LX CLUB at Lille Hockey Tournament
13-14th March 2010
Ronchin Hockey Tournament-Lille,1996-2010
It
is fourteen years, since the newly formed England LX Hockey Club, attended its
first International Hockey Tournament, at the Ronchin Hockey Club.
Old
Jacques, the French President, was there then, and still, at 82,plays in all
their games, albeit for 5-10 mins ,as a ,once sprightly defender.
For most of
those years, LX have won the competition, except for one year, when the pitch
was being re-laid, and last year, when, inexplicably we achieved last place but
one, and didn't even win the wooden spoon !!
This has been partly due to a
considerable strengthening of the opposition, with the addition of Wales o60
squad, Scotland,and Egypt, all of whom raised the bar significantly.
Also
last year, LX was not up to its usual strength, and thus paid the price.
At
the time of writing these advance notes, Team LX 2010, looks to be a much
fresher kettle of fish, with several new young bucks of around sixty stiffening
up the old guard no end.
With a squad of thirteen to marshal, Captain.Richard
Clarke (Chairman Elect-may he dribble into Eternity),rolled the players to
everyone's satisfaction, in terms of pitch time-never an easy one to call !We
kicked off with a comfortable,2-0 win against the Dutch (Sexty -Plussers)with
goals from Sudesh Naher and Brian Stokes.
This was followed with a 4-0
trouncing of Alliance, with more goals from Sudesh Neher, Bob Grenside, Graham
Martin, and Brian Woolcott.
It should be noted that although this last goal
was generally acclaimed to be the best of the tournament so far, Captain Clarke
remarked that, with points being awarded up to a maximum of three goals, the
fourth, last and best, didn't really count for much at all !!!
Some people
are really difficult to please !!
The third and final game of the day saw us
pitted against the French (Pansards),who, recognising the formidable strength of
LX, packed their 25m area and ruthlessly hacked and barged us into a sterile
draw.
The day closed with LX top of their pool. With several teams in the
other pool on equal points Wales and Scotland had a penalty shoot out to
determine the winner and runner up of their pool which Scotland won. LX thus
faced Wales as the runners up of their pool for a place in the final, where it
finished nil all, and then LX threw it away by losing the resultant penalty
shoot out by one shot (Wales had already had some practice at a penalty shoot).
Wales then went on to beat Scotland in the final, leaving LX ,a modest third.
It should perhaps be pointed out that LX were the only team not to concede a
goal throughout the Tournament and that their goalie Alan Dures only touched the
ball once during the five games.
How can this be, I hear you say ?.
Well, the French gave one to all
they played, so we did come home with the gold after all .
Once again, all
our thanks to Ian Russell for his considerable spadework in setting up our trip
and to Captain Clarke for his leadership on the field and to voluntary umpires,
Martin G, Lomas R, and White G.
Brian Woolcott (General Manager et al)
The Squad
