SPORTS

Androgroup Summer Touch League Finals... ...Trying to avoid the wooden spoon

Mark and Alison O’Hare took the male and female Player of the Year awards.	League organiser Mat Bishop and his wife Kim enjoyed their evening at the prize giving.	Cayman Pirates upset the form books with their play in the finals.
Deloitte Two was stopped in their tracks by KPMG.	Maples & Calder took the wooden spoon in division one.	A KPMG player avoids some unwelcome attention.
Gotcha!	Deloitte Two on the move.	Getting the ball away just in time.
Pointing the team in the right direction.	PWC took the wooden spoon in division two.	A Wreckers player tries to come to grips with HSBC.

By Eugene Bonthuys

Friday,  September 16, 2005

After seven tough rounds of the Androgroup Summer Touch League, it finally came down to finals day. The regular season games had decided which four teams would play out for the top spot in division one and division two, and had also decided which four teams in each division would fight tooth and nail not to receive the wooden spoon.

However, before the teams got down to the final last Saturday, (10 September) there was the Finals Dinner and prize giving to survive.

Held the Friday night before Finals Day at The Wharf, it gave players a chance to relax and let loose before the finals.

The prize giving involved some serious awards such as Player of the Year, as well as some less serious ones.

The Male Player of the Year was awarded to Mark O’Hare of Madiba’s Magic. O’Hare acted as captain and coach of the team, leading them to second position in division one at the end of the regular season.

The Female Player of the Year was awarded to Alison O’Hare, also of Madiba’s Magic.

The top try scorers of the regular season were Dylan King of Back ‘n’ Black and Phillip Labuschagne of The Incredibles. Both players had scored twelve tries during the regular season.

However, as the organisers felt that the competition was essentially one decided by speed, the deadlock between the two players was broken by the downing of beer. It would however seem that Labuschagne prefers to savour his beer, as he was soundly defeated by King.

The Fairest player of the Year award went to Laren Gillespie for ratting himself out even more often than the opposition could manage.

There were also awards for the Mouth of the Year (Mick Kehoe), and Referee of the Year (Tim Rossiter).

The final, and most dubious, individual honour was awarded to Lisa Kehoe, Tracy Iler, and Matthew McKenzie. The trio shared the award for the player most likely to play for any team that wanted him or her, with no regard for his or her own reputation and honour.

Players of ill repute, if you will.

The evening, organised by Leigh Fagan, was a great success, and certainly provided a good build up to Finals Day.

On Finals Day, every team played two matches, in order to determine final positions in both divisions.

The draw in the divisions had been determined by the results of the regular season. This meant that teams in the lower half of each division could at best hope to finish in fifth position. However, much more important was not to end up receiving the wooden spoon as the ‘worst’ team in the division.

In division one, the first match saw fifth-ranked Muppets face eighth-ranked Wreckers. According to regular season form, the game should have gone the way of Muppets. However, Wreckers had different ideas about it, and managed to book their place in the fifth-place play-off, dropping Muppets down to the wooden spoon game.

In division one, the same fate awaited fifth-placed PWC Thunder, who after a season of close calls and wasted opportunities found themselves falling just short of making it to the top half of the draw in division two. They played out against Cayman Pirates, who had finished the regular season in eighth place on the log. In a high-scoring game, PWC completely dominated the second half of the game, but were unable to make up the deficit they had after the first half, and so found themselves dropping down to the wooden spoon game.

The next game in division one saw sixth-ranked Maples & Calder take on seventh-ranked HSBC Hurricanes. HSBC took the first score of the game, and held their lead into half time. However, five minutes into the second half, Maples replied with a score of their own, drawing the scores level. In the end however it was HSBC who prevailed, as they broke through for another score with less than three minutes remaining on the clock. This meant that Maples & Calder would face Muppets in the division one wooden spoon game.

In division two, it was a corker between sixth-ranked Deloitte Two and seventh-ranked KPMG Mavericks. KPMG were first to get on the board halfway through the first half, taking a 1-0 lead into half time. Just after the restart, Deloitte responded, and levelled the score. Not two minutes later, KPMG were back in the lead after dotting down a try in the corner. Then, with less than a minute of regulation time remaining, Deloitte scored the equaliser, leaving the teams tied 2-2 at full time. This meant that the game would be decided by a five-minute period played between reduced teams. KPMG seemed the more motivated team, but try as they might, they could not break the Deloitte defensive line. However, as time ran down in the final minute of overtime, KPMG found a gap in the Deloitte defence and scored the game-winning try. This meant that Deloitte Two would drop down to the division one wooden spoon game against Maples & Calder.

In the division two wooden spoon game, PWC Thunder faced Deloitte Two. According to ranking, these two teams were supposed to meet, but in the fifth place playoff, not in the wooden spoon game where they ended up. Half way through the first half, Deloitte managed to get on the board after breaking the PWC defensive line at midfield. They took a 1-0 lead into the half, which still left PWC with some hope of taking back the game in the second half. However, Deloitte seemed to have the upper hand for most of the second half, and sealed PWC’s fate in a frenetic period of play, as they ran in three tries in three minutes. At the end of the game, it was PWC who had had the worst day imaginable, dropping from fifth in the league to eighth in the space of two games. This earned them the wooden spoon in division two.

In division one it was Maples & Calder and Muppets who would try their best to avoid getting the wooden spoon. However, it was soon clear that Muppets had regained some of the form that had given them fifth position at the end of the regular season as they claimed two tries in the first half. Maples & Calder was never able to recover after that, and were forced to accept the wooden spoon in division one.

In the fifth place playoff in division two, Cayman Pirates managed to complete a remarkable run in Finals Day, as they defeated KPMG Mavericks to take fifth place in division two. This was a great improvement on their eighth position after the regular season.

In division one, the fifth place playoff was contested between Wreckers and HSBC Hurricanes. Wreckers drew first blood, and took a 1-0 lead into half time. HSBC levelled the score halfway through the second half, and the game seemed destined for overtime as the timer signalled full time. However, on the final possession of regulation time, HSBC managed to dive over in the corner to take the game 2-1.

For more on the top half of each division, get the next edition of Cayman Net News.

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