Brit Cup 2003

Despite an early set back, the Wildcats emphatically returned the Brit Cup to West London on Saturday afternoon at West Ham. The scoreboard for the day showed that we managed to kick 21 goals to our opposition’s 3 throughout the course of the day, and this was perhaps a true indication of how much we were able to dominate proceedings.

Having arrived early and with a wealth of EU talent at our disposal for the 12-a-side round robin tournament, along with the fact that ourselves and Wandsworth were the only team ready to go at the scheduled kick off time of 11am (well actually ourselves, Wandsworth and North London were the only teams that were even there), we found ourselves playing in the first game in a replay of last years final against Wandsworth. On the small ground it became obvious that no matter how much you dominated a game, if you didn’t get the score on the board you would be made to pay as the ball could quickly rebound up the other end for a goal, and this was to be the case. A few unlucky breaks, and the fact that despite it only being 10-minute halves we were already looking like we were wilting in the heat in the second term, saw Wandsworth come from behind to record a 2-point victory. In hindsight this was just the wake up call we were looking for and after a blast from Rosco the boys finally found some form from that point onwards.

Second up we took on North London, knowing that from that point on, all games were knock out. With that in mind, the boys hit them hard in the opening half and put the result beyond doubt with 4 unanswered goals, eventually winning by a margin of 5 goals.

Our third game saw us pitted against Sussex and once again we flew the gates in the first half and opened up an unassailable lead, this time eventually winning by 6 goals. Our final group game was against Bristol, and again the boys were unstoppable in the easy 7-goal victory.

After having giving everyone as much game time as possible in the preliminary matches, the final was winner take all and we went in with all guns blazing. Belly was leading from the front in the middle along with the twin terrors, Aussie Jody and the Machine Gunn. The defence, which had been impenetrable all day was still holding firm with JB, Paddy, Gaz Dutton and Sven all doing well and the forward line, with Kanga, Adrian, Aidan and Rory giving us valuable options. Ciaran was giving us first use in the ruck and continuing with our run all day, the boys were first in at every opportunity and we had a 3 goal to 1 lead at half time. The second half, with a couple of minor scares, continued to be one was traffic, and when Jody had 3 bounces and kicked a goal with only seconds to go the Cup was again headed back to Trailfinders! It was a great effort from all of our boys and special thanks to Rosco, SOS, Grappa, Coggers, Greggy Newitt and Cindy for coming out and lending a hand along with their support.

On such a warm day, the fact that we had 17 players available to play was a contributing factor in the ease of our victory, as it meant players could be rotated and kept fresh. It also highlighted the wealth and depth of EU talent we have around the place, especially as there were still quite a few of our EU’s unavailable on the day. So congratulations to the boys, let’s make it three in a row next year!

The winning Wildcats team consisted of: Tony Bell (c), Johnny Boyle, Derek Shaw, Adrian Gerolemou, Rory Rafter, Ruiary McGowan, Padraic McKeever, Graham Knox, Al Dowdall, Aidan Curley, Jody Dwyer, Lewis Gunn, Jim Scott, Greig Codd, Garry Dutton, Pat Phelan and Ciaran Killough.

Further congratulations go to Derek "Kanga" Shaw winning the leading goal kicker award for the day and Jody Dwyer who won the Player of the Tournament award, well done boys.

This weekend it’s back to the regular season with a huge triple-header at Trailfinders on Saturday. The Emus take on the City Swans at 11am, the Raiders play Fulham at 1.30pm and the Wildcats play Wimbledon, who are looking for a top two finish, at 4pm. Let’s try and get as much support as we can down there as we look to extend our unbeaten run!

Go Cats,

Dogga.