Unusually for a football tour, there was quite a lot of football on this tour. Here is a bief summary of how we got on:
Saturday
Saturday's tournament consisted of two pools of four teams, each team playing three games in their pool with the pool winners going into a final. The first game we watched was quite promising as the standard didn't look to daunting and one of the sides only had 8 players! Smeke took pity on the short Dutchman and offered his services. They were gratefully received - until they saw him play, but at least it was another body on the pitch.
Shipston's results were as follows:
Game 1 Vs Glockenspiel - Won 2 - 0 Kelly (pen), Stuart
Game 2 Vs Dgjickenspit - Drew 1 - 1 Coe
Game 3 Vs H G V - Won 4 - 0 Righton (2), Jewett, Ragg
Final Vs Reservajax - Lost 0 - 1
Sunday
Sunday's tournament was supposed to be in the same format as Saturday's. Unfortunately, one of the teams pulled out and so the organisers - in all their infinite wisdom - decided to turn it into a mini league with everyone playing everyone else. Doesn't sound so bad, you may think, but when you consider that the few players that were left were suffering from severe sleep deprivation, dehydration and liver failure and the injuries were mounting up by the second - especially after everyone realised that the standard was a step up from the day before (Feyenord 3rds were playing!) - it began to look like we might struggle. And so it proved!
Shipston's results were as follows:
Game 1 Vs Edam TGV - Lost 0 - 2
Game 2 Vs Feyenord - Lost 0 - 1
Game 3 Vs Bodrum - Lost 0 - 2
Game 4 Vs Yaforsure - Lost 0 - 8
Game 5 Vs Strudiel PSV - Won 1 - 0 Ryszkowski
Overall, Sunday may have been a tournament too far for the intrepid tourists but the celebration on scoring our one goal was probably worth it.
A few interesting stats and facts from the two tournaments: