The Dew Drop Inn Virtual Games of the XXX Olympiad Pub, Stratford

First topic message reminder :

The Dew Drop Inn Virtual Games of the XXX Olympiad Pub, a place where you can come in for a sly beverage and discuss whatever's on your mind, or just eavesdrop on the regulars if you fancy a break from all the rugby chat.

This week the pub has set up in the heart of the Olympic Precinct at Stratford, where we can watch the world's greatest athletes do their thing and strut their stuff during the best Modern Olympics Games ever.

"Citius, Altius, Fortius" has been the motto for the modern Olympic Games since their beginning in 1896 - and let's hope it stays that way.

The only rule in this pub is one of mutual respect for everyone in it, oh and no tampering with the pictures of Jessica Ennis, Kieran Behan, Oscar Pistorius, Bradley Wiggins, Leryn Franco, Michelle Jenneke, Victoria Pendleton, Aaron Cruden, Katie Taylor, Misty May, Usain Bolt, Mo Farah, Krisztián Berki (on that horsey thingy) and the the Winner of the Gold Medal at Wimbledon - Andy Murray.




Last Pawb: https://www.606v2.com/t33138p1000-the-dew-drop-inn-virtual-games-of-the-xxx-olympiad-pub-london

Blydi colonials

We don't dress too well in the cold. Or at least I don't.

Ski Report: http://weather.smh.com.au/snow.jsp

Snow on the three sisters breaker?

Not sure about them but most likely in Katoomba and Mt Victoria.

31 in Darwin though...

When i was at Ularu (Ayres Rock) it was 40+ during the day and -5 at night. Thats hard to get used too

Really... that seems extreme? Are you sure you weren't sleeping on an icebox?

Usually in winter it drops below 0 and gets up to around 20-25. Summer can get 45+ but lows at that time are around 25 degs. It must have been your special presence to have such a huge temp difference.

It seems we may get some light snow, or maybe it is just sleet (don't know the difference)

I think sleet is kapok in Afrikaans.

But currently it is all around us Roodepoort 30 km North west of us, Germiston just east of us, Vereeniging 40 km South of us.


WHERE's THE DAMN SNOW?

I' ve only seen snow twice in my life before.

It was really strange but everyone said that it was normal for the desert. I suddenly had a new respect for the aborginals who lived there without any trousers or fleece's

Morning all. fair play to team GB for clearing up on the medals tables, can only imagine how amazing it would be for Ireland to be that successful, still, once again our boxing team is doing amazingly well. JJ Nevins and Katie Taylor are in the medals, Michael Conlon and Paddy Barnes are one fight away from earning one themselves.

Had tears in my eyes watching Katie yesterday, officially the loudest crowd of the Olympics so far, amazing scenes!

Bore da pawb / good morning all. A wonderfully crap and stressful start to the day, but things have calmed down a bit now. At least the weather's good!

You cant beat the Irish for bringing atmosphere to events Mick

That said, the support from GB for every single event and individual has been a credit to the organisers. The Dutch commentators are saying that all their athletes have never felt such an atmosphere at any event and it has been a wonderfull experience.

Morning folks.

Sorry Kia, good post sorry I didn't reply but I fell asleep.... totally agree though.

The Olympics has bee awesome, far better than I could have imagined. Delighted for team GB.

In terms of Ireland well the boxers have really shown the way again. A few other events Irish athletes have been either unlucky or just plain not good enough.

If the boxers pick up 4 medals with maybe a gold or 2 then that would be great.

If you consider that 3 of GBs medalists (could have been 4 if Wendy whatsername got picked for the bike relay thing) where from NI + the (hopefully) success of the boxers that actually isn't too bad for Irish sport overall.

There could potentially be 7 Irish medalists overall -regardless of which anthem is played. Thats respectable I think.

HAHA, it is snowing in Alberton.

If the boxers pick up 4 medals, that will be 4 medalists out of 6 team members. Mighty impressive considering we’re not going to get a medal in anything else, probably.

It is Mick but does it raise questions as to why Ireland haven't performed in other sports?

rodders wrote:It is Mick but does it raise questions as to why Ireland haven't performed in other sports?

Because we are all too busy discussing Provincial rivalries on this site instead of training?

Hey guys, how easy is it to design a website, I am thinking it might be a good idea to get a website for my business, but want to do it myself, I saw on the internet you can use Powerpoint to design it, does anyone know much about this?

rodders wrote:It is Mick but does it raise questions as to why Ireland haven't performed in other sports?

