Preview: SEMLA 6’s Tournament, 26th April 2014

We have entered the annual Southern League (SEMLA) 6-a-side tournament.

This year the tournament will be hosted by the Reading Wildcats Lacrosse Club on Saturday 26th April. We entered last year and combined forces with Spencer club from London to form two evenly matched squads contained MK and Spencer players. This year we plan to field an entire MK-based squad, and for some it will be their first competitive full-contact game of lacrosse.

The format of the SEMLA 6’s is simple; lots of fast, frantic 10 minute games, with teams organised in three divisions. MK will play in the “Minor” division against other teams with mostly novice players. Last year’s Minor champions were London University.

The tournament is played under field lacrosse rules with a few differences to account for only 5 outfield players (+ a goalie), such as a smaller field and no face-off after a goal. As soon as a goal is scored, the goalie can pick up the ball and pass it out to a teammate to hopefully set up an attack to get a quick equaliser. The result is frantic end-to-end action and plenty of goals.

We’ll try to pause and take some photos on the day to add into a tournament report.