Table Tennis Tournament

Impression by Michaël Goossens

On Sunday December the 14th, the first Cernum Table Tennis tournament took place in far, far away: Geert his home town Galmaarden.

36 players showed up! And this time, even I arrived on time :-)

To give all the participants the chance to play as many matches as possible, a complex program divided them amongst 2 advanced groups and 5 beginner groups.

But before the tournament could start, the local table tennis hero Filoe had to give us all a lecture about table tennis.

After battling through the group stages, 16 players qualified themselves for the final elimination round.

This resulted in a very high standard final between Bert 'The Mercenary' Schrauwen and Kevin De Cock.

Results:
Final: Bert Schrauwen - Kevin De Cock (3-0)
Battle for 3rd Place: Michael Goossens - Glenn Tordeurs (3-0)
Overall, I think the tournament was a big success!

Therefore: Big Thanks to TTC Galmaarden and everyone who helped to make this Cernum InMotion event possible.

Hope to see you all back next year!

For all the pictures, check out: http://picasaweb.google.com/CernumInMotion/TableTennisTournament2008#

Special thanks to Sammy Dierickx and his girlfriend for their pictures!

LAN Party

Impression of the LAN Party on Saturday:

By Thomas Louis:

I arrived at the scene at about 14.30. Few people were already there. But as we already knew, most of the people would drop by in the course of the afternoon. After solving some server issues (apparently Saskia was hosting a TrackMania server) and a lot of disconnects, we all started playing TrackMania as a preparation to the tournament of 20.00. This turned out to be a crazy race. If you took a wrong turn, you could start all over again. After 30 minutes of intense racing, we had a winner. It was Jan Verslegers who beat everyone and got away with the main prize. After some fresh heads most of us wound down playing some Fear and others with OpenArena (already as a preparation for the tournament of Sunday). EricT’s children were for sure having fun participating in most of the games and became addicted to Saskia’s laptop and ofcourse the Wii.
I think this was a great initiative and that the Second Edition will follow soon!

Impression of the LAN Party on Sunday:

By Olivier Schietecat:

Sunday's LAN-party was certainly one to remember. On arrival, I startled the bunch that had slept over at the high school. Saskia was cleaning up her professional camping material, while Michael was looking his very best. After having set up my laptop (which didn't compare to Sammy's gaming assets), we could finally begin the in-game slaughter. After Saskia went hunting for food on a late Sunday noon, we soon noticed who was going to win the OpenArena tournament: Cristian Ciuperca aka Lucifer! We exploded, got butchered, headshotted and finished gruesomely, and we enjoyed it! Afterwards, we switched to the game FEAR, which turned out to have a great 3D engine. It's safe to say we enjoyed killing eachother after all those days of peaceful cooperation.

By Sammy Dierickx:

The first Cernum LAN Party was a success! A great location, lots of PC and console games, more than enough food and drinks and a great atmosphere!
Even though I was only there on Sunday for a couple of hours I really enjoyed the games we played.

I especially enjoyed getting into close combat with my colleagues in a couple of very intense rounds of “F.EA.R. Combat”, which turned out to be a surprisingly well balanced first person shooter with great game play and a very high fun factor! I think this may be a runner-up for the next LAN Party tournament. For those of you who still believe first person shooters are a guys only thing, think again! We had a very worthy opponent in Saskia who handled her assault rifle very well and surprised me a few times with a couple of well aimed headshots and even a few frag grenades!

The fact that we got surprised by heavy snowfall and that it took me nearly four hours(!) to drive back home couldn’t really spoil the fun I had at the LAN Party.
It may have been the first, but certainly not the last one we organized (but I would prefer it to be held on a sunny day though)!

For all the pictures of the LAN Party, check out: http://picasaweb.google.com/CernumInMotion/LANParty2008#

Golf Initiation

Impression of the golf initiation by Michael (and Eric Tordeurs):

I focus my attention on the ball, I say a tough line: "I'm gonna get you sucker!!!" The golf coach is watching, I have to hit the ball or he'll kick my ass. The pressure, I can't handle it... but I have to.
I swing the club like we were told to do and POW!!! Off he goes, like a rocket! 125m Ow yeah.

