Over the weekend Paddy Murphy made it's first appearance of the year in the UK at Tour Zero, a qualifying event for the A Tour. 34 teams entered and there were 11 places on offer (not 12 as we found out upon arrival as the austrian Team the Big Eez are planning on playing Tour 1 - theres a debate and a half going on about this on BritDisc, into which Irish teams playing Tour are being dragged!!).
After surviving 'the worst Friday night at any tournament ever' (that was a coment on the company not the weather!) we were drawn in a group with the 1st seeds Brighton, Sheffield Steal, Bristol Plastic Factory 2, Lucky Huckers and Red 2. Games were 40mins long and Day One saw most teams play 6 games. We won the first 2 games against LH and Red 2 9-0 and then beat Steal 9-3. BPF2 was slightly tougher despite a 8-2 scoreline. The final group game of the day proved the most frustrating. We played Brighton on an Upwind/Downwind pitch and contrived to lose 8-3 I think. They played the weather better than we did and as a result won.
We then played a crossover against Discuits in our last game of the day. If we won the game we'd go into a pool of 3 to determine the semi-finalists but if we lost we'd face another crossover the next morning. Sensing a big occasion the team came out on fire and quickly established a 4 point lead. This lead we held onto until 6-2 when a cap to 8 was put on. We then proceeded to panic and leaked a few points. Suddenly it was 7-7 and the fronting and poaching was causing us trouble. We had (to quote Brian) 'about 20 f*cking chances to score the last point' and eventually a big huck from Derryk was calmly collected up high by Dman to win the game.
A quiet Saturday evening followed, before more camping in the arctic Bristol conditions. If ever possible, avoid camping here, if it doesnt rain it will be so cold you wont sleep. (Unless you're as clever as Darkie who brought TWO sleeping bags or as old & wise as Ferg/Derryk who found beds to sleep in). Sunday morning at 8.30am saw us play Brighton again. We started slowly and found ourselves 6-1 down at half. Fought back to 8-8 and then to 9-9, game to 10.We got two turnovers in the final point but they scored it to win a feisty match 10-9. Straight away we played Clapham 2 and went 5-1 down. Again, we fought back taking 3 or 4 points in a row to get within one point. They held firm though to win 10-7. It was probabaly my favourite game of the weekend - a good test, less windy conditions and a cleanly fought match against a good bunch of lads. Our final tired game of the day was another windy battle against the BPF1 team who outplayed us to win 8-3 in a similar manner to the Brighton game on Saturday.
We finished 6th, meaning a 10th place seeding in the first A Tour event in June. Clapham 2 beat Leeds1 in the final
and took Spirit. (We could have beaten them were it not for a couple of injuries and being 7 players short of the full squad. Next time we'll get them!). An impressive display all the same from a club's second team!
I'll leave the Seamus Murphy Report to them, needless to say we weren't the only ones who rattled the Clapham boys! (And, we didn't get an invite to their tourney...)
MVP - Nialler
MSP - Perfect Dave
Well played everyone, hers' to more of the same!!
Marko
ps no 'interception goals' yet, but Niall did throw an assist for one...I mean a Harbourne for one...
Paddy MurphyTour Zero 2007
Back row (L-R) : Perfect, Rickard, Britboy, Nialler, Kiely, Seamus, Darkie, Stokesy.
Front Row (L-R) : Dman, Marko, Derryk, Podge, Blonde.
