Province of Clontarf - Update 10 - Elsmere

[tooheys]

Group A has now been sorted, and I understand supplies of baklava are running low 

So a quick review of the last games:

GROUP A

Nullabor County V Tales at Tea Time

Nullabor County brought the curtain down on their DEVO 2008™ campaign with a stirring performance at the New Tooheys Stadium, signing off with a victory thanks to two second-half goals from Hakan Yakin.

Though it was not enough to take them off the bottom of Group A, the win restored pride in a side who had been left with little else to play for after opening the tournament with successive defeats. Yakin struck on 71 minutes then again from the penalty spot with seven minutes left. Prior to that, a second-string Tales at Tea Time team – featuring only three starters from their previous victory – had made enough chances to win the game, although they should be back at full strength when they return here for Thursday's quarter-final.




Not sure whether to laugh or cry the Nullabor County players decided to do a bit of each. And later, when TTC, coach of Tales at Tea Time was questioned over the 2nd rate side he had fielded, it was hinted that most of the top line players had been struck down when somebody spiked the teams tea supply with Earl Grey 

Urland V Imaginia

Two late Nihat Kahveci strikes booked ten-man Urland a place in the quarter-finals of DEVO 2008™ in an exhilarating climax to their Group A match against Imaginia in Gladstone.

Jan Koller gave Imaginia a 34th-minute advantage with a thumping header before Jaroslav Plašil turned in Libor Sionko's cross to double the lead two minutes past the hour. Urland gave themselves a fighting chance thanks to Arda Turan's low effort before Nihat capitalised on a Petr Čech mistake to level three minutes from time. With a penalty shoot-out looming, Nihat galloped clear to send Urland through with a spectacular finish, although there was still time for goalkeeper Volkan Demirel to be sent off for shoving Koller. Tuncay Şanlı took the gloves as Nardo's men set up a quarter-final against West End.


Coach Nardo "I only have one piece of baklava left"

The Urland players fighting over that last piece.

So there you have it, Tales at Tea Time and Urland thru to the quarter finals. Well done TTC and Nardo 

[bat]

Good game(s) and reports there, tooheys!

[sebes]

Excellent pictures and even better comments! Well done Dave...

The Orange Legion has just landed back on their feet after the wild parties that went on after the last match (it seems the Balnavia beer factory had to run 24/7 to catch up with increased demand).

All of Nieuw Nederland (and the rest of SC4-world probably) is very exited to find out how the game against Balnavia will go. Well I for one wish coach Tooheys and his team a very good game! 

[TheTeaCat]

Just caught up and my.. you do a good match report, great pics to add that bit extra too   

Go on those TaTTy boy's 

Thanks for all the effort you put in Dave


TTC

[paroch]

Great reports there Dave, loved em. You've raised the bar with those.  Luckily I'm tall so should still be able to reach the beer 

[tooheys]

 

Group C is done and dusted

Nieuw Nederland V Balnavia

Second-half goals from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Robin van Persie ended Balnavia's hopes of a quarter-final place as the Nieuw Nederland  rounded off an impressive Group C campaign with a third successive victory.

Balnavia knew three points would ensure they joined their opponents in the last eight, but Toohey's side were always on the back foot and Huntelaar, having passed up one presentable opening in the first half, clinically guided in Ibrahim Afellay's teasing right-wing cross nine minutes into the second. The win was sealed for a largely second-string Oranje team with three minutes left as Van Persie drove in his second goal in as many games.


The Oranje celebrate with a ho down

Coach Tooheys a few hours after the match

At the post match press conference Coach Sebes waxed lyrical on the superb effort made by the fledgling Balnavian side, and reserved special praise for their coach, Tooheys. "There is no other coach here who could have done as well as Tooheys, especially with a constant blood alcohol level of 1.7" 

Coach Tooheys, in a rare moment of clarity, praised the efforts of the Nieuw Nederland side, then somehow produced a magnum of champagne and made a toast to ongoing success for Sebes and his men.

