1/7/07 - Fred - Invicta Juniors Win the ASA National Title
Another great week-end for Invicta.
My only problem is that we all have to shoot of home afterwards and we can’t really celebrate.
It is an age old problem but unless they play the finals on a Saturday and the semi finals on the Sunday there is no answer.
Started off with a surprisingly easy victory over Manchester. 11 – 5. I was very disappointed by the Manchester team. Considering the money being
thrown at them and the facilities they have got they only managed to turn up with ten players. Alan played a blinder, blotting out their one real star.
He got a sore mouth, three majors and he won’t be able to appear on the cover of Playgirl for a few weeks but he did the job.
Scorers in that match Jack 4, Sean 2, Greg 2, Alex 1, Paul 1, Conrad 1.
The Final against Sutton was as tense as you would expect. Maybe we were overconfident but we started slowly again (see above).
Quarterly scores (Sutton first) 1 – 0, 3 – 2, 5 - 5, 9 - 6. Slight scare in the second quarter when Sean (pointy head) lost his cap and had to come out.
I had covered every eventuality in the world (I even had a portable bar-b-q in case the team got hungry at half time), EXCEPT A SPARE SET OF GREEN HATS.
‘Bull in a china shop’ Martin tore two blue apart to get spare ties which wasn’t much good because the hat had disappeared. I think Sean had swallowed it.
It just left me with two ruined blue hats. I then discovered why FINA have made the half time break five minutes. So I can run to my car and get a spare set of hats.
One and a half miles in 2 minutes 19 seconds (honest). I timed in on the match clock. The sight of a tall athletic man running through Manchester in the
pouring rain, carrying a set of green water polo hats, certainly turned a few heads. In fact one very nice Asian family actually applauded me as I ran past and
tried to put a donation in my hand. We got Sean back in the game and it all came well in the end although Sutton swear they were cheated by biased refereeing.
Scorers - Jack 3, Alan 2, Sean 2, Greg 2.
Star of the week end was undoubtedly Alan Benton who was forced to step up two divisions in class to keep goal for both teams because Rob was somewhere
on the Costa ‘something’ chasing half naked young ladies along the beach. Once he caught them I have no doubt, being a goalkeeper, he promptly dropped them.
I enjoyed the weekend. Thanks to everybody who came along to play and support the players. 45 of us sat down to dinner, which was a surprise to the chef
because I only booked for 30, and was the reason Dave King didn’t get his mixed grill until nearly 11 o’clock.
Here is to next year with Sutton swearing revenge. |
