The Aftermath

The Sunday Tournament has come and gone. The victors were victorious and the losers were bruised and battered.
We managed to scrape together 11 players for 3 teams so the whole bench sub thing kind of didn't work as well as planned. But the gameplay was fierce. Personally, I was on that tournament buzz yet I was playing the same people I play with, and against, every week.

The Teams were:

Pissed Off: Dan, Stephen and Andrew
The Vampire Bunnies: Sam, Tom, Ben and Scott (unicycle)
The Mallet Mullets: Steph, Suede (unicycle), Colin and Neil.

We decided to play each other twice in 10 minute matches.
First round:

V.B vs P.O. Pissed off win 7-0 in a goal fest
M.M. vs V.B. The Mullets win a close 4-3
P.O. vs M.M. The Mullets play a relentlessly defensive game keeping Pissed scoreless but conceding a single breakaway goal. 1-0 to the Mullets

A beer break ensues and players take stock of their bruises, pretzels and scorelines.

All tanked up, Round Two commences:

P.O vs V.B. Again Pissed Off win but can only score 5 points and concede one. The beer is taking effect.
V.B vs M.M. Energy is waning as blood-alcohol raises. Mullets score 4 points to Vampires 2.
M.M vs P.O Pissed Off are pissed and pissed but dig deep to turn every attack by the Mullets into a breakaway. 5-1 to Pissed Off

The scenario now is that the Mullets and Pissed are table toppers. They have to play the two half final.

A pickup game fills the break while competitors rehydrate on some ale and catch some air.

The finals is called. Two 10 minute halves.
Pissed get to a flying start and deftly maneuver the ball between mallet head and wheel cover. Cracks show in a well lubricated Team Mullet and a couple of quick goals are scored. 2 goals down the Mullets score one back. With all disregard to personal safety the ball is pushed through the tangle of flesh and metal between the posts. 2-1
And again! the Mullets score to tie 2-2 but the energy is sapping and they let another goal slip.
Half Time, 3-2 to P.O.

Surely we need more liquid to stop this dizzyness. Another round ensues. Beer that is, not polo.

Lolling back onto the court, an end swap sees the setting sun in the eyes of Fully Pissed. The final half commences with the usual succession of quick goals from Pissed Off. Alcohol soaked muscles and memories make the sequence of events a smudge. The Mullets manage to push through 2 goals
The paper record shows a final fulltime scoreline of 7-4 to the victorious Pissed Off.

The Prizegiving follows immeadiately with various prizes for personal endeavour. Best Crash to Steph. Best Female Player to Sam, Best Goal to Stephen, Best Unicyclist(or something) to Suede and the winning team recieved the grand prize; some wheel covers, tyres, more grog and the [Sproket Rocket] Trophy.

Finally the Malvern Scar bike, faithfully restored and "donated" by Neil and Steph is drawn. The winner is Dan, well deserved too for a Pissed Off player. One who dominated on the court and was surely the top goal scorer. Congratulations!

Pickup games followed until the ball dissappeared into the inky blackness of Central Standard Time.

Thankyou to everyone who helped out with setting up and making the day really enjoyable. Ben and Colin for getting the BBQ up and running, Ben for carting around awkward lengths of coreflute, for donating the wheelcover prizes and supplying an ice filled esky.
Thanks to Tom for donating the box of Coopers Sparkling for the grand prize and the length of HDPE pipe for mallet heads.

Thanks to all the competitors who made a show and played their guts out. Awesome!