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Raleigh Wrap-Up and Stats from Donna 01-2012

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:52:02 +0100

Hopefully everyone made it home safely and all dogs are happy and tired. It was a great wekend. Rain on Saturday and cold temperatures on Sunday didn't stop us from having a good time. The dogs always enjoy the cooler weather. Thanks to Nanci for keeping up warm inside and out. The hot food was superb and the warm tents were much appreciated.

Congratulations to our only title winner this weekend: Duffie and Dave on earning your FMX! Congratulations also go to Tammie and Marsha for setting a new personal best time of 5.910, and Misty and Becky on that perfect start. It's also so good to see Sampsyn making progress on the road to recovering his confidence, especially in the building where it all happened. He's coming right along.

For the most part, all the teams ran very well. Our Open Teams, Full Throttle and Experimental Aircraft, took First and Second with some fun and competitive racing against each other as we each vied to eck out that top spot. Regular division Wright Flyers ran smooth and consisitent although they didn't place in the ribbons.

Wright Stuff had a few bumps along the way, but still managed to pull in a fair amount of points. We are all going to have those occassional weekends where the team we're on just can't seem to get it together, and this was the case for this team. Every dog/handler team on Stuff had their share of early passes, bobbles, dropped balls or other issues. It happens. The dogs still had a great time. All we can do is smile because our dogs enjoyed themselves, and look to the next tournament where things will get better.

Special thanks for our wonderful boxloaders: Cam, Cathy, Mike, and Tracy. Tracy did a super job at her boxloading debut! I didn't see her make one mistake.

Stats:

Dog	Height	Best Time	Average Time	Best Start	Average Start	Points
Annie	11	5.003	5.484			902
Bizzi	7	5.072	5.182	0.074	0.275	205
Caynaa	7	4.311	4.843	0.004	0.138	1171
Charlie	11	6.331	6.654			902
Duffie	10	5.683	6.129			600
Flye	7	4.220	4.383
Flye	10	4.126	4.554	0.002	0.092	805
Gal	10	5.048	5.484			600
Gus	7	4.886	5.188			790
Kessie	11	4.728	5.015			902
Maddie	7	5.237	5.712			791
Misty	11	4.595	4.881	0.000	0.079	702
Moose	7	5.678	6.393			791
Ri-Ra	7	4.514	4.796
Ri-Ra	11	4.516	4.600	0.015	0.059	991
Roxy	10	6.108	6.537			520
Sampsyn	8	5.349	5.477			80
Sydney	7	5.565	5.929			315
Tammie	7	5.910	6.325			790
Tara	7	5.030	5.426			475

Blacksburg Stats - 11-2011

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:22:17 +0100

Dog Jump Fastest Average Best Average Points
Height Time Time Start Start

Annie	11	5.091	5.384	0.007	0.146	360
Bizzi	7	5.465	5.465			5
Caynaa	7	4.414	4.612	0.059	0.161
Caynaa	11	4.542	4.688	0.057	0.114	710
Charlie	11	6.301	6.754			970
Duffie	7	5.552	6.159			284
Flye	7	3.954	4.164	0.008	0.092	309
Kessie	11	4.606	4.840			765
Maddie	7	5.210	5.596			569
Misty	11	4.663	4.951	0.005	0.058	405
Moose	7	5.725	6.110			794
Ri-Ra	7	4.549	5.086
Ri-Ra	11	4.767	4.995			680
Roxy	7	6.144	6.417
Roxy	11	6.340	6.779			460
Tara	11	5.186	5.842			740
Tasha	7	8.700	8.700			5

Blacksburg Wrap-Ups from Donna and Sharon - 11-2011

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:30:44 +0100

Hopefully everyone has made it home safely from a successful weekend in Blacksburg. I missed being there today and hope everyone reached their goals and earned lots of points. I can only speak for Saturday (I'll let Sharon post for Sunday) but I want to say how much I appreciate everyone coming together as a team on Saturday when we found ourselves short dogs or struggling to make the lineups work. It was true teamwork at it's finest and we managed to recoup some of our losses in points and placements as Saturday wore on. Thanks to EVERYONE and EVERYDOG for doing your part to make it happen. Congratulations to everyone who earned a title this weekend:

Caynaa and Lindsey on their ONYX, Charlie and Robin on their FDGCH, Moose and Mike and Susan on their FDCH, and Kessie and Sharon on their FMX. I hope I haven't missed anyone.

