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Norton Cyclones are top in their league - Top over the West coast wasps. That has got to make them the favourite for this tournament. As I remember them, they have a few strong players but erratic team play. Lets see if our team play can beat them.

Within the first few minutes Karim managed to slip in a goal, and the lads confidence grew. The Nortons replied. We managed another and again the nortons replied. This looked like it was going to be a good close match. Our confidence then managed to exceed our ability , and we started to make some basic defensive errors and let in 1, 2 then three goals. We replied a few times, but the Nortons seemed to have got the measure of us and had woken up. Final score 8:4 to the Norton Cyclones.

This means we have just got to win the next match at 4:30 this afternoon, against the Enforcers, to stand any chance of staying in the competition.

16:30 Oxford Tornadoes v Enforcers

The match started badly, we went 2:0 down far too easily. We had plenty of opportunities, but they had one player (no 21) who their team seemed to focus on. He was a head taller than any one else on the pitch, and seemed to be able to find our goal from any where. We pulled back two goals, and looked like we should be able to win this. But after every one of our goals, this number 21 managed to get another goal. Two of them from behind the halfway line. We pulled back to 4:4 within the last few minutes, but we needed an outright win to stop coming last in our group. We fought, and fought but couldn't get that damn ball in the net. The whistle went on a 4:4 draw. We had a worse goal difference than the Enforcers and so we are last in our group. That means we can do no better than 9th this weekend. The good news is that our first match tomorrow will therefore be 10:30 instead of 9:00 - not much consolation.

Sunday. 10:30 against Brighton street stormers.

Brighton stepped in to replace the checkers who pulled out. They havn't won a match yet..but then neither have we!

We started fast and hard and very soon put away a goal. Brighton where looking very weak, and we soon put away another and then another. Out of desperation, Brighton started to go very physical. First one, then two then three, then four then 5 in the sin bin. They only had one player left on the bench! We completely dominated the game, and the lads spirit lifted. Every one got on. Vicky got a goal, every one had great scoring chances, except Brighton. I think brighton may have only had about 4 shots on goal in the whole game. It was 6:0 in the first half. 12:0 in the second half. That was by far the biggest goal difference in the tournament. Why is it that in every tournament, the third game we play is always our best?

In between games, Shene had a great match against the Norton Cyclones. Beating them 9:3 to get their place in the final.

Sunday 3:00 against Wigan Warlords.

This is to determine 9th/10th place. Thats the way it goes in this sort of tournament, slip to third in your group and you instantly drop to the bottom third of the rankings.

The game started well enough, it was obvious that we where the better team, but it seemed that the refs where on the side of the underdog ie Wigan.We got to 1:1 and then the refs started halling our players into the sin bin. Mitch,chris, Karim(obviously) Dax Andrew, Joe. For much of the first half, we where defending 4 on to 2 with up to 5 players in the sin bin. To my knowledge, Oxford Blues have never had more than 3 players in the sin bin at the same time, let alone 5. We wondered if someone had confused the dream team presentations with the sin bin. That was our dream team in there. The Wigan team kept falling over and going for sympathy.Three times the game was halted while a Wigan player was seen to. But one of those times it had been a Wigan player who had done in his own goalie.

The 4 on two plays where defended magnificently, with Dax working hard and Joe looking like he's taking the p*ss out of the other team. We where down 3:1 after the first half. If we could just play the second half non-contact, then we could easily pull this back..

Unfortunately, we got more of the same in the second half. The refs where calling the slightest brush past. Yet when one of our players got laid out with a trip, the refs waved it on! With only two or three players on the pitch at any one time, we could not do much damage to the score. We even had a penalty shot against us that Daniel wasnt able to stop.

Time run out with barely 4 players on pitch at any one time. The Final score finished at 5:2 to the Wigan Warlords. Someone said that the West Coast Wasps are to make an official complaint about one of the refs and that they would refuse to play future games if he reffed them. I don't know if we had the same ref, but it was certainly a bizarre match.


Now Oxford's turn - 'there where 3 in the bin and Karim stepped in......'	There where 4 in the bin when Joe stepped in...	Then there where 5. Quite a party going on down there...

So 10th place this year. We where a better team than at least one of the semi-finalists, but we could not make it count when needed.

And Shene Won the final! 7:2 against Boreham wood. Well Done Shene.

Oh, and Joe Got Dream Team.

- If you are not from the Oxford blues and are reading this, please leave comments in the forum about what you thought of the Tournament. I'll include constructive comments in this write up. -


There where 3 in the bin and the little one said ' move over'	There where 4 in the bin and the little one said ' move over'	They got bored with that game and played musical chairs instead