Either side of the Channel

Crusaders first game was against West Coast Crash, the league’s newest team. We had a strong squad and went into the game confident of victory but Crash really came out firing. We struggled to break down their key defence with Ayaz Bhuta (2.5) chasing and causing all kinds of problems. After wasting early timeouts, we managed to break through but this was by no means the end of our troubles. Our whole team seemed very lethargic and we found ourselves extremely stretched by the boys from the West Coast.

The game was close throughout with lots of mistakes on both sides but savvy decisions by coach, Paul Shaw and a cool head on the floor from veteran, Alan Ash (2.0) steered Crash closer to an unlikely victory. A last ditch effort from the Crusaders brought the scores close early in the fourth, but Crash held their nerve and deservedly pulled of the biggest upset of the season, winning by four goals (43-39).

We were hugely disappointed to have lost, but there was no time to wallow around and dwell on our performance. We still had two games remaining in the pool and needed to win them both the reach the semi-finals! The Marauders and Bulls came back to back that afternoon and in those games, we came out hard to ensure that there was no repeat of the morning’s apathy. Happily we put both teams away early to take second in the pool behind Crash. Unfortunately, this put us in a semi against the Storm!

The next morning, Crusaders and Storm faced off in the deciding game of the Coloplast Super Series. Even though this was only the semi-final, it would still be “winner takes all” in terms of the 2011 season. Despite being underdogs, the Crusaders made a great start, forcing three early turnovers and rattling Storm. We finished the first quarter up but Storm regained their composure, clawing back the deficit and more to lead into halftime. We did everything we could to hold on but the combination of Morrison (2.5), Sehmi (2.5), Frishberg (2.0) and Evans (0.5) was just too strong. By the middle of the third, Storm were too far gone and both teams were running their benches. I don’t have the final score but it was a pretty emphatic win for the North-Londoners who definitely lived up to their “favourites” tag.

Although Storm had secured the 2011 title, the weekend still wasn’t over. They had a final to contest with the Cardiff Pirates, while we would see our friends Crash again to decide third! Determined to avenge our earlier loss, we took the court fully concentrated on our task. It was very much “rugby by numbers” as we deliberately set about breaking down Crash’s game play by play. They had the same kind of energy as the first game, but this time we used our experience and composure to minimize mistakes and put the pressure back on them. Our control was rewarded and we pulled away quarter-by-quarter to secure a comfortable win, taking third for the weekend and second overall in the Super Series. On the other court Storm prevailed in a tough game against the Pirates to win the weekend as well as the Series outright.

Energy levels had been a big problem for me throughout the Super Series weekend; I just hadn’t had gas in the tank when I’d needed it. This was worrying because intensity is a massive part of my game and I knew my fitness levels weren’t in question so what was wrong? The evening of my final GB session, (two days before we were due to travel to France for a European prep tournament) the answer came. In the space of two hours, my right elbow swelled up to twice its normal size and the familiar shivers and shakes synonymous with an infection and temperature set in.

The following day I got an emergency doctors appointment and began a course of antibiotics to see if I could make any kind of improvement before I was due to leave for France. It didn’t help that we were flying early on Thursday, so at 3am I drove to Gatwick to get a final opinion from the team physio on whether I was fit to travel. The swelling was still there but crucially my temperature had stabilized and I wasn’t feeling too grotty anymore. So I was passed fit and several hours later, found myself in a hotel room in Nantes!

GB had a very compact squad in France to work on line-ups and get an idea of how some of our European rivals were looking. France came first; these guys are relative newcomers on the International scene but still looked very capable. Headed by Nicolas Courtault (3.5) and former wheelchair basketball player, Ryadh Sallem (3.0), they used their function on court to pull away from GB and take a 46-36 victory. GB registered their first win in the second game against tournament whipping boys, the Netherlands. The 52-31 score line was an accurate reflection of a very one-sided game.

On Saturday, a young GB struggled against the experience of a full strength German squad but there were still promising signs from skipper Steve Brown (2.5) and rookie, Myles Pearson (1.0). Germany proved too strong, mixing up their characteristic key defence with some strong pressing and looked untroubled as they powered to a 58-47 win.

Our final group game was against European Champions, Belgium. After three so-so performances, GB really started to get some chemistry and were leading at half after doing a great job of shutting down main threat, Lars Mertens (3.5). We restricted Belgium to their strongest line-up and never seemed to have too much trouble breaking the press but some loose passing let us down and our slim lead soon disappeared. Things remained very close until mid-way through the fourth but Belgium pressured us into a couple more turnovers and took the game 54-49 but it was by no means an easy win for them.

Later that day, Belgium managed to sneak past France in a very tight game, setting us up for another crack against the hosts in the 3rd/4th play-off on Sunday. Our two line-ups (2.5, 2.5, 2, 1 and 2.5, 2.5, 2.5, 0.5) were really clicking now and we went at France hard. It was a great battle, with the lead switching several times during the game. Again, GB did a great job of nullifying the French high-pointers. France pulled away in the third but GB countered with a succession of great turnovers and fought all the way to the death. Sadly it was quite enough and GB lost by the narrowest of margins, missing overtime by just half a second! The final score was 52-51 leaving France, third overall with Belgium coming second after losing to a German side that always looked like the form team at this tournament.

Even though it was a tough loss to take, GB returned home having learned some valuable lessons and with more precious minutes of International competition under their belts. Next time I’m back on the PR bandwagon as London celebrates one year until the Olympic Games…

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