Old Sils Mini and Junior Festival 13 October 2013

Stourbridge U9s took 9 players to play at Old Sils festival, on what was one of the worst days, weather wise, we have encountered at a festival; the boys were soaking wet and freezing cold.

These conditions did nothing to damage their spirits or will to win.

The boys played 4 group games:

Old Sils 3 Stourbridge 2 - The boys narrowly missed out on the win after taking an early lead, this was due a couple of minor handling errors.

Stourbridge 3 Sutton Coldfield 3 - This game was hotly contested with both sides giving their all, we had 2 of our players carried off with injuries, but the subs stepped in and performed superbly to draw the match.

By this time the boys were wet through and freezing cold with around an hour to wait for their next game. They did their best to get warm and dry and have lunch.

Stourbridge 5 Droitwich 2 -The rest and the chance to get warm must have reinvigorated the squad, because the boys produced a fine display of passing and evasion to win the game.

Stourbridge 8 Birmingham Bees 2 -The boys were now on a roll, and were playing to get in the plate trophy final. They won this game by continued hard tackling in defence and great support play in attack, with some outstanding individual runs.

The boys and coaches now had an anxious wait to find out if they had done enough to get into the runner up final which was called the plate trophy.

They had! So they played Lichfield just as the rain stopped - first time that day!

Stourbridge 5 Lichfield 0 - Plate Trophy Final - To say the boys were fired up for this one would be an understatement; they performed their very own version of the Haka before the start of the game!

The game was played in very good spirit with good sportsmanship displayed on both sides. In the end Stourbridge were just too strong in the tackle and too fast on the break which was further complimented by amazing support play.

Well done boys! The coaches and parents are all very proud of your achievement; you showed great teamwork and sportsmanship.

Karl Truby