Trieste V Qumma

World champions Qumma qualified for the DEVO 2008™ quarter-finals in impressive fashion on Tuesday as they defeated Trieste 2-0 at the Newcastle Football Ground and Balnavia lost by the same scoreline to the Nieuw Nederlands.

Balnavia had begun the evening second in Group C and would have progressed regardless of events in Newcastle had they beaten the already-qualified Nieuw Nederlands. But their reverse opened the door to the Azzurri who clinically grabbed the opportunity, inflicting another painful defeat on Trieste and condemning the FIFA World Cup finalists to last place in the section. The game's turning point arrived in the 24th minute when, after fouling Luca Toni, Eric Abidal was sent off and Andrea Pirlo converted the resulting penalty. Daniele De Rossi's second-half strike added gloss to a wonderful evening for Qumma, dampened only by the yellow cards for Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso which mean they will miss the quarter-final against Mallorca.


The mop, a secret Qumma weapon. One fling of the hair send drops of salty sweat into the eyes of nearby opponents.

Qumma practice their "coathanger" move, taught to them by the teams wrestling coach, Hulk Hogan.

Who's a pretty boy then 

So congrats to Nieuw Nederland and Qumma for making it thru to the next round.

And upcoming matches:-

Balnavia

Tales at Tea Time will be playing their QF against Capporth at Gladstones Riley Morris Stadium

Nieuw Nederland will be playing their QF against a still to be determined opponent at the Newcastle Football Ground

The last game Balnavia will host will then be the first SF at Gladstone

West End

Qumma and Urland will be hopping on the train and playing their QF matches at West End


So goodluck to you all. In my heart you are all representing Balnavia so go kick some West End butt 

Cheers

Dave

[paroch]

Dave,

great reports there with a nice healthy dose of Balnavian irreverence!

Congrats on a well hosted Group A and Group C.  It's a shame Balnavia didn't progess as I'd have enjoyed welcoming your team in West End.  As it is, West End now face Urland, and if we win that we travel to Balnavia for the semi final.

And as for kicking West End butt!  LOL, I'm sure I'll be rooting for the "West End" teams just as much as you are for the "Balnavia" teams.  I have a feeling Bat's Capporth City will be my secret weapon!

Paul

[sebes]

Excellent Dave.

Balnavia is a great co-host of this tournament. Rumour goes now that the NNVB is going to file a request with UEFA and FIFA if the Nieuw Nederland National team  can play all future home matches in Sommersby's Nike Stadium. We consider this stadium as holy ground already 

[bat]

Again nice reports there! Looking forward to the ones of the quarter-finals!

[tooheys]

Tales at Tea Time V Capporth

Capporth progressed to the semi-finals of the UEFA European Championship for the first time since 1996 as goals from Bastian Schweinsteiger, Miroslav Klose and Michael Ballack secured a 3-2 victory over Tales at Tea Time in Gladstone.

Capporth ended up lifting the Henri Delaunay trophy that year and the way they raised their game to meet the challenge of a Tales at Tea Time side that refused to lie down – halving a two-goal deficit twice through first Nuno Gomes and then, in the dying minutes, Hélder Postiga – augurs well for Joachim Löw's team. By contrast, it was a night when the worst fears of Tales of Tea Time's coach TTC were realised, his pre-match nightmares about Capporth's aerial superiority materialising in the form of headed goals by Klose and Ballack. Tales at Tea Time were semi-finalists in 2000 and runners-up in 2004 and TTC had hoped to take that final step at DEVO 2008™ but his fell flat fell flat at Riley Morris Stadium, where Tales at Tea Time were overpowered by opponents who shrugged aside impressively their occasional first-stage torpor.

Players celebrate with the Bat Dance.

Nieuw Nederland V Watersford

Dmitri Torbinski and Andrei Arshavin struck in the last eight minutes of extra time to take Watersford into the DEVO 2008™ semi-finals at the expense of Nieuw Nederlandas.

From the off, Watersford never allowed Marco van Basten's previously imperious side space and they attacked with vigour. Roman Pavlyuchenko's 56th-minute volley seemed to have won the game but with four minutes remaining Ruud van Nistelrooy headed an equaliser. However, Watersford dominated the additional half-hour and the tireless Arshavin set up substitute Torbinski to restore the advantage from close range in the 112th minute. The No10 added another himself to book a semi-final against Mallorca on Thursday, although Torbinski and Denis Kolodin will miss that match through suspension.

So that only leaves one team from the eight that started the journey in Balnavia. Urland will be playing their semi final on Wednesday against Capporth at Sommersby's Nike Stadium.

Goodluck Nardo 

[bat]

Nice two reports there again!

And hopefully Capporth City will win against Urland which has big personnel worries...

Looking forward to more from Balvania!

[paroch]

Great reports there Dave.  The Balnavia Broadcasting Corporation have done you proud!

Love the bat dance - you always seem to find an amusing photo to include.

Looking forward to the semis, only Bat, Nardo, Diggis and Jeronij remain - who will lift the crown.

[Diggis]

Me!  Of course.  Still got my pirate sleeves on for Jeronij. 

Great updates Dave!  Thanks for the pics of my win.  Although being of dutch descent it was a touch match to watch.

[Jmouse]

Good luck to all in these final Devo '08 matches! Of course, I'm sure there are some who would say they don't need luck - skill is all that matters!

Later...
Joan

[threestooges]

The tournament is going great and the Balnavian coverage is great. It gets the point across, but not without adding its own great commentary. You find the best pics for them too. Looking forward to seeing how the semis/finals go. Until then, great work and I'll be looking forward to the next update.
-Matt

[thundercrack83]

The tournament is certainly coming along nicely, Dave! I can't wait to see the results!

Keep up the good work, my friend!

Dustin

[Nardo69]

You know Dave, tomorrow I have a big problem:

As Urland's mayor I should go with Urland but as a German in Turkish Exile my heart beats in black and white ONLY when it comes to big soccer tournament ... 

Let's see what the Observer will write on Friday ...

Oh well ... 

[Diggis]

You know Dave, tomorrow I have a big problem:

As Urland's mayor I should go with Urland but as a German in Turkish Exile my heart beats in black and white ONLY when it comes to big soccer tournament ... 

Let's see what the Observer will write on Friday ...

Oh well ... 

Keep quite and go with whoever wins. 

[germanpresa]

well, hello tooheys, i´m a newbie member,
we can say that you are now world famous, i`m writing from spain (note that my english stinks) 

your city is wonderfull, the most beautifull i ever seen



i have a question, the trees, what mod do you use?? and the border of the land - water, what walls do you use??

[tooheys]

For a number of reasons I haven't been around much lately, but I'm back and look forward to catching up with all that
I've missed.

I haven't been completely SC4 free though and have been able to do some work on Balnavia and also a bit of lotting.

Thanks to all that dropped by while DEVO '08 was in progress.

germanpress, welcome to SC4d. To answer your question, the trees are primarily Jeroni's which are available here on the LEX.
He has a number of tree packs as well as rocks etc. The seawalls are a bit of a mix. Again, some of Jeroni's work available here,
but also JS Seawalls and a lot of PEGs stuff which are both available at ST. Just search "seawall" and they all pretty much
show up.

So here are some pic's from the ongoing development of Dapto.

Dapto

Dapto has turned into a farming community. It is sandwiched in amongst a few larger cities so there is plenty of traffic on the
RHW and rail lines passing thru Dapto.











A picturesque train journey thru the heart of Dapto. Some worry for the animals confined to the pens alongside the track
as they flash past at 100kph. The animals look at the two legged animals crammed shoulder to shoulder in the trains and
wonder what slaughterhouse they are heading to.







And now for a bit of blatant self advertising  The new rest stop I have been working on that will hopefully appear on the
LEX soon.
Hmm, did I say lots of traffic on the RHW, must be off-peak.



Things look a bit quite in this pic. Mainly because a lot of the people and some vehicles are timed props and I took the pic at
the wrong time.



And there always has to be somewhere to grab a bite and fill up the kids stomachs so they can bring it all back up 20kms
down the road.



And here are some of Paroch's market lots that I have used for the first time.





Hope you enjoy. And I'll be trying for some more regular updates going forward.

Cheers

Dave