I don’t think so Rods, we just don’t have the pedigree in other sports, we don’t have facilities either. Britain is doing really well, but they have a lot of investment in their infrastructure because they’re the hosts, so that’s bound to happen. The fact is that Irelands biggest sports are GAA and Rugby, soccer is small fish compared to them in terms of professionalism. We’ve only in the last couple of years got our first 50m pool (remember that episode of the Simpsons where the commentator reminds us that some of these women come from countries without swimming pools?).

Competing at the Olympics costs, and we can’t afford it. But in boxing we have pedigree, we have the facilities (a gym) and we have the interest.

biltongbek wrote:Hey guys, how easy is it to design a website, I am thinking it might be a good idea to get a website for my business, but want to do it myself, I saw on the internet you can use Powerpoint to design it, does anyone know much about this?

There are many third parties that offer packages on website design Bil, it depends on what your company needs it for though, if you want to just set something up where customers would have details about your comapny and contact details etc. that's straightforward, if you want to set up a website to drive revenue, that could be trickier and cost a bit more.

Mickado wrote:

biltongbek wrote:Hey guys, how easy is it to design a website, I am thinking it might be a good idea to get a website for my business, but want to do it myself, I saw on the internet you can use Powerpoint to design it, does anyone know much about this?

There are many third parties that offer packages on website design Bil, it depends on what your company needs it for though, if you want to just set something up where customers would have details about your comapny and contact details etc. that's straightforward, if you want to set up a website to drive revenue, that could be trickier and cost a bit more.

It will have to drive revenue Mick, no use just to get a page out there, in our industry that will serve little purpose.

It will have to be informative with some legislative, product, licensing issues and then invite the client to complete a form for services and products required to be contacted.

Probably best to call in an expert then pal. Plenty of companies out there will up to the task, just shop around and don’t be afraid to tell them you’re shopping around.

Yeah, I was hoping it would be less complicated.

rodders wrote:It is Mick but does it raise questions as to why Ireland haven't performed in other sports?

Because maybe the sports Irish people are interested in aren't Olympic sport?

MBTGOG wrote:

rodders wrote:It is Mick but does it raise questions as to why Ireland haven't performed in other sports?

Because maybe the sports Irish people are interested in aren't Olympic sport?

Certainly the ones that we participate in. I mean I wouldn't have considered cycling to be a sport that Britain was particularly "interested" in (outside of the olympics and the last TdF), but they're obviously very good at it.

Morning everyone ,

Just popping in to inform you all i have changed my name by AdamD...eedpoll

just fancied a change

Good thing that last number isn't a K, Kenny.

It does look a bit odd , im not sure i like it if im honest

Why don;t you just change it to Kenny, that's how we all know you?

Mickado wrote:

MBTGOG wrote:

rodders wrote:It is Mick but does it raise questions as to why Ireland haven't performed in other sports?

Because maybe the sports Irish people are interested in aren't Olympic sport?

Certainly the ones that we participate in. I mean I wouldn't have considered cycling to be a sport that Britain was particularly "interested" in (outside of the olympics and the last TdF), but they're obviously very good at it.

Okay true, let's rephrase it to that. Apart from boxing, the sports that are mainly pushed in this country are team sports. Individual ones certainly don't get the same attention, which is what the Olympics is mainly focussed on.

That better ?

Welcome back Kenny.

Cheers , dont know why i didn't think of it myself

It happens sometimes, I have been told by experts that sometimes it is easier to resolve and issue from outside the box, than inside it.

MBTGOG wrote:

rodders wrote:It is Mick but does it raise questions as to why Ireland haven't performed in other sports?

Because maybe the sports Irish people are interested in aren't Olympic sport?

Irish people don't participate in athletics, sailing, martial arts, wind surfing, canoeing, BMXing, Road cycling, Hockey?

Has amateur boxing got a higher participation rate than some of these sports across the country?

Only really athletics out of those is popular in Ireland. The others are definite fringe sports.

I would say boxing is a good bit more popular than everything except athletics.

Yes but these are no more fringe sports than they are anywhere else and Irish people do participate in them at competitive level.

It is inaccurate to just say we are different to other places and all our best athletes are playing team sports, which we aren't actually that great at anyways.

The reason imo Boxing does well is that the expectation and belief is there to be successful. Success breeds success and often you don't need high particpation numbers and fantastic facilities to succeed at a lot of sports. What you need is good coaching, high expectations and a competitive enviroment to get high level performances.

We had 2 road racers in the Olympics, and one of them (at least) does his training outside of Ireland. There just isn’t the money in this country to be able to compete on that many fronts.

It’s no surprise that the countries topping the medal table are the ones who spend a lot of money on sporting infrastructure, training etc.

Who are the 3 NI athletes who have won medals so far by the way? Honest question.

The 3 rowers from Coleraine Mick.

Thats my point if we look at the sports we've been successful in across the Island - Boxing and Rowing - these aren't sports with huge participation.

