Friday 04 June 2010

The Friday before May Bank Holiday and teams rolled into the Festa Brava Hotel in Lloret de Mar. General team attire ranged from tie and jacket, to farm yard animals, kilts and the traditional tour shirt or two, all are here for one thing- TOURFEST. Once checked in, everyone headed straight for the bar to break in the All-Inclusive package, shortly followed with a quick change into skimpy bikinis and even skimpier Speedos, meant that TourFest had started with a splash!



The Tournament kicked off at 2pm the following day, giving everyone time to prepare for the matches after the first night of antics in the All Inclusive TourFest bars and clubs. The teams were made up of a variety of nationalities including Scottish, Irish, English, Spanish, Welsh, Australian, Spanish & Catalan sides as well as the odd Kiwi & South African or two for good measure, which meant there was plenty of banter flying around in the pre-match atmosphere! 



Men’s Rugby, sponsored by UR7’s, proved to be the most popular tournament of the weekend with 16 teams split into two pools. Undoubtedly, the best dressed team on tour with their Batman playing shirts – Monkenhovellers - nabbed the first semi final place but had to withdraw from the tournament due to the bar being open. This meant that the top four teams in the tournament included two Catalan and two English teams. The two top teams in each pool played each other in the semi-finals, with Catalunya v BUC playing first to give us an all Catalan first semi final which was followed swiftly by The Last Suppers v Billingham Colts to give us an all English semi final. The Billingham Boys pulled through with a 24-7 victory against The Last Suppers Stag Party, whilst Catalunya strolled into the final with a 40-0 win over BUC. Everyone gathered round the main pitch to see the Billingham Colts and Catalonian National Team battle it out to see which side became the first ever UR7’s TourFest Men’s Rugby Champions. In the end the strength and size of the home team shone through as they took the title by 31-7 but at no point did Billingham look out of place and could hold their heads high as they walked from the pitch to rapturous applause from the crowd.



As for the women’s rugby, all teams played each other in a Round Robin format, with the tournament finishing with a British Baa Bas team v Spain. Unfortunately, even with all the British top players and the pure skill of Event Manager, Chrissy Siczowa, the British Baa Bas were unable to defeat the strong Spanish side. At the end of the day, the UR7’s TourFest Women’s Rugby Champions title went to Wellingborough Ladies after they managed to pull it out the bag and triumph over all the other ladies teams. 



The football tournament was made up of 3 UK and 3 Spanish teams, along with the one team made up of Aussies (well, 9 Aussies and a token Pom!), this meant that each team had a total of 6 games to play throughout the day. Luckily the sun had blessed us with its presence all day allowing players to top up their tans in-between matches. After the first round games, it was obvious that the Brits knew what they were doing with all 3 teams and 1 Spanish team through to the semi finals. The first semi saw the only remaining Spanish side left in the tournament, La Catedral, take on last year’s football tournament champions Sears Morgan ‘A’. However the Essex side couldn’t match their 2009 form and were out-skilled out of a place in this year’s final as they succumbed to a 1-0 defeat. The second semi final which saw Sporting Club Essex FC take on Sears Morgan ‘B’ turned out to be a much closer encounter with the scores still at 0-0 at full time it meant that a place in the final would come down to penalties. The teams carefully selected the top 5 penalty takers to go forward to face the opposing teams’ goalie. Sears Morgan ‘B’ snatched it 3-2 as Sporting’s captain Ben Picking missed his ever so crucial penalty to send them home early. So for the Grand Finale, it was Spain vs England for the championship title! After minutes of ruthless football on both teams’ part, Sears Morgan ‘B’ walked away with a 2-1 victory and the TourFest Football Trophy, giving them a year of bragging rights on their 1st X1. 



Once back at the hotel, there was only one thing on everyone’s mind. With a quick pit stop at the Festa Brava Bar everyone headed over to Tropics to see the crazy stunts from MTV’s Pritchard Vs Dainton (Dirty Sanchez), followed by the first ever TourFest Prize Giving. Congratulations to Billingham Colts, Wellingborough Ladies and Sears Morgan ‘B’ for winning the Champions Trophy in their respective sports.

After the final day of rest and the last night of tour, Team Leaders were literally dragging their teams to the coach transfers for their flight home. I think it was safe to say, everyone got their money’s worth from the all-inclusive bars, restaurants and night clubs.

 

Teamlink would like to thank everyone who attended the Launch of TourFest and would also like to wish Good Luck to Paul Sullivan, Gareth Bronte and Robert Wilkinson in their future adventures of married life.