London Pride Cup 2018

To say we didn’t have the smoothest start to the day would be a slight understatement. Katie messaged on Friday night to say that she’d lost her stick then Shin over-napped and so couldn’t pick up the minibus until Saturday morning.

Katie found her stick, Shin picked up the fun bus, we met at Long Road (slightly later than planned) and set off to pick up George and Oli. Owen met us in London and held down the fort until we arrived. He managed to rearrange our first game so that we wouldn’t miss it, but we were running so late that our second game started with only Owen on the pitch. We lost the first (second) game 3-0 but considering it was a one-man team plus a borrowed goalie for half of the game, it wasn’t a bad result. The following games went much better; we managed to actually get a full team on the pitch and won 6-2, 1-0 and 3-0.

We broke for lunch and George got involved in the obstacle course, which involved an alternative version of apple bobbing, a lovely pink wig, an inflatable flamingo and a slip and slide.

The afternoon brought the second round of pool matches and then the finals. We made it into the higher pool, won two games and drew one. We nearly missed out on the semi-final on goal difference, but because of George’s lunchtime efforts we were awarded extra points, which meant we finished second in our pool and progressed to the semi-finals.

We were knocked out on penalty shuttles and, as there was no third place play-off game, we naturally have awarded ourselves third place. Some of us (Tom) weren’t totally unhappy about not proceeding to the final as the football was on, and Laura was jetting off on holiday straight after the tournament.

Notable points:

• George made some cracking saves

• Jenny probably has a broken thumb

• London streets were not made for minibuses

• There was/still is glitter everywhere

• Harry fulfilled his role as DJ

• Katie only lost her stick once more

• Sunburn was minimal

• Harry had a spectacular fall

• I awarded myself goal of the day

• We pinned our final hopes on Oli’s shuttle despite Oli having had a double vodka ten minutes before the game

• Lou was the most prepared and brought her own lunch

• We’re actually quite good at hockey sometimes

• Fun bus karaoke was in full swing

• Shin did a great job organising everything

• Alice, Oli and Katie were smelly and didn’t shower

• Post-tournament tequila parties are definitely a good idea