Bandits @ Fordingbridge

It was another successful tour for the Bandits, being denied a first ever clean sweep only by the hangover induced failure of the girls to progress beyond their group.

A relaxed and chilled BBQ on Friday evening so the Bandits advance party established base camp by the banks of the river and enjoyed some quality Salmon and Chicken, then a whole melange of fruit for dessert. If only the fruit hadn’t been deeply embedded in liquours we might have felt OK on Saturday morning.

Still the Bandits mixed side made a confident start to proceeedings in the morning and ended up managing to win all their group games becoming a goal scoring machine (always helpful when teams don’t have a keeper). This competitive oversight meant that we were through to the mixed semis and from there through to the final. This was a bit of a problem as it cut quite heavily into our going to the pub to watch the football time. Having won the final against English Chess we found ourselves winner in the awesome winners position of being winners champions. We donated half our beer prize to our opponents and challenged them to a game of cannage which Posh lost. Again.

It was a blazing 30 degree day in lovely Hampshire so there was only one thing for it after such a hard days hockeying - yes a dip in the river. We plunged straight in, had an impromptu game of volleyball and then swam back down to base camp all the way followed by girly sqeals of “WEEDS!!!!!”

Saturday evening saw another lovely BBQ whipped up by Laz preparing us suitably for a Wibbly Wobbly challenge, which we lost, and a game of rounders using a cricket stump and four chairs. By this point we decided it was time to make the evening;s entertainment less of an end of wedding disco and more of a serious party, hitting that dance floor in winners style and throwing up some serious grooves, and some serious sounds thanks to Johnny D’s karaoke slot.

I am not sure what happened next.

Sunday dawned bright and fair and loaded up on bacon and sausage sarnies we proceeded to the single sex tournaments with winners confidence high. The boys made a great start and shot themselves in the foot by raising the girls’ expectations with a high tempo and dynamic display of winners hockey. It was a winenrs performance that would prove to take them all the way through to the final, raising hopes of a clean sweep given the girls’ fine Fordingbridge winenrs form in recent years. However it was not to be as with only four teams in their pool a single mistake could cost the girls and they made it in their hangover induced first game when they lost to English Chess. They weren’t able to recover and missed out on a semi place by a single goal.

Still important cheerleading duties were required to nurse the tiring and banged up winners boys through the latter stages of their tournament which they ended up winning. So as Meatloaf would say 2 out of 3 ain’t bad… well yes it is actually because we wanted to be winners!!

Onwards and upwards. Sonning awaits. More Chester and some Fordingbridge photos up soon….