"Beginner's luck!", the coach says. And I think he was right. The next balls all went 1m over the edge OR far far and away... In the field with the cows on the right, over and over.

Hans Devos told me that there's a reason the golf balls have these small holes on the surface. The size of the holes has an effect on how the ball flies through the air (if you get it off the ground in the first place).

But I think "my balls" only had holes in them on the right side, or the left side, or whatever.
Anyway I had a great time, I think most people did.
So that evening the cows ate a lot of golf balls. We didn't! We had one hell of a great meal!

Also the atmosphere at the après-golf reached the meanwhile well known level of fun and ‘laughing out loudly’ !

However … a hidden side of the youngest attendee showed up unexpectedly… “enjoy” her paparazzo work in attached photo book …

Thanks Sas for another great experience at Cernum!!!

I'm looking forward to the next event, being the pingpong tournament … If YOU didn’t subscribe yet : shame on you ! ;-)

Greetz,

Michael

For all the pictures of the golf (and après-golf!) check out: http://picasaweb.google.com/CernumInMotion/GolfInitiation#

Tennis Tournament 2008

Impression by Kevin:



The Cernum Open is becoming a pretty big tournament on the international tennis calendar.
I guess it is ranked in the top ten by now, not so much behind Wimbledon and Roland Garros.

This year we had the honour to invite 12 double teams for the tournament.
Some participants were a little more experienced than others, but all eager and ready to show off their great serve or their destroying forehand.
At some point even Mario was willing to give us a little demonstration of how to hit a homerun (although I think he mixed up some sports. But trying to be remembered …)

After some heroic battles (remember the clash between the Tordeurs and the Wijns families) in the qualifiers, 6 teams fought their way up to participate in one of the 3 grand finals.

Clearly you could feel the tension in the arena, some of them trembling of excitement (stress, stress, stress), and hoping not to miss their appointment with history.

And, the remaining of the story is history …

One day (somewhere in 2090) a little child will ask his father how the name of his grandfather ended up on that list with great champions like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and many more … those who won the “Cernum Open”!


Results by Saskia:

Sunday 07/09/2008: we hoped it would be a beautiful day to play tennis...unfortunately it was raining cats and dogs...but that didn’t stop all the enthusiastic players (beginners and advanced) to show up and play doubles on the indoor courts. We had 4 groups with each 3 teams. After the first 2 matches, the semi-finals and finals for first, second and third place were played. Results of the finals:

Final for 3rd place:

Dave De Poorter + Anneleen De Vos
against
Yves De Kelper + Michael

Final for 2nd place:

Michel Smekens + Koen De Koker
against
Glenn Tordeurs + Renaat Van Dorpe

Final for 1st place:

Kevin De Cock + Lien Marien
against
Eric Tordeurs + Leen Tordeurs

Winners:

3rd place: Yves De Kelper + Michael (6-3)
2nd place: Michel Smekens + Koen De Koker (6-4)
1st place: Kevin De Cock + Lien Marien (6-3)

Congratulations to all players!

You can check out the pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/CernumInMotion/TennisTournament2008#

Dodentocht 2008

08/08/2008 was indeed a good day to start on the challenge of walking 100km in 24hrs, aka the Dodentocht! Believers Geert Wouters, Jimmy Laureys and Steven Reynaert (and their friends Kurt and Mario) started around 21h00 in Bornem (some more prepared than others but all highly motivated). The supporters Christel, Katleen and I followed them by car to provide them with food, drinks and care every 5km. Soon the group split up, due to changing and different paces, this meant more work for the followers, but on the bright side this also meant: lower risk to fall asleep while waiting for the walkers to arrive at the cars :-)
The first painful stop was in the morning, after 50km: besides breakfast, we also took care of aching blisters, sore muscles and fading motivation...But off they went, for the second part of their challenge!
Unfortunately Steven and Mario had to cease their attempt to finish the 100km...But congratulations to both, after all, they DID walk 60km.
And also congratulations to Jimmy, he pushed himself to extremes but unfortunately he had to throw in the towel after 65km.
At this time, the followers had to split up because Kurt was in the lead, followed by Geert, but with approximately 2hrs difference. The last 20 km were a mental struggle for both, but we are proud to say that they made it! Kurt finished around 17h45 and Geert reached the end around 21h00, congratulations guys! Remarkable and impressive display of persistence and endurance!

