Meltdown

And now for a brief news update. First off, Ben has been working so hard since his return from France that his MacBook Pro battery exploded. No joke, pictures enclosed. Our Mac technician emailed with his diagnosis – “your battery is swolen and bloated and is a danger to the health of you and your machine”. Enough said, new one on order.

Footy Fantastic

In other news, Team Rubber played some fantastic football at the 2009 Bristol Media Footy Tournament. As nominated scurrier, charger, harrier and ball of fury, Ben was honoured to feature in the new black and gold strip complete with Rubber crest. The group games started slow with a draw, but changed up a few gears with some resounding wins, not least a 6-0 demolition with two-goals-Templeton netting…twice. A tough quarter final went to penalties, but our athletic keeper kept us in the action. With only 5 minutes to rest, and playing in sahara-like conditions, we were running on empty. And with only 5 minutes played we lost Ives at 1-0 up in the semi, ending in a draw for yet more penalties. For some reason Ben took the first penalty…keeper dived right, Ben skies it over the bar. But after more heroics from Bunny-Button, our star keeper, we went to sudden death. And lost. To the eventual tournament winners Smith and Williamson. Well done. Go shuffle some more legal papers.

GI JOE is go

After a manic and stressful build our star flash developer Tommy Arnott pulled out the stops and delivered a stonking multi-language GI JOE quiz, with the help of excellent copy writing and project management over at Rubber Towers. Enjoy the game below and check out the other part of the GI JOE campaign, some outstanding 3D work from Mr Webster (of our Virtual Tour fame) who helped ‘unearth’ some ‘leaked footage’ from the GI JOE recruits’ archive…

It was a tough, tense, physical game, but leading scorer Ben Templeton netted the crucial goal taking the team through to the Plate final. Another beautiful turn and volley, but it was the fantastic defending that kept us in the match. Phil ‘Solid as a rock’ Stenton lead from the back, while Ilango and Tom smashed the midfield.

Only trouble is, we’re a bunch of crocks after that match, injuries everywhere! Here’s a pic of the full strength team followed by some action shots.

Some bad news and SOME GOOD NEWS!!! Leading scorer Ben Templeton netted again today, but sadly the goal was disallowed (ref finally chose to blow the whistle for the ball leaving play 30 second earlier) so we ended up with a remarkable 0-0 draw with the favourites for the tournament, Supply Chain A. In the previous match, Tom Dowding put in a fantastic defensive performance, and provided the essential assist for Ben’s perfect side step and rifling shot from 20 yards…Next up, the Quarter Finals in the Plate Cup.

Ok, so we got trashed 4-0, but Dan did score at both ends with spectacular flying volleys. Not sure what our keeper thought as Dan attempted a triple bicycle kick into his own net, but he made amends at the other end in the 2nd half, only to have the goal disallowed for entering the area

In fairness, none of us had played together, but we put up a good fight. The score flattered the HP lads, we had some ace chances on goal and we’ll be back faster, better and stronger for the game next Monday…