18.05.10 - GRAND MASTERS DIVISIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:
Mick Cocks and Mick O’Malley were two Old Loughts selected for the East squad of 16 players who battled for the Divisional title at Cannock this weekend. Despite the advancing years of the players the competition is a serious matter and follows a number of trials and practice games. The weekend involved two games each day and the East were unlucky to lose the opening game 2 – 0 to the very strong West following a dreadful five minutes when a poor pass let the West attack have an easy goal and buoyed up by that they scrabbled in a second from a short corner a few minutes later. Despite some good attacking in the second half the East was unable to find the net and went to watch the Grand Prix practice with no points! The afternoon was better and although conceding the first goal to the North the team rallied and put a lot of pressure on the North’s defence equalising and then taking the lead to end 2 – 1 and pleased to get the three points. Sunday morning it was the Midlands and a close game was always going to be settled with a single goal but unfortunately it was the Midlands that scored it! The last game was difficult, the West had scored a bucket full of goals against the Midlands and the very strong South, with many of the England Grand Masters Team off to Antwerp for the European Cup next month, had to beat the East by four clear goals to take the title. It was not a day to be a defender and the South attacked constantly dominating the midfield and despite some outstanding goalkeeping by East skipper John Steward and some breakaways that almost spoilt the story the South got their four goals and the title. So the East finished fourth out of five. The hardest part of the weekend for our intrepid Loughts pair - getting out of the car after the three hour drive home!
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