SEMLA 6’s Tournament 2014

MK Lacrosse competed in the annual Southern League 6-a-side tournament yesterday, in Reading. We played in last year’s tournament but joined forces with the London club, Spencer. This year we had a fully MK-based squad;

#1 Nathan
#2 Kyle
#3 Rhodri
#4 Sam
#6 Tom
#7 Lewis
#12 Rob

Nathan and Lewis started playing lacrosse at Staffs and Exeter Uni. Kyle, Tom and Sam all started as beginners with MK Lacrosse. For Sam, it was his first competitive action and he can be proud of his day’s work. Rhodri (not pictured) was our ‘ringer’. He lives locally but plays for Premiership team Hitchin, who did not enter the tournament. Rob, the club coach, finished off the MK 7-man squad, dressed in the distinctive club green training bibs.

Teams competed in three divisions; Senior, Intermediate and Minor. Obviously we were in the Minor Division in a pool with Oxford University, Brighton Panthers, Cheltenham and East Grinstead 2’s.

MK 3 – 5 Oxford University

First up were the students and the first thing both teams realised was the small size of the pitch. 6-a-side lacrosse is played on a reduced size pitch but due to a late switch of venue to an astro facility in Reading, instead of Reading LC’s usual grass fields, a football sized astro was divided into 3 pitches. The game was fast and frantic, but also a goal fest with 8 goals during 10 minutes of play. MK scorers were Rhodri and Kyle.

MK 3 – 2 Brighton Panthers 

Next up were Brighton and yes, we won! An opening goal from Rob set the tone as we played great lacrosse for a mostly novice team. Nathan in goal made some great saves and everyone got stuck in defensively to check, push or smash Brighton away from our goal.

MK 1 – 5 Cheltenham

We switched Kyle into goal for this game, but that’s not why we lost, he made some great saves. Cheltenham played well but we had our poorest game. We should of scored 2 or 3 goals at least with good chances missed by Rob, Nathan and Lewis.

MK 1 – 2 East Grinstead 2’s

A win in our final pool game may of given us a semi-final game. We scored first, and it was our best goal of the day. Rhodri moved the ball up-field and as the EG defense focused on him, the ball was passed between Sam, Lewis and Rob, who found Tom charging towards goal and he finished what was great team goal. After EG equalised the game was tight. Both teams had chances but EG grabbed the lead in the second half and held on for the win.

The final pool placings were;

1. Oxford University
2. Cheltenham
3. East Grinstead 2’s
4. Milton Keynes
5. Brighton