 The event was marred due to the funeral of Aled Evans, a Chester first team player who died earlier in the week following an accidental fall; a minutes silence was observed at 12.30, the time of his funeral, which was attended by 1200 mourners. This sadly diluted the number of spectators and no doubt the atmosphere, rightly so, his family wanted the tournament to take place in memory of Aled.
Captain Ashy assembled a squad of 22 players which contained 15 new faces including former Waterloo and North of England backrow forward Peter Buckton, soon to be renamed Peter Pan. Sadly, he missed the final, hospitalised with a broken hand! The competiveness and ferocity of this 15-a-side tournament with ten minutes played in each half, also took its toll on three other players who were sidelined for the final.
 In the group stage the Vets team beat Longton 12-0, Chester 19-17 (coming back from the dead with three second half tries) and Halton 26-14. In the semi-finals they had an easy win over Anselmians 42-7 before meeting North Wales Barbarians in the final. This was a 'no quarter given' affair with the pendulum swinging both ways in a hard fought game.
The Barbarians scored first, adding the conversion, but Spoon Vets came back with an unconverted try, followed by a converted try on the stroke of half-time to give Spoon a 12-7 lead. This was extended to 17-7 midway through the second half with the Barbarians bringing the scoreline back to 17-12 where it stayed for a couple of nail biting minutes!
Thank you to all the players who gave up their Saturday to play for Spoon and for coming away with the trophy is such magificent style.
|
