. We were told to settle down because it was going to be a long day. About 30 minutes later they had us playing full out rugby (remember we are all whoring ourselves out to the camera the whole time). We played full tilt for about an hour. With the camera on you, everyone is running extra fast, diving all over the place and hitting harder than usual and this was already a group of guys who did all that stuff pretty darn well.

Around 9:30 to our shock Gladys Knight shows up and she's there to pretend to play rugby with us.

At first she was very girlie about the whole thing (remember she's in an evening dress, jewlery and high heels the whole time); but she got into it and started passing the ball around pretty well and was even convincing "dodging" our tackles and we chased her all over the field. So we spend a few hours staging different scenes for her. Remember we are all playing all out rugby and diving past her, chasing her with "killer looks" on our faces and just going nuts.

In one scene which was a reaction shot to her scoring against Australia, I was playing the guy she beat for the try, I'm laying on the ground pissed off and punching the turf (of the LA Colliseum dude!!!) while England guys are jumping up and down and cheering.

I got no sleep last night; I just came home, showered, changed clothes and went to work because I figure its better to pass out here in my office than pass out at home and wake up at noon without a job (huh Mommy???) The commercial will probably only air in England but I'll see about getting a copy some day (I hope).

Because I'm in a state of sleep deprived euphoria, I know I've missed some details but I'm gonna quit while I'm ahead.

See Y'all!!!

Joe Somerville. PS. Life is good and I hope soon for it to get EVEN BETTER...details to follow hopefully later this month.

Good day Virginia Cardinals,

Is everyone squared away with their accomadation? Al Dekin and Tree have extra beds. If you need help with filling a bed or finding a bed;respond now and we will coordinate. Contact Bill and Cary

Also,travel. Does anyone need help from Denver,for example, on wednesday or thursday. Chime in!

Chris Porter; do you have your lift from Denver to Aspen figured out? How about you,Nick Bell?

Tenative,"unofficial" KO for us is 10am on friday--it could change.

We,also, expect to have a training session late afternoon on thursday in Aspen. More on specifics will come later. Hospitality to follow.

18 days to go,Boys,the time is near.

Rugby forever,
Cary