Thanks to Nanci and Tracy for the wonderful food spread. I hate that I missed the chicken chili today. It's one of my favorite dishes of all the wonderful things that Nanci makes for us.

Thanks to everyone who managed to bring my things home with them. I'll round them all up on Friday.

My sincere apologies for not making it back today. There is no way that Annie could have raced today. She's been one sick puppy since about 2am. Lots of vomiting (no diarrhea), no energy, and no interest in food this morning at breakfast time. For those of you who know Annie, that was my first indication that things were more serious than just an upset tummy this morning. She looked pretty miserable for the largest part of the day. Hopefully it's just a bit of upset stomach and nothing contagious. She seems to be somewhat improved this evening. She did manage to keep down a small amount of her bland dinner on her second try this evening and seems a bit more energetic so hopefully things will only get better from here.

Sharon:

Glad everyone made it home safely. That turned out to be one long weekend, long but good. Congratulations to all the new titles. And even with all the changes Flyers got a first and Stuff a second place finish. Nanci's food was wonderful as always and Tracy your chili was good but you know how I feel about deer, sorry that I could not enjoy it as much as everyone else.

I hope Annie feels better quickly. Donna you were missed along with Annie and I am sure, no I know sitting up at 5 in the morning redoing schedules and reassigning jobs was not an easy job. When you called me at 5:30 I first thought it was Nanci, so was surprised when I saw it was Donna. And I will add to how great this team is. When I told everyone you were not going to be there, everyone was concerned at first, but then everyone jumped in to do what was needed. It just proves what great people we have on this team. We are there for each other. This is the true meaning of teamwork.

Lynn you were missed. Gal was a trooper and she tried, but missed mom just to much. Down the road that may change as she gets a little more seasoning. I just think she was just a bit too green to go it alone. And she was well taken care of, she had a lot of caregivers this weekend.

I also want to thank Cathy for giving up that one heat yesterday so Bizzi could run. Also want to appoligize to my teammates for costing you 20 points for one terrible start. If I had stepped out of the lane and let him do it by himself I am positive you would have gotten 25 points. He was happy and left with his tail over his back and a smile on his face, so I am happy.

I did find it interesting though that the titles for 10,000, 20,000 and 30,000 points were won this weekend. Just think about all the tournaments involved in those quests for points.

I am enclosing the points earned yesterday, stats will have to wait until I can get the sheets to Donna. I do believe Moose could have won another title.

Shelby Wrap-Up and Points from Donna - 10-2011

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:22:57 +0100

What a GREAT weekend! Thanks to everyone for making it so. The weather was beautiful! This was a good site, plenty of crating space, fabulous racing, and good company with friends. We missed everyone who couldn't make it. Hope your weekends were enjoyable and successful as well. Nanci, we hope your are feeling much better.

Both our Regular Division and Open teams did very well!

Our regular division team made a foray into division one and didn't do too shabby at all! This division had 5 teams, and we pulled off a very respectable third place finish. We had several comments on this team, so people took note of our presence there. The team averaged 19.445 and set a new best regular division and team time of 18.755. Great effort and teamwork from all the dogs and handlers on this team contributed to its success: Flye, Caynaa, Gal, Ri-Ra, and Kessie were a thrill to watch. Every handler put forth their best efforts, enthusiam, and skills and it paid off. Thanks to each one of you for pushing the limits every heat and doing so with a smile. Special thanks to boxloader Stephanie for doing such a great job as well. Thanks to Tracy for videotaping. Hopefully we can post this to our website soon.

The Open team was in a division with a pretty large spread in seed times, but it too managed to pull off a third place finish. Great racing and handling from everyone as the dogs gave it their all and racked up some points. The dogs that ran all the heats solely on this team pulled in 906 points each. Special thanks to Mike for your flawless-as-usual boxloading.

Special congratulations to the following:
Gal and Lynn on her FM
Annie on her FMX
Flye and Cathy on her perfect start-I believe you had one in the last tournament too-you know we're going to come to expect this.

Stats:

Annie	7	4.911	5.406
Caynaa	7	4.329	4.548	0.010	0.103
Caynaa	10	4.316	4.590	0.016	0.092
Flye	10	4.057	4.205	0.000	0.064
Gal	10	5.066	5.425
Kessie	10	4.390	4.668
Maddie	7	5.087	5.529
Ri-Ra	7	4.611	4.659	0.056	0.131
Ri-Ra	10	4.877	5.062
Tammie	7	6.171	6.541

Raleigh Wrap-Up and Stats from Donna - 09-2011

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:20:17 +0100

Thanks to everyone for making the trek to Raleigh this weekend. This is the tournament where we usually have every active dog on the team choose to participate and this weekend was no exception. We were busy, busy, busy with four teams. A HUGE thanks to everyone for pitching in. It went fairly smoothly with so many helping hands, even when we had to do multiple jump height sets for warmups. Thanks to Nanci for the wonderful lunch spread both days. It was perfect. I thought we might have to set up a guard to keep other teams away from our table.

This tournament I'm reminded that we have much to be grateful for. We have a great team-made up of a great group of individuals. I enjoy spending my weekends with you, playing a game that my dog enjoys. And it's the people who share this with me that make it as enjoyable as it it. It was a year ago, this tournament, that Lee and Darlene ran with First in Flight for the first time. They went home with less than 300 points a dog, but apparently saw something in the rest of us that they liked. They became members of our team less than 60 days later and I hope they've had no regrets, because we certainly don't. Happy anniversary to Darlene and Lee, and Sydney and Gus. All of you are important to us.

Congratulations to our title winners this time around:
Sampsyn and Becky earned their FM
Maddie and Stephanie earned their FM
and Moose and Mike earned their FDX (Mike did a great job handling Moose. She is still very much a green dog but is making great progress. She is going to be a fabulous height dog one day soon.)

First In Flight set a new Multibreed Record on Saturday with a 19.841 (this is currenly our best time to date for all divisions). I've made it no secret that this was my goal this weekend, and I appreciate everyone pushing the limits to get us there: Caynaa and Lindsey, Sampsyn and Becky, Annie, and Kessie and Sharon. It was a lot of fun making this happen.

We also had a couple of new personal best times with a 4.296 for Caynaa and a 4.948 for Annie.

I'd also like to take just a moment to recognize the dogs on this team who suddenly found themselves running with 14 inch hurdles of Saturday. It must have looked like a sheer wall after jumping 8 inches, but after a couple of heats they adjusted like pros. We managed to measure down to 13 inches on Sunday, but that's still a mighty big jump. Caynaa, Annie, Gus, and Kessie ran like it was usual business. I was very proud of all four dogs.

Thanks to the dogs and handlers who picked up extra heats while we adjusted for all of this. Ri-Ra ended up with 60 heats. It seemed she was constantly in the ring on Sunday. Bizzi and Gus picked up the remainder.

My sympathies are with Becky and Sampsyn too. I know how frustrating it is to find yourself with a sudden issue that can't be fixed at the tournament. Sampsyn had a scare on Saturday with a new box judge. Even after much coaxing and work, we decided it just could not be fixed there and made the decision to pull him. I know Becky feels bad about it, especially with Sampsyn being our only height dog, but I want you to know that we ALL understand. Sometimes things happen. It's not Sampsyn's fault or yours. And we will get it fixed and I don't think it will take long. I already have a game plan for you.

Stats:

Annie	8	4.948	5.303
Annie	13/14	5.751	6.023			630
Bizzi	7s	4.956	5.212	0.021	0.276	305
Caynaa	8s	4.296	4.555
Caynaa	13/14s	4.813	5.091	0.007	0.137	630
Charlie	10/11	6.224	6.438			706
Duffie	7	5.602	6.372
Duffie	10/11	5.922	6.516			727
Flye	10s	4.220	4.360
Flye	7s	4.230	4.318	0.000	0.100	678
Gal	10	5.013	5.380			728
Gus	7	4.771	5.116			560
Gus	13/14	5.202	5.471			305
Kessie	8	4.339	4.650
Kessie	13/14	4.978	5.311			630
Maddie	10	5.447	5.795
Maddie	7	5.553	5.806			678
Misty	10/11s	4.567	4.815	0.020	0.067	756
Moose	7	5.671	5.795			200
Ri-Ra	7s	4.463	4.798	0.020	0.142	615
Ri-Ra	11	4.643	5.102			556
Roxy	10	6.124	6.314			326
Sampsyn	8	5.611	5.790			325
Sydney	7	5.247	5.711			740
Tammie	7	6.193	6.641			740
Tara	10/11	5.107	5.433			381

