Crash for Cash; Pool Stage Summary
07 Nov 2009 22:10
Firstly, apologies for not being able to keep you informed of our results on a daily basis. A combination of evening games and the time difference with the UK meant that I wouldn’t have been able to get scores to you on the same day we played. As I write this it’s Saturday afternoon here in Canada.
London 49 B.C. (British Columbia) 38
Unfortunately the B.C. squad beset with problems from the beginning. Due to unforeseen circumstances (airport baggage handling) several of the team’s chairs were lost in transit along with kit such as gloves, straps and even playing vests. The B.C. boys begged, borrowed and stole as best they could but this undoubtedly affected their on-court performance. (Every player’s wheelchair is bespoke, that is to say made to measure for them and them alone!) However, as professionals we can only play what’s in front of us so we pressed home our advantage and lead by 8 at the half. Such a good lead enabled us to run all our line-ups in the third and fourth quarters, giving everyone a good run-out after the long journey. Stand out performances by our two tall guys (great passing by Ross Morrison and awesome pace from Mandip Sehmi) saw us increase the margin of our victory to 11 goals.
London (England) 46 London (Ontario) 45
There was much anticipation as well as a large partisan crowd for this encounter and the host team weren’t about to disappoint! We made a lacklustre start to the game conceding two early turnovers and allowing the Ontario team to dictate the play. We finished the first quarter three down with Ontario having the ball the start the second. After a quick crisis meeting we rallied, capitalising on a poor substitution by their coach to pull a couple of goals back. We continued to battle and by half time the scores were level. The second half was tight with us relying on our line-up of 2.5, 2.5, 2.5, 0.5. Despite continuing hard play by the opposition we dug in and were ahead after four minutes of the third. The Ontario boys were tiring now and we managed to force another couple of turnovers in the last quarter. After one shaky moment we consolidated to grind out the result. The team weren’t exactly happy but we had the win!
The structure of this tournament means that by winning our pool of three we receive a bye through to the semi-finals along with the winners of pool B. Meanwhile, the bottom two in each pool will crossover and fight it out for the right to play us this evening. I still don’t know who our semi-final opponents will be but I’ll try to update you as soon as I possibly can…