The 12/13th March saw Viking A attend one of their favourite tournaments of the season; Essen Fours. Named after its four a side structure rather than the normal five a side. The games are played in an indoor pool area with two small pools. This small pitch and four a side games makes the game much quicker and often leads to higher scoring games than usual. It is certainly a concept that should be considered in the UK with less and less 33-50m pools being available to play in.

Viking started the tournament on a disappointing note, losing to Gottinger (Germany). This meant that they would have to win the remaining two group games to go through to the quarter finals. The team stepped up their performance against Dutch team Michiel de Ruyter, then again against Germans, Meidericher winning both games fairly comfortably. Due to other results this meant Viking would go through top and play Rothe Muhle Essen in the quarter final.
A good day was topped off by a trip to one of the teams favourite restaurants, Dragos where a Dragos mixed grill or an Angry Ant (translation issue) were tucked into.

A 6am start was on the cards on Sunday morning ahead of the quarter final at 7.30. The team were down at the pool early to get a quick paddle in prior to the games starting. The first game started at 7am, which seems to be the norm in Germany!

Vikings game got underway, they were quickly under pressure and conceded early, no problem, there was 19 1/2 minutes to go, plenty of time. Then things went from bad to worse as George Murfin received a green, then yellow then red card in the space of a minute. The red card was totally unjustified. This meant George could not take any further part in the game and leaving the team with only 3 players. We couldn't believe our tournament had being ruined by a piece of refereeing stupidity; the surprise of both the opposition and the crowd backed our thoughts up entirely. The three remaining players battled on courageously, hitting the opposition's goal frame 5 times! However, close was not good enough, the team were hit on the break several times losing 6-0 in the end.



The best we could now finish was 5th. With adrenalin and anger still pumping, the German team Liblar were always going to be up against it. Viking played their best game of the tournament to beat them 9-2, the score line showing they shouldn't really have been playing off for these places. Next was St Albans, Viking beat them in a much closer game than they would have liked to claim 5th place.

Martyn Plans the next move.

Although we had a great time it was such a disappointment to have been undone by the referee rather than a better team, we genuinely believed we were playing well enough to have won the tournament, but it wasn't to be.

The team is now looking forward competing in the rest of National Division 1 and hopefully retaining the title again.

Article by Martyn Williamson. Viking Polo.

(Posted on the 21st Mar 2011 by Pete)

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