Friday 20th March, a chilly evening. Paul and Adam are inside Le Cocq Du Nord in St Sampsons, they're hands griped on steel. It is the final of The Heineken Champions League Table Football Competition. The prize you say? An unbelievable all expenses paid trip to a CL quarter final.
The preliminary stages of the tournament were held in four different locations, The Last Post, The Brewery, Le Cocq Du Nord and the Albert Arms. Our competition began at the Albert Arms where we overcame four teams and were catapulted
into the semi finals.
Cue the training montage, Paul 'The Wall' Smith and Adam 'Rocket' Roberts went all out. 3 ½ pints and two practice sessions later and we were ready to go.
Finally the day came, the semi's and the final we to be staged at Le Cocq at 8.00pm. But the team were not alone, we were joined by Coach Ric, Piet, Natasha and Team Manager George from The Albert Arms. In a fortunate draw, the team from Albert Arms/BW got The Brewery.
The Semi final was a shaky affair, a best out of three match with everything to play for. Having never played on Le Cocq's home ground before, our team was nervous. The first match was a close long ball game, however after losing a few early goals AA/BW eventually won 10-8. The second game was compared to a literal rebirth and resulted in a demolition at 10-4. The Wall played out of his skin and the Rocket defended his face off.
The Final was a totally different ball game. Dressed in matching football tops, Adam and Paul moved into position. They were greeted by an apparent 'semi-pro' and 'the glove', these guys were the real deal. Forget the walkovers, the whitewashes and the snakes this was going to be our teams' biggest test. The word hurricane gets thrown around these days, but in this case, it is definitely what hit us. In a best out of five final it could of been a marathon, unfortunately this time Paul and Adam weren't running. 'The glove' (their defense) was a great player, quick, with many moves. His partner was consistent and knew the game well. We weren't playing up to our normal standard, although even if we were it would have only delayed the inevitable. The AA/BW duo lost 10-4, 10-6, 10-2. The dream was over, sweaty and deshevelled we retreated home, we had been put in our place.
1 response so far ↓
1 Ric // Mar 24, 2009 at 9:37
As coach I am naturally disappointed with the result — I felt we had a real chance today. But I by no means feel let down. My players gave everything out there today, they never gave up and kept on twisting the bars until the very end. I was especially pleased with their performance in the first match. Early nerves were evident but soon conquered and they came back strongly from a slow start to put in some very impressive performances. The final was always going to be a difficult game against a more experience opponent and at the end of the day that showed through. However I feel very, very proud to not only coach, but simply to know these two great sportsmen. You’ll never walk alone!
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