John Redmond

It is with great sadness that we have to announce the passing of John Redmond. He exemplified the spirit of the league with his perseverance, humour and love of the game. The thoughts of everyone in the league are with his teammates at Fat Albert's Scandal and his friends and family. For those who didn't know John well, I urge you to read his obituary in the Korea Times. He had an extraordinarily rich and varied life and will be very much missed by the wider Itaewon community.

We will be hosting a tournament for John to help raise some money to cover funeral costs, help meet his family's travel expenses and other such sundries. It will take place on June 2nd at venues still to be decided. We will have a raffle, Calcutta auction, and an entrance fee. Lenny and I will be travelling around the arenas this Wednesday to sell raffle tickets in advance. You don't have to be at the event on June 2nd to purchase tickets so I would urge you to bring some cash on Wednesday evening and give generously. Thank you in advance.

Update: Funeral Arrangements

Soonchunhyang Univ. Hospital (2nd Floor)

Hannam Dong

Embassy Route 59

Yongsan Gu, Seoul

Ph: 02 709 9983

Friday 25th May 10am (open for 24 hours till 10am May 26th)

I think it is also about time I reviewed the season while I'm here...

Championship A:

This Wednesday is squeaky bum time for Rats and Strokers. Only two points separate the Brats from the Strollers and Paul, Matt et al. must be getting slightly nervous about the prospect of finishing first as they honestly believe it to be a jinx when it comes to the playoffs. Wonky's are currently 3rd, around 87 points behind the top two and Soupy Power look set to take 4th. Pinoy have been disappointing this season, Doo Mann is too busy cleaning tables and distracting his teammates from playing the pool we know they are capable of. Angry (they are not really angry and are possibly the sweetest team in the league) Birds have had a decent season while King Pub Seoul will finish bottom but have been competitive. A word too about an incredible effort from Paul Riddle who managed to rise above 2100 in the rankings. In a league as strong as this it was a great achievement, so far ahead was he that a player ranked 1829 (Ronan) looks likely to pick up the Goliath Award for beating him ;)

Championship B:

I would call this the squeaky bum division as there are 4 teams fighting not to be promoted to Championship A. 4 points separate Rat Chow in 1st to BBlazing Bulls in 4th. The league will be looking very closely at these matches on Wednesday night to see who chokes, who croaks and who strokes. Amazingly, none of the top 4 are playing each other on Wednesday so they will all be shooting blind wondering what is going on in the other gladiatorial battlefields. Kozels (the league disapproves of blatant sponsorship) and BBBBBBBBlazing (not literally now I hope) Bulls have the slightly easier matches but anything can and probably will happen. Sweet Life have settled into mid-table security, Jumping Jacksies have been consistent which leaves relegation down to Brown Hole or Tiredballs.

Championship C:

An interesting division that has really been the tale of two teams. Russell's Money Shot asked many good strokers (Maki, Sheery, Calvin etc.) to cum over his end. He thought he had the division sewn up. Then along came the aptly named Troublemakers who begged, prayed and offered favours to league officials to be put in C division because they were simply not good enough for the dizzying heights of B. They brought with them an array of toys, gadgets, gizmos and even a trainer, lifestyle coach and a masseuse in their pursuit of glory. Cute Tits (yes David, that name is for you!) have been helped by Jeff who deserves thanks for telling the league committee who everyone was on that team. Scandal have been very generous as always, allowing Pheasants to pick up their only real win of the season. Fartgates have blown hot and cold but have had to wave goodbye to half their team this year. Bulls are there too, I'd like to write something witty and clever about you but I simply have no idea who you are apart from Klau. And finally, we have Upper Deck, or we had Upper Deck...until they sunk with out trace last week.

Good luck to all in the playoffs, I hope you had fun this season and see you on Wednesday night.