See you all next year for the 40th edition of the Dodentocht?

Check out the pictures before, during and after: http://picasaweb.google.com/CernumInMotion/Dodentocht08082008

Indoor Soccer Tournament

Impression by Tom Patrouille

Too late, that was already the good start of the Cernum-BD team. With some luck Cernum 1 was completed before the start of the first match. Only 6 players were present at 1.15 pm, but especially the most important person was missing, Jowan. Jowan should have been the leader of the team or should we say the protector of the goal, the goalkeeper. But a tough night may have been the cause of his delay or was it just the woman in him that couldn't read the map? As substitute Tom P was offered, with already a very important statement to prove :" Sex before the game, is it good? ". Finally we could start the tournament, with a team that was formed of the first people that were present, so without high expectation. The team: Tom De Ridder, David Vincent, Kevin De Cock, Glenn Tordeurs, Bart Desmadryl, Maarten Vrebos, Tom Patrouille.
The first match was against You Consulting. I don't know if we could call it a match, because our own goalkeeper wasn't tested a bit. Score 3-0 without any problems. Good for the team spirit and moral! While we were drinking, Cernum 2 was defeated. The second game against Eclips was a bit heavier but we could hold the huge pressure, so the game ended without any goal scored. Two games past without losing, we began to dream of the final ... but that seemed a bit too soon. The third game against KBC was one hard fight, chances on both sides but no goals ... for a long time. But in the last minutes of the game, KBC could take the lead and never gave it away. First loss and first goal against, the final was now slipping out of our hands. Against Cernum 2 we had to win to go to the final, but don't think Cernum 2 was planning to give us any gifts. Cernum 2 defeated us with 2-1 after several important saves of Jowan, who became a very important part of the team. Now winning against Eozen was the only possible way to end the first round. Eozen had the chances but couldn't score, while we could and so the game ended with 1-0 victory.After the first round KBC and Eclips ended first and second place, while we ended third. Cernum 2 ended fourth, so they would be our last opponents of the day. That game would decide who would get the third place and be the best Cernum team. After a long hard day and the loss of Bart Desmadryl, who fell out with a knee injury, we stood up and defeated Cernum 2 ... Or was it just a dream? Unfortunately it was a dream, we were defeated by the stronger Cernum 2 team. Maybe the most interesting part of the game to mention was the loving touch between Kevin and Jowan. We always knew they had something, but never thought they would show it so soon in public. After that moment, Kevin failed to finish several huge chances ... coincidence? The game ended with a 4-1 loss.

A word from the winning team:

At first, KBC was very pleased to be invited for this tournament. Therefore, thanks to the responsibles and their well organized event. Although we didn't have any experience in Indoor Soccer, we're glad to win the "cup with the big ears" ! So, if anyone wants win the cup next year ... join KBC ;- )

Report of the post-soccer-activities by Maarten Vrebos

Finally we arrived at the best part of the day (besides showering all together of course, looking for pieces of soap on the floor): FOOD!

Meeting point was restaurant ‘De Wiering’ in Leuven, a fine and cozy place where every carnivore would go nuts if he had a look at the large quantities of tasty meat on the menu. Nevertheless, some people still decided to take some girly dish like salmon with mashed potatoes (as it was probably promoted by that week’s Flair), so 5 minutes later they started drooling at other people’s plate. Always taking care of the less fortunate in our society, I instantly gave the poor JC a piece of my delicious ribs. The man went silent for a moment, quite an emotional and unique moment these days. After a lot of laughs, a couple of drinks and a really good dinner, we went to café “Eclips”, a gayish bar at the “Ouw Markt” for a free barrel of beer. As none of us brought their leather pants, we decided to stay outside on the terrace. A pity, because some of us were in the mood for some fine “YMCA”-singalongs inside. Better luck next time, guys! The group was smaller now, as some people had other obligations, but that meant more drinks for us, so no one complained. After a few beers, some Believers were even looking for a new/extra girlfriend, it didn’t even matter if they were half their age! The mind (or…) of the married man works in mysterious ways. Maybe if you check YouTube.com with the tags “BI”, “Consultant”, “drunk” and “minor girls”, you’ll find out how their evening evolved. Anyway, I had a really good time so please bring on the next BBQ/diner/drink!