My point is we have disproportionately achieved in a couple of sports vs every other.

Quite a few athletes performed below their expected level. Some were unlucky but some just didn't perform.

Its probably worth noting that quite a few of the GB athletes base themselves outside britain too like Mo Farrah for better coaching and facilities.

Per capita spend on facilities I'm not sure correlates that well to the medal table. Some sports are elitest for sure but not all of them.

So Rods, you think that all of our athletes should be winning medals in all sports just because the boxers do?

Boxing is very big in the travelling community and that has helped build up that sport.

Rodders,

I think you are expecting a lot from Ireland. The sports we mentioned as fringe here that are also fringe in the UK still means they will have many more people participating due to the population numbers.

And the sports you say we aren't doing well in, yes we are doing well, thank you. We may not be the best, but we are certainly doing well in football and rugby for a relatively small nation and we have our own national games, which are big and we are proud of.

And as Mick says, we just don't have the money to bring through a lot of athletes or give them the facilities they need. Sure, we saw how some of our top Olympic athletes were making makeshift oxygen tents to sleep in.

No I think the boxers are getting things right that maybe some of the other sports aren't and that perhaps the governing, bodies, athletes and coaches in certain other sports should be looking at the boxers for ideas and inspiration.

Why generally are Ireland proportionately more successful than Team GB at Olympic amateur boxing? Do you think we have more amateur boxers than they do? Better facilities?

Do Jamaica have more sprinters than the US?

Rodders, you know that Jamaica have incredible depth in their sprinting when the likes of Yul Brener and Derice Banock cannot make the squad.

Good afternoon all, hope that everyone is well. Made it back from the south of France after another wonderful long weekend chez - the weather didn't do us any favour on the Sunday (party day), but otherwise everything went perfectly, including our boating experience on the river and drinking the house dry of Floc. Massive thanks to and Joce for their superb hospitality - equally to all the regs who helped out with child-care duties! Much appreciated

Thomond wrote:Rodders, you know that Jamaica have incredible depth in their sprinting when the likes of Yul Brener and Derice Banock cannot make the squad.

MBTGOG wrote:
Rodders,

I think you are expecting a lot from Ireland. The sports we mentioned as fringe here that are also fringe in the UK still means they will have many more people participating due to the population numbers.

And the sports you say we aren't doing well in, yes we are doing well, thank you. We may not be the best, but we are certainly doing well in football and rugby for a relatively small nation and we have our own national games, which are big and we are proud of.

Munsty I don't think critically analysising why a number of athletes across a range of sports didn't perform to expectations is expecting too much of anyone.

No I disagree that we are doing well in those sports but thats a different debate.

I think you'll find that a lot of athletes from other countries aren't getting much funding either.

Certain sports you just can't compete in without the facilities but that isn't a blanket excuse that can be applied across the board.

Why are our boxers successful? They get a lot more money than the rest of the sports get and well there is always some talented boxers in Ireland. We have some great coaches and the High Performance squad do a magnificent job there.


Are the facilities great? Yes and no, but boxings one of those sports where you can overcome that ,coaching is what matters and we have some great workers there.

For our size we compete well in the Olympics, could we do better? Not for another 10 years I think people have forgotten that our country is feiced!

rodders wrote:

MBTGOG wrote:
Rodders,

I think you are expecting a lot from Ireland. The sports we mentioned as fringe here that are also fringe in the UK still means they will have many more people participating due to the population numbers.

And the sports you say we aren't doing well in, yes we are doing well, thank you. We may not be the best, but we are certainly doing well in football and rugby for a relatively small nation and we have our own national games, which are big and we are proud of.

Munsty I don't think critically analysising why a number of athletes across a range of sports didn't perform to expectations is expecting too much of anyone.

No I disagree that we are doing well in those sports but thats a different debate.

I think you'll find that a lot of athletes from other countries aren't getting much funding either.

Certain sports you just can't compete in without the facilities but that isn't a blanket excuse that can be applied across the board.

What were your expectations though? And were they realistic? Before the games, the only person I heard any hype or expectation about from an Irish POV was Taylor. A couple of other "medal prospects" but nobody else was "expected" to get a medal.

My expectation was that Ireland would contend at least 3 medals in the boxing, which they have done.

Aileen I thought would do ok in the Triathalon, maybe top 12, but fell off the bike.

Kayaking, Sailing and Judo I thought Ireland would have done a bit better.

Overall it looks like Ireland will do better medal wise (touch wood)but the medals are disproportionatily stacked in one sport and the others they've done worse than expected, certainly to the lower end of expectation.

This is also looking at other countries having talented sports people as well and ours may just not be as good as their competitors, which sometimes you just have to accept.