Josh's vague memories because no one else dared

The first task of the day was to get to Wellington for 1 pm. Shouldn't be too difficult. Unfortunately, one car unwisely decided to rely on Pam's timekeeping, and James' knowledge of Somerset geography; while the other car was delayed by the fact that Lee had never driven further than the pub before. There's a whole world out there, Lee! Still, a quick phone call to Stuart ensured that we wouldn't be scheduled first, and we got there just in time to see Taunton finish off a win over Horfield. We also had time to admire the lovely hall, and quail at the huge pitch we were expected to play on.

First up for Cardiff were a strong looking Exeter team, and we struggled initially, not getting to grips with the size of the hall and throwing a lot of passes astray. Exeter had loaded up one end strongly with perhaps their best 3 players, Tony, Alan and Rachael and Cardiff were unable to score past them; and Exeter moved into a 3-1 lead. Just before half-time though City began to play with more fluency and Rachel netted a long shot to boost our spirits. In the second half, Cardiff played much better, with Taff netting a hat-trick as we cruised to a 7-5 victory. This was particularly impressive given that Exeter (admirably reinforced by our girls against the other opposition) didn't concede another goal in their remaining two games of the tournament.

Next up were Taunton, and again Cardiff fell behind early against an athletic team who, despite their evident inexperience, had been taught a trick or two. Lee was struggling to contain Stuart and when James moved to cut out a feed only to be beaten by a neat ball over the top, Cardiff went into another half-time deficit. Once again though we regrouped in the second half, with Lee getting revenge for the first half with a couple of goals, plus a nice feed for Josh. With Kat, Pam and James all scoring as well, Cardiff managed to win 7-4 without needing a goal from Taff.

The last game was against a Horfield side that was lacking almost all their first team, and who had found it tough throughout the tournament. For once, Cardiff took the lead, on Josh's runner, but Michelle quickly responded for Horfield. From then on though, Cardiff took complete control, thanks to some superb control of the post, particularly by Pam and Taff. With Horfield unable to get the ball, the long shots started dropping, from Lee and Kristina at one end, and Taff at the other. Cardiff won 10-2 in fine style.

So, another victory to add to Cardiff's collection. Many thanks to Stuart for organising a very smoothly run tournament, in a great venue - it was pretty cool to have a working scoreboard for a change; to the other teams for another good-spirited competition; and to Pam and Lee for doing chauffeur duty. We're looking forward to returning to play Taunton in the league next year.

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