The 2008 counties was played in Birmingham on some very odd looking artificial turf which played a bit odd too, but dealt very well with the horrible weather conditions that always seem to accompany the counties. Full report below:
Wales began with a game against Leicestershire. Leicestershire were fielding an ineligible side and all their games over the weekend were forfeit. However, Wales were the only team who actually managed to beat them on the pitch on either day, with Remco’s long shooting being the key to the win.
Wales 4-3 Leicestershire Remco 3 goals, Josh 1
Next up were Buckinghamingshire, in the first game of several which followed a frustrating course of Wales going ahead only to miss out on victory through a late goal, in this case an equaliser with just about the last action of the match. Again Remco had led the scoring, with Pete contributing 2 at the other end.
Wales 6-6 Buckinghamshire Remco 4, Pete 2
The next game was against Kent, last years winners and always featuring strong players. However, Kent had turned up under-strength, and were playing 2 girls short. Showing good tactical awareness to exploit this, Wales moved into a 5-3 advantage with 5 minutes to go. Unfortunately, again they were unable to kill the game off and Kent produced a gutsy comeback to clinch victory with a minute left.
Wales 5-6 Kent Josh 2, Ramzi 2, Remco
Next up was a very strong (and very tall) West Midlands side. The home team looked a class above for the first half of the game and Wales were clinging on. However, as the game went on Wales began to find their feet and tightened up defensively. 2 long shots from Remco got them on the score sheet, and when Susan won a penalty for Ramzi to score, a comeback looked possible. Time ran out though with Wales still trailing.
Wales 3-5 West Midlands Remco 2, Ramzi 1
The last game of the day was against South Yorkshire who’d lost all their other games, and it was a game that the Welsh should have won. However, a good start wasn’t built on and too many shots went wide, allowing S Yorkshire to claim a draw with another late equaliser.
Wales 4-4 S Yorkshire Jack, Josh, Ramzi, Zoe
Leicestershire’s ineligible team and other results in the group meant that Wales ultimately finished 4th out of 6 in their group and would go into the middle pool on Day 2 – after the social, of course!
Day 2 began with a game against a strong Manchester side that was surprisingly not competing for the top positions. Although Wales managed some strong attacking, they were a bit too sloppy in defence to hope to hold off such tough competition and the final result was never in doubt.
Wales 5-9 Manchester Ramzi 3, Elaine, Remco
Next up were our old adversaries, Avon. The game began with both sides scoring with their first attacks, and the pace of scoring was high throughout. In a frustrating match, Wales always created chances and were never far behind, but were unable to prevent Avon scoring for long enough to mount a realistic victory charge.
Wales 7-9 Avon Jack 2, Josh 2, Zoe 2, Ramzi
Finally was a Gloucester team that had out-performed expectations to get into the middle pool, and who were willing to put up a lot of long shots, with some very good accuracy. In defence though they were too inexperienced to stop Wales scoring and only a lack of clinical finishing from near the basket kept the score down.
Wales 11-5 Gloucestershire Jack 5, Ramzi 3, Elaine, Susan, Zoe
A final position of 15th was disappointing given some strong performances on the first day, and Wales can be proud of how well they created chances against even strong defences. However an inability to kill off games when ahead, and some defensive fragility prevented the team from doing as well as they could have.
Squad: Remco Broekhuis (11 goals), Ramzi Barbir (11), Jack McNamara (8), Josh Cockburn (6), Zoe Gabica (4), Elaine Dunlop (2), Pete Christensen (2), Susan Belfourd (1), Aimee Grant, Hannah Johnson
