Welcome to the latest edition of The Drill Team Blog. Today we’ll recap the motorized drill in Lindenhurst from over the weekend. Later in the week we’ll have our very first interview and a recap of the Junior Drill as well.
The new Post Entry system was in effect for the first time at this drill. Some of our regular score keepers who obviously did not read last week’s blog were kind of perplexed and made a few mistakes. But thanks to the Jolly Tinker Hose pencils that were handed out with the scorecards the corrections were made easily. The Bay Shore Redskins and The East Islip Guzzlers were not in attendance as they usually are but it was good to see the Joe Hunter Memorial Scoreboard was up and running showing this year’s sponsors as well as the day’s stats.
There was some buzz in the stands about the fact that a lot of teams were not able to practice as much as they normally do because of the weather. An unusual cold and rainy spring is not something that drill teams welcome.
Announcer and official, Bill Rowse, started the day with his traditional "Gentleman, Start Your Sneakers!" Teams all lined up waiting their turn to run in their usual colored uniforms except for the Islip Wolves who have adopted a grey shirt with blue lettering.
3- Man Ladder was very generous to some teams and very unforgiving to others. For the first time in many years Matt Spinelli of the Yellow Hornets was not in the lineup for the Hempstead Yellow Hornets. The Hornets failed to place, which left room for the Highlanders and the Taildraggers to get into the top five. The Islip Wolves changed more than their uniforms with the retirement of Billy Moon and some restructuring. The third man was running in his first tournament and did a great job helping them score a 6.93. Congratulations to Jake Moran on running in his first motorized tournament after spending a few years in the juniors.
B-Ladder and C-Ladder were run with no complications or slow downs. Every ladder from every team was measured by the officials who did it with excellent efficiency. All the ladders passed muster and there were no delays because of the measuring. With Scott Rice retiring from racing, the Flying Dutchmen welcomed back driver Bob Marra after a couple years away from the driver’s seat. We’re guessing there wasn’t much rust to shake off because they placed 1st in the event with a time of 5.10 seconds.
In C-Ladder we saw Copiague run their C-Truck for the first time with a borrowed backup engine from Westbury FD. They tied with North Lindenhurst for 4th place. West Sayville won the event with an 8.88 and Central Islip (9.00) and Roslyn (9.24) placed 2nd and 3rd in the contest.
C-Hose was rather eventful. Central Islip ran a 12.38 and had their hose pulled until the end of the event for testing. Copiague ran next and put up a 12.54 and also had their hose pulled. After testing, both teams’ hoses were not within tolerance. The time of the water through the State hose was 4.79. Teams are allowed to run up to 0.15 seconds faster than the state hose. The time of the water through Central Islip’s hose was 4.63 which put them just 0.01 seconds above the allowed limit. Copiague’s hose was rumored to have tested at even faster. The officials confiscated the hose and held it in the timing truck for the rest of the day. Both teams were disqualified from the event which enabled Roslyn and Hicksville to jump to 4th and 5th place. The C.I. disqualification proved crucial for West Sayville by helping them build on their lead while keeping the Hoboes from putting themselves in contention for 1st place overall.
In B-Hose, the Hempstead Yellow Hornets placed 1st with a time of 7.93 seconds. The Flying Dutchmen placed second with the Lindenhurst Snails, Port Washington Roadrunners and Riverhead Ironmen rounding out the top five.
Efficiency had four of the top five times in the 9’s. Copiague finished 1st in the contest with 9.23 with Central Islip, Glenwood, North Lindenhurst and Hicksville behind them. Coming out of Efficiency the Flying Dutchmen had 22 points. The next closest teams were the Hoboes with 13, the Yellow Hornets with 12 and the Yellowbirds with 11.5 points. West Sayville had a comfortable lead in the drill but there was an entertaining battle for 2nd place going on.
We got to see the usual spraying of the crowd in Motor Pump. West Sayville ran the only 5 of the day (5.94) and Hicksville filled out the bottom of the top five with a 6.49.
West Sayville entered the Buckets Contest with 27 points and even though they had the tournament win sealed, they still reeled off a 1st-place Buckets run with a time of 21.84. Meanwhile, the fight for second place overall was still on. Hempstead took 2nd place in the event to lock up 2nd-place in the tournament. The Piston Knockers pointed their way in to the overall top five by taking 3rd while 4th and 5th place went to Lindenhurst and Copiague respectively. The Amityville Villains debuted their new bucket shirts which were in memory of Zach Bernstein who was recently killed in a car accident. When it was all said and done, this is what the top-five looked like:
At the end of the day the top five teams were as follows:
1st Place – West Sayville Flying Dutcment - 32 Pts.
2nd Place – Hempstead Yellow Hornets - 20 Pts.
3rd Place – Copiague Yellowbirds - 15.5 Pts.
4th Place – North Lindenhurst Piston Knockers - 13.5 Pts.
5th Place – Central Islip Hoboes - 13Pts.
Kudos goes out to the host of the first drill of the season for putting on a good show. The Chief Judge for the day Anthony R. ran the drill with great ease and confidence. The day went even smoother due to the plethora of officials in attendance. Let’s hope they continue to come out as the season progresses. The next Drill to be run is the Northern New York Convention at Copenhagen on June 6th. The maiden voyage The Great Bend Cobras newly acquired B-Truck should add some excitement to the drill.
Full Stats for the drill can be found at www.NYSDrillTeams.com
Great job.
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