Interested in all the pictures of that day? Check out http://picasaweb.google.com/CernumInMotion/IndoorSoccerTournament

Snowboard initiation

Learn to glide

Ever since I joined Cernum people have been playing with the idea to do a ski or snowboard initiation with the colleagues, but often at the end of the evening the brilliant idea was put back in the closet together with the freshly washed beer glasses. However thanks to the persistence of some of us we finally got a date set to challenge the white slopes.

When (almost) everybody was at the indoor slope we could start the most difficult task of the day. Find a pair of boots that fit (especially when you needed a size 43), and a board that goes with it. With everybody fully equipped we were finally ready to face the cold. The experienced skiers and boarders went straight to the elevator and up the hill. The rookies were left under my wing. Because 15 people subscribed to the initiation we asked Ice Mountain” if they could provide an additional teacher. As a result, the charming Faye offered to take a part of my burden. Due to a series of unfaithful events only 12 were able to join, all taken still a large group, so I asked all newbies to choose an instructor for the day. As Faye was a nice young Lady, and 11 of the participants were male, I expected to have the smallest group to instruct, but one way or the other I ended up with 7 anxious students.

Like all sports we started with a small warming up followed by some basic exercises to familiarise yourself with the material. For an instructor this is the moment where you can predict the pace of the course. When your group already loses balance at the skating and star-jump on a flat piece of snow, you are bound to go real slow. Luckily everybody performed these exercises without any hick-up; so time to take it to the next level. By lack of an elevator we started hiking up the mountain. Somewhere 1/3rd up the mountain we regrouped and we started with the first real gliding experiment: let somebody help you up to your feet and direct your board in the fasted gliding position and just let go and hope you won’t crash. Again everybody completed this task successfully. At this moment in time I was sure everybody had the balance and the fearless attitude which is highly advisable when you start snowboarding, so now the real work could begin.

First mission: get to the bottom of the slope in a controlled fashion (meaning be able to brake at any time) and the best way to do this is to continuous brake until you reach the end of the slope. Braking appears to be a vague term. Some of us, like Kamikaze Tom, interpret braking as every speed which is below the high way minimal speed. Others consider braking as no motion at all. Luckily we were able to find the golden path in between.

Second mission: try to reach the left and right side of the slope on your way down. When you continuous brake, you scrape of the top layer of snow, and this is no fun for the ones using the slope after you, so time to use our board to glide from the left to the right side. In this exercise I had to admit I was working with highly gifted students. Everybody was able to perform the exercise in their first try, and only minor corrections were needed as a preparation for the next task.

Third mission: glide forward. Like a car, a snowboard can move forward and backward, and up to now we didn’t care how we were sliding, as long as we got down without falling over it was fine. However when you want to take longer slopes, the techniques up to now can become boring and fatiguing, so in preparation to the next level (curves) we needed to go through the most important basic technique: gliding forward (and only forward). And of course like in all things, when you point out a “law” you always have people who by nature can’t obey, so when I explained the goal of sliding forward, my first guinea pig decide to go backwards, lucky for him the time period for the lesson ended and I could just tell him to pay attention to going forward before I had to answer the calling of the group of more experienced boarders to go up the steeper slope and goof around a bit.

Each time I went up the elevator I took a look to my right on the other slope to see how everybody was getting along with his experiments, and I have to say that all did well; some even got the thrill to take the elevator on the steep slope and glide down the track without crashing.

I hope everybody who joined got a good sense of what snowboarding is about and I hope they are going to go further, because it is all down hill from here, and I know you’ll love it.

Enjoy Mario

For more, many more pictures, please check this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/duhoux.patrice/Ski

(Thank you Patrice!)

Mountainbike Tour

Saturday, April 26, it was the perfect day for a relaxed MTB tour in the beautiful surroundings of Holsbeek, Leuven: