Belgium 2003
At 0030 hours on the morning of Friday 19 April Cleveland Hall set off on a journey into Europe. Last minute panics were successfully averted (one leader even leaving his passport in the luggage hold - really) and 6 teams, comprising 95 players started the through the night travel.
At approximately 4am much of the young kids (double decker) bus was asleep, but the adults unfortunate enough to be downstairs were kept wide awake by the tall tales of Mick Blissett. Dover and then Calais came and went and on we moved into the French then Belgian countryside. James Henry (U11) was unimpressed with the French countryside, venturing the opinion that it needed to be `done up a bit`. Obviously no holidays in Provence booked for that family.
Having been provided with clearly dyslexic map reading drivers we stumbled on through Belgium until a particularly friendly service station stop at about 3.30pm. Friendly of course because of the beer prices (adults only), although the kids were not impressed with the 30 cents fee for use of the toilet.
A happier adult group reboarded the bus and arrived at Sunparks Kempense Meren around 5pm that evening. Having dispersed the groups to their `villas` it was time to see what the resort had to offer. A junior member of staff with goalkeeping coaching pretensions immediately jumped into the lake without reading to the numerous no swimming signs. Fortunately we pulled him out before his hair was irreparably damaged.
Overall we were not disappointed. The villas were detached, spacious and clean, the aquapark top quality with a couple of backbreaking slides (and jacuzzis) and the food inexpensive. Even a beach football facility. Most of the players were getting wet before even having anything to eat. A fairly early night with everyone ready for the games to start in the morning.
A 9am start with Cleveland`s tour of Europe taking in yet another country, this time Holland. The assertion of only travelling 45 minutes to a game was soon proved to be false, at 1:15 it was not a problem, at 1:30 into the trip Forrester was coming in for some totally unjustified stick, but finally after a 2 hour trip (thanks Sports Tours), the first bus pulled in at St Anthonis. The poor U11-U12 combination was due on at 11.10 and got changed in record quick time before getting onto the pitch to play Worcester City U13 team. A highly creditable performance given the circumstances of the day resulted in only a 3-1 defeat with Cameron Laws becoming the first player in Clevelands` history to score on the Continent.
From then on the football came thick and fast. All six teams played 3 games on that first day as well as taking 5 penalties in the shootout, which also went to group positions. Both U13s and U15s acquitted themselves remarkably well given the high age groups they were competing in and but for some horrendous U15 penalties (Dean Tempests` penalty is still rising) they would have qualified for the top pool the next day. The U12s lost three but showed definite improvement throughout the day (with good penalties from Danny Kettle and Paul Forster) and U14s and U16s in Wanroj comfortably qualified for the top play off pool in their groups. The U10s finished a respectable third out of four and scored all 5 penalties, very impressive given the fact that many players had never played 11 a side before.
Saturday night was a never to be forgotten experience, for those who ran the SunParks karaoke anyway. Whether they had ever been faced with 20 Geordie youngsters doing a Tina Turner is doubtful but with MC Fish on the microphone the time passed quickly. Even the clubs Elton John impersonator did a passable Crocodile Rock. A top quality game of illicit villa-swapping was in progress througout the night - or did it just seem like it.
Another early start on Sunday saw us get to the venues in oodles of time (only because Mr Boustead had fiddled our fixtures to start later than everyone elses) and eventually resulted in Cleveland Hall`s first ever European trophy. In St Anthonis the U15s (only one `ill` player short) continued to compete well against the U16 and a bit teams they were up against to finish an overall 6th in their pool.
The U13 team, despite a massive size disparity, (Jack Oldham is pictured below marking a jolly green and white giant) won their first two games comfortably before going down to the least sporting team ever to come from Holland 1-0. A solid 6th place finish for a team which had 8 players who were eligible to play in the pool below.
The U11-12 combo had tightened up enormously from the first day and were unlucky to go down 1-0 in their first two games. The final game was a dramatic loser takes all battle for the wooden spoon and it was the unlikeliest of heroes, normal goalie Dean Hughes, who popped up to tap in the winner from an inch and run a mile to celebrate. Even the manager was seen to pop a toe or two onto the pitch before being resupplied with his medication. A raucous group is seen celebrating below.
Over in Wanroj was however where the real drama was taking place. The U10 team clean swept its way through Sunday fixtures with Ryan Gibson notching 5 goals and Josh Holland getting one that he would not shut up about for weeks. An overall 8th place finish for a mainly U10 squad was very good.
The two teams that were least disadvantaged by the age groupings were our U14 and U16s. The U14s played three consecutive draws with older opposition to finish an overall 3rd, with Gary Archbold scoring freely.
The U16s however was where the real drama lied. In St Anthonis the message got through to say that if they won their last game 4-0 they would win the tournament. As those teams were all finished there was nothing for it other than for 70 people to jump in a 50 seater bus (oops) for a 5km drive to the other venue. When we got there the game had already finished. What an anti-climax? Certainly not.
A 3-0 win had left a penalty shoot out against the Germans to decide the winners! With the U10s and U14s already watching expectantly the Germans were no doubt disconcerted to see another 70 people come over the hill a la the relief of Mafeking (although the author was not present at Mafeking, of course).
An enormous crowd had gathered before the shootout started. They won the toss to go first but successful penalties from Chris Reay (Corky), Liam Docherty (Sniper - in off the post, closer than he liked), Lee Johnson and Jamie Scope left the score at 4-4. When the final German placed a weak kick wide it was left to the educated left foot of Chris Clayton to win the tournament. That he did with a cool spot kick and precipitated a mass pile up with approximately 80 children joining in. Quite a sight indeed.
After the excitement we got back to the camp in time for a quick swim and a fairly early night although the waiting accident to happen that was Paul Forster managed to get his finger jammed quite nastily in a bowling ball(?!) causing our first sight of a Belgian doctor.
Monday was gorgeous and was probably the day that made the trip. The thought of excursions (and the resulting extra hours on the bus) was discarded and we sat about enjoying the camp and the weather. The sun shone thorughout in an almost tropical manner and the outdoor bar was populated by quite a number of English adults. Some ventured into activity in the form of a beach football match with the U14s, a see-saw game which did not end until Steve Sullivans golden goal winner snatched victory for the adults, whilst others just watched and laughed.
The afternoon was a barbeque fest before the thunderstorm ended the evening off. The writer attended (and sampled) at least four barbeques before being subjected to a vicious assault by a number of aggressive nine year olds and the children continued to eat, swim and play football until nightfall.
Bags were packed early on Tuesday morning for the return traverse through the low countries to Dover. A raucous early morning coach was dealt with by way of a moment of genius thinking. Let`s put a video on! Happy Gilmore appealed to both children and adults (club hardman Steve Colling being seen to stifle a snigger at various particularly childish Adam Sandler moments) although the more sensible adults cowered at the back. Further videos had a similar gagging effect (thats re. noise not regurgitation!) and the trip home actually went quite quickly. We landed at Lyndhurst as near as makes no difference to midnight with those of us who had booked Wednesday off work looking smugly down on those who had not.
All that is left is to decide which European hotspot to hit next year. Andy Watling is of course checking out Ibiza as we speak.
Happy travels!
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