Link to photos here

The annual Solent Church League 7-a-side tournament took place on Saturday the 26th of April.  It was a fantastic day both weather wise and the fun that we all had.   There were some very funny moments as usuall.  Hedge End entered 2 teams into the tournament so there was more chance than ever that Hedge End would get to the final. 

The teams were split by a kind of age / lenth with team with the A Team having the young new boys and the B Team having the more mature lads.  The A Team was captained by a super Ben and the B Team was captained by Keith, Andy, John, and Mike....... at the same time.

The teams were on pitches right next to each other which allowed for morale support and also heckling.  We all did well in the group stages, the A Team winning their first game, and managing to win their penaltimate group game even when Callum scored an own goal.  There was no pressure on him, but he still managed to lob Andy from way outside the area and just nip it in off the cross bar.   This delighted the B Team no end !  Andy calmly explained that maybe that shouldn't have happened.  OK, it wasn't really that calmly....  In the A Teams last game they had to win by 3 goals to stay in.  They managed to win 5-0 with Matt picking up 2 goals that he fully deserved and Tim getting a hat-trick as he was on fire.

The teams finished the group stages with this record:

TEAM	WON	DREW	LOST
Hedge End A	3	0	2
Hedge End B	2	2	1

Sadly, this meant that Hedge End B were out of the tournament even though they had only lost one of their 5 games, but that was good news for Dave as he promised his wife he would be back earlier and he needed to paint some doors.

So Hedge End A team were in the knock out stages and they played Eastleigh Baptist, who had already drawn 1-1 with Hedge End B in their league game.  The game was very tight and in the end went to golden goal, when Eastleigh scored.

Both teams played really well and if you were to just look at the statistics it would prove that collectivly we won 5 games and only lost 3.  Tim ended up top scorer getting 4 goals, including a hat-trick in the last group game.

With rumours flying around that super captain Ben was looking to leave Hedge End at the end of the season we managed to get an exclusive interview with him on Sunday where he confirmed that he would play for the team next season as he felt committed to the club that he has become to love so much.  That and I said we were going to hunt him down if he left.