September Fest 2024 – o70s Report

The LX Septemberfest masters festival was held between the 24th and 26th of September at the University Sports ground, Cambridge. The tournament was run in a similar format to the Oktoberfest last year held at Timperley.
Our 70s games started off with a very enjoyable 'mixed' game making up two teams from LX ladies and Thistles, split into whites and reds. It's always very good for us to play along with some very skilful and younger ladies, as their positional skills make us think and scan for players in advance. The White team won 2, 1 but the match could well have been 2, 2.
The first proper game was on Wednesday morning against England LX 'B'. A match played in good spirit, but very competitive. Only two goals were scored in the game, one by LX and the other, a very fine hard hit shot from just inside the 'D' by captain Rob Campbell. In the past, we have had some bad defeats at the hands of LX, but this was never going to be the case with this team.
The second game held in the afternoon was against Belgium Old Lions. This particular match has a history of being a bit rough and I had a chat with one of their players who I have known for years, and we jokingly wagered on how many would be sent off today. We reckoned on two each and, had the umpires not been in tournament mood, we would have been 'spot on'. An end to end game resulting in 2 all. Brian De Mattos the first and a hard hit short corner taken by Rob Campbell. A very hard Physical game well 'fought' At the end of the game our 'affection' for each other can be seen in the group photo. We look forward to the next battle.
The final game played on Thursday morning was against LX 'A', Again another very competitive and skillful game. By this time Rob Campbell had worked his magic again and we were playing much better team hockey, with a very good effort level and good quality passing. Brian DeMattos and I had worked out a plan to get a goal past them. Brian is very good at getting around the back of a defence but then sometimes finds it tricky to find a player to pass to. We had decided that the next time we got a chance to get behind England, I would make sure that I was on the penalty spot. These things normally don't work to plan, but on this occasion Brian got behind the defence on the line and made a perfect pass to me, which I managed to get past the keeper. The final score was 1, 1 draw. A tournament undefeated, wahoo.
I'm sure that Rob Campbell and Ian Pett will agree that although this wasn't the strongest team we could have put out, it was certainly one of the best for 'team spirit' . Everyone, without exception 'worked their socks off' for each other and the result was very well earned. Thanks to all concerned.