A quality final played out on the village green in front of an appreciable (and occasionally appreciative) crowd was a fitting climax to the Second Reach Five-a-Side Soccer tournament.

It was won by Chicken Supreme (from Cherry Hinton), undoubtedly the best footballing team on the day, beating last year’s winner WT’s Aces (Cambridge) 2-1 in the final. The Man of the Tournament award, adjudicated by Peter Rees went to Andrew Ward of The Chicken Supreme’s.

It had been a long day. Two pitches were marked out on the playing field and ten teams arrived to contest the Nicky Gesinger Trophy. Two groups of five were drawn, rule sheets were handed out, and play began in earnest officiated by the splendidly balding Peter, and the bearded wonder, (Mr Gesinger senior).

It was fast and furious stuff with no quarter given by any side, except PMT 2 (fresh from the Dyke’s End) for whom Scott’s immaculate kit was let down only by his early saunter into his goalkeeper’s area resulting in a penalty for Urinal Banter led by the redoubtable Tom Reed. Remarkably it was to prove the conclusive moment of the match, and “The Banter” went on to win the group, winning each of their four games by a similar margin. WT Aces edged out the Red Lion for a semi-final berth, having a marginally superior goal difference. An interesting aside was that due to a misread, Urinal Banter were called Urinal Banker throughout the tournament, causing various furrowing of brows in intrigued wonderment. Risky Business tried hard, but conceded goals at crucial moments.

In the other group the anticipation was that Chicken Supreme and Kettering U17’s would prevail, but remarkably Palaver came out on top with John Reed excelling with both boot and brain and the general tactic of having old uns at the back and youngsters running up front lulled the opposition into false senses of security. Ominously though, no one managed to score against Chicken Supreme. CommSolutions had an outrageously good goal difference to be in fourth place, and PMT1, well, bad luck boys, you no doubt deserved better.

In the semi-finals, WT’s Aces and Palaver fought a tight battle, with Palaver taking the lead early in the second half through a fine finish by William Jordan. The goal was soon cancelled out, and then with penalties only seconds away, an Ace piledrove a loose ball into the Palaver net. 2-1 The Aces. In the second match, Chicken Supreme move up a gear and the previously unbeaten Urinal keeper (!) saw two flash past him without reply. And so to the final, and the year of the Chicken.

Thanks to Phil Vincent for hosting it as part of the Dyke’s End Beer Festival day, and to Peter Rees for keeping off the ales for so long in order to organise it.

Palaver Pearson

WT’s Aces 2 Palaver 1

Chicken Supreme 2 Urinal Bantar 0

Chicken Supreme 2 WT’s Aces 1

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