Cub 5 a side Football
This year Cubs from 14 Packs took part in the District 5-a-side Tournament held on the 17th January at Leasowe Leisure Centre. In order to give the Cubs the most football playing time as possible, the Packs were organised into 3 Leagues of 5, with a scratch Team to make up the numbers.
After 30 matches between them, the following packs, 7th Moreton (only by goal difference), 2nd West Kirby, 1st Thurstaston, 1st Frankby Greasby (McClean), Overchurch Upton & 5th Heswall were not able to progress to the finals, but they were not disgraced as all teams had played well. The start of the next round was slightly delayed as one of the teams (no names 1st FG) had actually already set off home and we were only able to resume play when they had turned their cars around and returned – more faith required Akela I’d say.
And so to the Quarter Finals which saw 4th Moreton, 1st Frankby Greasby (Royden), 1st Barnston and 1st Newton fall by the wayside in some very close matches. The semi’s then took place (again slightly delayed as the Sports Hall staff thought we were going to swap to playing Badminton), and despite some extraordinary performances 3rd Heswall & 1st West Kirby were unable to over come their opponents.
And so to the Final, which saw St Andrew's,Meols, pitched against 4th Heswall. After an even match (especially with superb goalkeeping from St Andrews) 4th Heswall emerged the winners, thus retaining the Trophy that they won last year (and the year before that as well if memory serves me right).
4th Heswall Competition winners
St Andrew's, Meols - runners up
Many thanks must go to the ‘volunteer’ referees Blake and Martin whose sense of fair play and reasonableness helped the Cubs have as much un disrupted football as possible. Thanks also to John and Christine whose professional attitude to timekeeping and score recording also contributed to the smooth running of the afternoon, (with John also correctly interpreting the no food on the balcony rule this year).
But most of all loads of thanks to all of the Cubs for their sportsmanlike attitude over the whole event. It has to be said that a lot of the matches were very close, yet despite this I didn’t see one incident of bad play etc over the whole Tournament which made it a more pleasurable experience for all, and the parents were even well behaved as well. As is often the case, it's the little touches that go un-noticed that help make the whole experience more pleasurable, for example the cub from St Andrew's who helped his opponent back on his feet rather than go off chasing the ball. All in all, very well done.
Alan Bennett