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September 19th 2009 - Aberdeen Autumn Tournament A strong Lions team took the very long trip north to Aberdeen for the first ever Aberdeen Autumn indoor tournament at the new Aberdeen Sports Village. The facilities at the venue were unbelievable, featuring a full size indoor third generation astroturf football pitch and a 100m indoor warm up area. The Lions were aiming for an improvement on last years Aberdeen autumn tournament, where we finished 9th.
Fourteen Lions took part in this tournament, a dedicated bunch of touch enthusiasts. The 14 were: Kris Matthews John O'Dowd Jamie Holbrook Liv Burns Louise Heritage Adrian O'Sullivan Anita Fleming Andrew Armstrong Ruban Kanth Terry Bauld Audrey Murphy Victor Francisco-Suarez Douglas MacRae Ruth Wallace The Lions began by taking to the field against Genesis of Aberdeen, who were effectively the 2009 STS champions Meerkats. Getting used to the astroturf was a challenge for the Lions, who went down 4-0 to a fast and experienced team. The second group game was against Xodus, also from Aberdeen, over whom the Lions ran out 8-3 winners. This led to the Lions finishing 2nd in the group and having a shot at the overall Cup via a quarter final match. The quarter final was against Energen Guerillas, as opposed to Leviticus (Bible joke, see above), again from Aberdeen and a team the Lions had never beaten. A nervy and exciting game was an exceptionally close affair, with the Lions finishing 1-0 winners, having scored in the last few minutes of the game. This was a great result for the Lions, who caused some grief in the Aberdeen Touch Series by winning this game. This now meant that Leopards had a chance of levelling the series if they won the tournament outright, meaning an end of season play off game between the Guerillas and Leopards may be required. The Cup semi final was against Superhands, an Edinburgh based team and the Lions 2009 arch rivals. The Lions record against Superhands stood at 1 draw and 4 losses so far this season. A very close game unfortunately went the way of Superhands as the Lions failed to get a score, losing 2-0. Defeat in this game meant the Lions dropped into the Quaich Final for 3rd place. The Leopards had lost their semi final too, so could no longer win the overall Aberdeen Touch Series, but there was still a trophy at stake. This proved to be one of the Lions best games of the season as the Lions romped home 7-3 to secure a fourth piece of silverware in 2009. Lions "Player of the Tournament" - John O'Dowd Pictures of the day are available in the gallery.  |
