John Teanby Football Tournament – 2008

May 2nd, 2008

Tollbar BEC winners!!!

Humberston School were the hosts for this year’s tournament having won it last year and two years previous to that. In light of this the Tollbar BEC team knew this was going to be a tough competition.

The conditions for this year’s tournament were fantastic. The sun was shining and the ground was moist. This in turn created an enthusiastic atmosphere within the Tollbar team and they were keen to prove their talent within the Grimsby Schools.

The tournament consisted of two leagues which then fed into a knockout style competition for places overall. Tollbar BEC entered two teams who were separated into the group A (Tollbar A) and group B (Tollbar B). Tollbar A’s first fixture was against Whitgift.

Against Whitgift the Tollbar team looked nervous and played some rushed football to start. After the first half they were drawn at 0-0 but started to find their feet, passing the ball with more confidence and eventually testing the keeper with some shots. By this time it was too late and the 12 minutes for the game were soon up leaving us with a 0-0 draw.

Our second league fixture was against St Mary’s who had turned up late and it seemed unprepared for the tournament. Again it took Tollbar time to find their feet but it wasn’t too long before Hawkey broke the deadlock with an outstanding strike to put us in the lead. Hawkey then went on the seal the match with another well struck goal to give us a 2-0 win.

The next fixture was against Humberston B team and the boys were full of confidence for this game after their first victory. Hawkey started the flood of goals with a strike too hard for the keeper to contain. This was followed with a goal from Garner and two goals from Wattam leaving the score 4-0.

The final game of the league was against Immingham who were topping the table at this stage. This was the toughest game so far and the boys knew their best chance of overall victory depended on them winning this game. The football was rushed for a while until Wattam broke the defence with a great run which resulted in a penalty. Wattam went on to score the penalty giving us yet another win (1-0) sending us in to the knockout stages.

Our semi-final was against Lindsey School. The competition was getting harder now and the opposition were at their toughest. Tollbar started the game slow again, but after 2 minutes they were on top with a goal from Garner. A second goal from Garner soon followed, to end the game 2-0 and see us into the final of the competition.

The final was against Humberston School who, as mentioned previously were the current holders of the competition. Both teams were evenly matched with quality players and the football played was at its best. The match stayed at 0-0 for 11 minutes and it wasn’t until the last minute that Shipp got a winning goal to end the game 1-0.

The behaviour and football of the Tollbar BEC team was outstanding, well done.