The first Vital tournament – sponsored by Club Sanuk – was held at Blackpool and Fylde College on Saturday, with teams from all over the UK taking part.
Eight teams, including Rangers, Swansea, and two Newcastle based sides (Forest Hall Mags and Thrillareal) were split into two groups of four:
Group 1: Blackpool Vital, Rangers, Yorkshire Seasiders, Forest Hall Mags
Group 2: Swansea, Thrillareal, Club Sanuk, BSA
Group matches lasted 20 minutes (ten minutes each way) with the top two entering the ‘Champions Trophy` and the bottom two playing for the ‘Wooden Spoon`. In group one, Forest Hall and the Yorkshire Seasiders progressed, and in the other group Sanuk along with Thrillareal. The other sides competed for the wooden spoon.
The Champions Trophy Semis:
In the semi finals, Thrillareal came out on top in a keenly fought (fought was the buzz word for the day!) and tight contest over the Yorkshire Seasiders. In the other game, Sanuk beat Forest Hall to progress to the final.
The Wooden Spoon Semis:
A depleted Blackpool Vital side were well and truly beaten by a BSA side that normally provide stiff opponents and will have found themselves unfortunate to be in the wooden spoon at all. In the other game, Rangers overcame Swansea (who failed to win a game all day, much like Blackpool Vital) to play BSA in the final.
The Champions Trophy Final:
A resounding 3-0 win for Thrillareal over a solid Club Sanuk underlined their supremacy in the tournament. The passing and movement from the attackers was complemented with bone crunching tacklers and despite of Sanuk`s solid base, they won at a canter with player of the tournament Danny McGloughlin scoring the final goal.
The Wooden Spoon Final:
Shawsey Rangers beat BSA 2-1 in another well contested game to claim the Wooden Spoon trophy. It could have been oh so different however, as BSA hit the post and clipped the bar in the half an hour match.
We at Blackpool Vital would like to thank all teams that played their part in making the day a very successful one, with special thanks going to the referees who volunteered on the day and Paul Bowley (BSA) whom without, the tournament wouldn`t have run nearly as smoothly as it did.
Hopefully we`ll see you all next year!
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Nice one chaps, great start to the annual event, looking forward to next seasons already!
i tried to get a team together from work, and god knows enough people here play football, but the lazy gits werent prepared to travel. glad you had a good day. will try again next year. will it be held in blackpool every year?
Next year it’s being held in Platos back garden….with BSA provided the nets! LOL!
*adds another 2 to total*
Yes it will be held in Blackpool every year, we’ll organise it around the same time next year also, hopefully with more teams to get the best out of the competition and maximise profit made from running it.
Thanks to everyone that helped out – including my mother 😀 – for making it run smoothly and helping us keep a level head!!
Well done for getting this off the ground!
Well played to the silky footballer known as Maki! Top scorer and rounded off with a good celebration.
There was a Rangers team? Were they representing vital rangers or were they independent? As editor of the Vital Rangers site, I knew nothing of their participation, They could’ve told me and I could’ve got one of them to do a diary or something.