Blacksburg Wrap-Up and Stats from Donna - 08/2011

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:21:36 +0100

THANKS to everyone for an enjoyable weekend of flyball! It was incredibly HOT! Probably one of the hottest tournaments I remember in a long time. The heat took it's toll on dogs but they gave their best anyway. All three teams took 2nd place in their division, and all 3 teams garnered over 700 points each. Not bad considering the temperature and that Saturday had it's moments when things were a bit discombobulated for every team! But in general, every team, every lineup, turned in a solid performance.

Thanks to everyone for making it happen. Special thanks to boxloaders Mike, Rollie, and Cam. And a HUGE thank you to awesome passcallers Lee and Darlene. I saw major improvement in passing with your patient coaching. Thanks Nanci for the delicious lunch everyday. You always put so much work into our meals and it does not go unnoticed nor unappreciated.

Congratulations to Tara and Stephanie on acheiving her FMX! Sampsyn almost made it to his FM but was a few points short.

Moose was a bit overwhelmed on Saturday with everything. She was very concerned about the other lane after being chased by a BC warming up in the other lane while she was practicing, but pulled it together to earn 10 points in the final race on Saturday. She's going to be a great little height dog. She just needs a bit more confidence and experience.

Congratulations to Nanci and Roxy on making your re-debut! Roxy is looking good and I for one was happy to see that last overpass with Roxy on her last heat. She did it without hesitation or concern.

Despite the heat, we had some dogs to set new personal best times. Congratulations to Lindsey and Caynaa, who ran a 4.376 in the first race on Saturday, Lee and Gus who ran a 4.561 towards the end of the day on Saturday, and Annie, who ran a 4.951 in today's second race.

We also set a new team Multibreed record. Our new OFFICIAL record is 20.307, beating the previous Multibreed record of 20.38 set in 2003. This team consisted of Caynaa, Sampsyn, Annie, and Gus. This team actually ran a 20.121 today, but the heat was discounted when the timers in the other lane malfunctioned. If this had been counted it would have been FIF's best total time to date, breaking a 20.21 set in the regular division in 2001. I'd like to see First in Flight break 20 seconds and put us in the 19 second category. Maybe next time!

STATS:

Dog	Height	Best Time	Average Time	Best Start	Average Start
Annie	8	4.951	5.373
Caynaa	8	4.376	4.683	0.000	0.108
Charlie	11	6.274	6.598
Charlie	7	6.033	6.084
Duffie	10	5.817	6.351
Flye	10	4.121	4.285	0.001	0.082
Gal	10	5.055	5.570
Gus	8	4.561	5.122
Maddie	10	5.403	5.674
Misty	11	4.549	4.910	0.006	0.056
Misty	7	4.673	4.738
Moose	7	no data	no data
Ri-Ra	11	4.707	4.980
Ri-Ra	7	4.660	4.858
Roxy	10	6.110	6.730
Sampsyn	8	5.452	5.822
Sydney	10	5.452	5.808
Tara	11	5.553	6.086

Burlington Warp-Up and Stats from Donna 05-2011

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:16:45 +0100

I hope everyone has made it home safely after an enjoyable weekend of flyball. Beautiful weather and sunny dispositions make for the best weekends. Thanks to everyone for such a great time.

I really like the venue. Close to home, ample room, and plenty cool enough once we found some trees to park under today. And the inside racing area seemed to stay comfortable for the most part as well. I really missed our normal food spread, but, in hindsight, eating concession food on Saturday was the best choice. We seemed to be constantly in the ring with very little down time.

Thanks to everyone who pitched in and helped. All the jobs were covered and most times we had extra people left to cheer the teams on. Special thanks to our boxloaders, Mike and Cam. You do such a great job that sometimes we forget what a stressful and difficult task boxloading can sometimes be. Whatever changes we threw your way, you always seemed ready for us.

Special thanks also to Cathy and Susan,who made the trip even though they didn't have a dog to run. We always enjoy your company, with or without the dog! Hopefully Flye will be ready to race again soon. Darlene, be sure to pass along our thanks to Heide for doing such an awesome job of handling Gus. She's a great handler. Let Lee know that he was missed as well, but we hope his family time was enjoyable.

Congratulations to Doug and Ri-Ra on reaching 30,000 points and earning your FDGCH! What a great accomplishment and milestone.

Congratulations to Lynn and Gal an earning your FDCH-g! Gal is looking great and getting better and better every tournament.

All the teams did well in the points department. The teams were consistent and all the dogs ran very well. We may not have placed First in any division, but we held our own and provided some good tough competition at times. Everyone have a great week!

Dog	Jump Height	Fastest Time	Average Time	Fastest Start	Avg Start
Annie	8	5.467	5.575
Annie	10	5.279	5.773
Bizzi	8	4.763	5.045	0.007	0.196
Caynaa	8	4.533	4.831	0.021	0.172
Charlie	11	6.282	6.485
Duffie	10	5.397	5.951
Gas	10	5.157	5.382
Gus	8	4.653	4.975
Kessie	8	4.447	4.842
Kessie	11	4.56	4.933
Maddie	8	5.224	5.613
Misty	10	4.563	4.849	0.001	0.063
Misty	11	4.584	4.852	0.013	0.075
RiRa	10	4.549	4.703	0.001	0.176
RiRa	8	4.737	5.064
Sampsyn	8	5.4	5.762
Sydney	8	5.325	5.706
Tammi	8	5.995	6.642
Tara	11	5.286	5.708

Blacksburg Wrap-Up and Stats from Donna 04-2011

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:51:15 +0100

Hope everyone from the Blacksburg contingent has made it home safely. We missed all of you who couldn't make it.

The weather was a bit "breezy" and wet on Saturday and we were grateful for the indoor crating. Today was sunny and clear, and the wind kept the temps down. The dogs ran well. Blacksburg is one of my favorite venues, minus the almost always harrowing drive up :-) If it's not pouring rain, it's fog or icy temps. Or some combination of those.

Our Open Team, Full Throttle did very well, winning all of their races and placing First. We had some tight competition in a couple of races. The dogs ran almost flawlessly and racked up some major points as well. Only two overpasses kept us from a perfect weekend.

The Regular Team, Wright Flyers, who ended up in Divison One placed fourth as expected, but had some very respectable racing considering our competition. At the end of the day on Sunday, with only one race to go for all the teams, only a two point spread separated the teams in contention for Second, Third, and Fourth. We had bobbles here and there for all the dogs throughout the weekend, and by the last race on Sunday, the dogs were tired. It seemed they were putting their paws in the ring everytime we turned around. Even with tired dogs and some errors, everyone still managed a nice sum total of points for the weekend.

Congratulations go to Cathy and Flye for her FMCH! And congratulations to Dave and Tasha on earning her first five points! Gal and Lynn came close to their FDCH-g but didn't quite make it. However, she did pick up my challenge to break 5 seconds, and turned in a 4.855 (with a pass) on Saturday and clocked a 4.760 with a rerun.So congratulations on your new best times!

Thanks to everyone for pitching in and helping where needed. Special thanks to Tracy and Nanci for all your help on Saturday. We enjoyed your company, your cookies, and your help. You were missed on Sunday. Thanks to everyone else for doing whatever was necessary.

Cathy and Robin both won a couple of raffle prizes. No winnings for anyone else.

Dog Jump Height Fastest Time Average Time Points
(Fastest Start & Avg Start)

Annie		11		5.169			5.468		951
Charlie		11		6.225			6.549		951
Duffie		8		5.510			6.496		736
Flye	8		3.973		4.295	0.013		0.064		741
Gal		8		4.855			5.224		741
Misty	11		4.582		4.864	0.005		0.067		951
RiRa		11		4.773			5.185		951
Sampsyn		8		5.342			5.635		741
Tasha		8		7.810			7.958		5

Durham Wrap-Up and Stats from Sharon 04-2011

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:27:58 +0100

Day 1-
Had a great day of racing. Wish you all could have joined us.

Flyers got first place and Full Throttle placed 3rd. Flyer's best time was a 20.694. Gal has become very comfortable and is doing a great job.

Thottle is doing fine also, best time was a 21.319. Hard to win races when your opponets are running in the 20.'s, but they are doing well.

Just too windy today. Couple times I thought we would be blown away. Having a great time. Hope you all had good luck in Concord.

Day2

Made it home safe and sound. Dogs were so happy to get out of their crates and made laps around the house to stretch their legs. Hope everyone else made it home safely too.

First I want to thank everyone for a great weekend of racing.

And a big thank you to Dee and Twig for being a very solid dependable height dog. We love you both. The only thing lacking was the rest of you that were not there to enjoy the racing and good company.

Today was a repeat of yesterday as far as placings go. Flyers place first and Throttle was 3rd. Congratulations to Lynn and Gal FDCh title, Darlene and Lee and Gus for FMCH and our big surprise of the weekend was Moose earning her FD title.

The weather was beautiful much better then yesterday. We got informed that Amanda would not be at the tournament today because Kohl was about to have her puppies so that left Geoff to take care of it all. Also they pulled their R-2 team so that left Flyers with only GDG to run against and it was a green team so we basically walked over them turning in some times that were close to the breakout of 20.3. I believe today we had a 20.5 and that was with me holding Kessie. I am sure we could have easily broken out. Since we would run unopposed in half our races we gave Moose the biggest part of warmups. After lunch we decided to try a heat or two since she was showing such solid performance in her warm ups. So a quick call to Donna to make sure it would be fine with her we went forward. And wha la a new height dog is born. She looked like she had been doing this for years. She ran all 3 heats and did it perfectly well. We had a couple problems in two of the heats with other dogs but not Moose she was perfect. So the last race of the day we ran her again. Again it was perfect. This was the best senario to introducing her to racing. No distractions. Thanks to Lindsey for running her and everyone else who helped make this a good start to a long career for a very nice little dog. I know Susan was thrilled.

Stats

Dog	Best start	Avg Start	Best time	Avg time

Flye 7"	0.087	0.121	4.162	4.284
Flye 10"	0.004	0.102	4.097	4.246
Gal 7"			5.104	N/A
Gal 10"			5.006	5.324
Charlie 7"			6.144	6.38
Charlie 10"			5.677	6.548
Kessie 7"			4.931	5.374
Kessie 10"			4.398	4.755
Moose			6.047	7.834
Caynaa	0.04	0.158	4.568	5.308
Gus			4.667	5.027
Tara			5.35	5.618
Twig			5.151	5.867
Sydney	0.047	0.33	5.213	5.384
Maddie			5.212	5.498

Wilson Wrap-Up from Lindsey 03-2011

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:14:14 +0100

Hey Guys! Just wanted to let you know how the weekend went. It went really well! Caynaa did fabulously being thrown in with dogs and people she had never met. Libby passed her without incident. It was wonderfly releiving for me. I can't give you exact stats to use for Caynaa because, with trading workers, we didn't get all our races statted, but I can tell you her fastest time was a 4.467 (WOO HOO!!) with several 4.5s and 4.6s. Mostly she ran 4.7s and 4.8s with only a couple 5.0s and 5.1s. I know there was one 5.3, but i'm not sure what the incident was that made it that. I am pretty positive her average was under 5. (Donna I can give you an average of the races that were stated for your records if you want.) We ended up with 3rd place and 750 points - and that was with sacraficing a few heats to an older dog and greener dog who needed to feel like they were doing something. We knew making time with them may be hard, but after a near perfect day Saturday, it didn't feel like sacraficing at all.
Donna, You were right about NRE. We blended in with them like we'd been with them forever. Nice team. They've invited us to run with them in Blacksburg as well. (Since Caynaa and Libby were a dream team, they will likely run together again.) We aren't sure we are going yet, as we have a few other plans who's dates need to be checked. But it was nice of them to offer.
Anyway, I wanted to brag on Caynaa being quite a champ this weekend. She didn't have a single mess up and rocked the time clock (for Caynaa anyway! :)) It was a great first time OPEN experience and we enjoyed it. May people asked about you guys! Our FIF presence was noticeably missed! And of course we missed our team - and we didn't eat nearly as well! - but it was pretty good for a next best option.