Jeremy Davis wins '08 IceHouse Invitational w/pics

[JG]

The results are in...

[glow=red,2,300]Your 2008 Burlington IceHouse Invitational Winners are[/glow]...

"A" Flight:
[glow=red,2,300]1st Place - Jeremy Davis, CT
2nd Place - John Gaffney, NJ
3rd Place - Bill Brooks, NJ[/glow]

"B" Flight:
[glow=red,2,300]1st Place - Jason James, NJ[/glow]

"C" Flight:
[glow=red,2,300]1st place - Jordon Beattie, Toronto, Canada [/glow](yes, the JORD76, and yes he took home some hardware!!! Turns out he's a great guy who likes to play bubble hockey and have fun doing it - what a novel idea! So to the haters out there, the jokes on you!)

There were lots of great stories from the tournament - lots of food, brews, laughs, and of course bubblin'! Special thanks to Lisa for putting up with all the bubblin', but also for getting the food and helping clean up for us, and for keeping me from going insane with all the stupid mistakes I kept making entering the scores (my apologies to everyone - I normally do a MUCH better job with that stuff - yikes, was I a bonehead all day!!!).

As for the bubble hockey, no one went undefeated and everyone won a game, so that's a good day. There were lots of upsets and lots of great series played in the double elim portion of the tournament. The guys from Canada fared well in their first US tournament, and were great guys to hang with - cracking jokes, bustin' balls, all the stuff the rest of us are used to. The young boys from CT came and all advanced into the "A" flight - 3 out of the 8 spots - and of course Jeremy won again (I know, you're all shocked). The Power brothers from NY did well, too, and have vowed to get into some SJBHL (South Jersey Bubble Hockey League) game play in the fall '08. And of course our SJBHL members did extremely well - I won the #1 overall seed after pool play (including wins over Bill and Jeremy, thank you very much) and won the "A" flight Winner's Bracket (only to be double-dipped by Jeremy for the title - still, a real good job by me!!!). Bill took 3rd place in the "A," Brian and Zane made the ultra competitive "A" flight too. Our own Jason James and Marc Krasner fought for the "B" title (advantage - Jason!). So nice job by the SJBHL in a tournament loaded with talent!

I'll do a more complete write-up in www.njbubblehockey.org in the next few days, with stats, and hope to load some pictures to the site as well. Until then, thanks as always for the great time and thanks as always for the respect all of you have always shown my house - Lisa and I appreciate it more than you know. My tournaments are "invitational" for a reason, and there has never been any issue or any problem with any of you at any time. That just keeps me wanting to do it more! So look for another tournament sometime in the fall '08, and until then...cue up Sully...BUBBLE ON!!!

PS - yes, Larry was hammered, but he stayed up pitching washers until after midnight, blew a .28 on the breathalyzer, and slept upstairs in our 2nd bedroom until 11:30am the next day. Think he had fun? d**n straight!

Here's some photos...












Thanks to all who came out - 17 players in all. Look for the complete tournament writeup at: [glow=red,2,300]www.njbubblehockey.org[/glow]

JG

[bmbro34]

Hey JG, thank you again for putting on the invitational. I had tons a fun at the event and was thankul for a great opportunity to play against the great competition and meet some new people. Look forward to the next league and invitational.

Bill

[rtklu]

Hello JG

I see that your IceHouse Tourney was a success again. Since you have the knowledge of pulling off a great tourney, could you send me a email with the details of how to start up a tourney in Detroit/Windsor area. We have a bar that is interested ASAP to have a tourney here before the stanley cup is won. I played in the St. Louis Tourney last year and ended up in 5th. Let me know how to best contact you also (phone, email, etc).

Thank you.

Ray K

[JG]

Hey Ray:

You can contact me via email at: [e-mail]

I can then email you the tournament rules I use, and sheets with my explanations of pool and bracket play, and some sample Excel Spreadsheet bracket sheets that I find very useful for keeping track of stats and who plays who. If interested send me an email.

JG.

[JG]

Guys, thanks for all the emails I've gotten about the tournament. I personally could have done a better job with the data entry, but I won't make the same mistake next time - next time, I'm writing everything down and doing data entry in my free time, not after every game (that will speed things along and lead to less errors by me - hopefully). All in all though it seems everyone had a really good time. I'm always open for suggestions about how to improve things, so please let me know any ideas you might have.

The response has been pretty good about trying to hold these tournaments more often, and I'm committed to doing between 2-3 per year. I'm thinking of the next one being in October '08. Look for more info posted here on Chexxfan.com, or my website: [glow=red,2,300]www.njbubblehockey.org[/glow]

[rtklu]

Thanks JG. Please look in your e mail box. It would be great to get some info as soon as you can ( in a couple of days if you can).
I am interested in learning more about what we can do with the data entry issue to improve. Is a possible example: getting someone that is NOT playing handle all the stats?? Thanks