14&U L&D Tournament and Cheshire Alf Harland Trophy Game 13th November Europa Pools, Birkenhead.
Warrington travelled to Birkenhead for the annual L&D Tournament. Southport had pulled out this year leaving just Warrington, Bridgefield, Liverpool and Chester to participate.
Teams played 2 x 7 minute halves with a stopping clock.
Chester, Liverpool and Bridgefield had a good player turnout with most fielding a full, or close to full, team – Warrington in contrast had 8 down to play but only 7 on the day, Alf Shelley had to pull out after sustaining a football injury on the day. Warrington would be playing with the minimum number of players with no subs or rest opportunities and would be outnumbered by every team they come up against.
The first game saw Liverpool lose out 6-3 to Chester. Chester stayed in to play Bridgefield next, who put in a powerful performance winning the match 17-0 and setting an impressive standard to beat.
3rd Match saw Warrington take to the water for the first time against Liverpool. Warrington dominated from the beginning with some excellent play with most of the action kept in Liverpool’s half of the pool. Emily in Warringtons goal had a mostly uneventful match whilst the rest of the team blocked, tackled, passed, drove and scored to a 18-0 win!
Warrington stayed in the pool, this time to play against Chester. The result of this game was also being used to determine the winner of the Cheshire Alf Harland Trophy, so lots to play for. Warrington anticipated a tougher match this time, we started with an early goal after winning the swim off, but then Chester came straight back with a couple of goals from some fast drives into Warrington’s goal area. Warrington switched up their positions and took control of the rest of the game, Chester bagged another goal but Warrington prevailed finishing the match 16-3. One trophy secured, Warrington were in good spirits.
Warrington got to sit the next match out whilst Liverpool played Bridgefield. Bridgefield put in another strong performance winning 13-0 this time.
Last game of the day was between Warrington and Bridgefield for 1st and 2ndplaces. Warrington, expecting a fierce game from Bridgefield, focussed on defense and playing on the break. It was a scrappy game with plenty of scrimmages – Brett, seemingly under pressure from two to three Bridgefield players constantly, pushed hard to find routes through, Louis was rolling around with his opponent on the left wing like a couple of fighting alligators and Katie took an elbow to the nose but heroically shook it off and carried on. Kelsey playing centre-forward had some strong drives on goal and we had a series of very close shots on goal that missed by a very narrow margin. Annie, playing in centrefield, kept pressure on any players entering her area and had some good drives up the pitch, whilst Emily I played some great defence, putting in firm, but legal, tackles. Emily A, under more pressure now, worked hard to protect our goal but with Bridgefield shooting at almost point blank range even when she blocked the shot Bridgefield managed to pick up some goals on the rebound. Warrington played hard and played well but it was Bridgefield who took the 1st place finishing the game 10-3.
Outnumbered but definitely not outclassed Warrington finished the tournament in 2nd place with a Cheshire Trophy to boot – in addition Brett was awarded Top Goalscorer of the tournament. The whole team played brilliantly and their superb performance with so few players was praised by organisers and officials.
For full results of tournament click here
Team
Emily Atkinson (GK)
Emily Ireland (5)
Kelsey Evans (5)
Louis Stowell (7)
Annie Scholl
Katie Bowater (5)
Brett Takemoto (15)
Coach
Craig Stowell