Men Win Plate Competition at first Whitefield appearance.
Monday 26th July 2010
Ronald Criss Koko spikes against Eisden.
UBVC went into its first indoor Whitefield tournament with a squad average age of just 20 hoping to gain experience of playing at a higher level. Facing, as it proved to be, the tougher of the groups Birmingham acquitted themselves well storming to a convincing first set win against Team Northumbria (formerly Middlesbrough).
However the strong hitting of Northumbria proved too much in the second set and the third set managed to slip from UBVCs grasp having led at the change over, due to a mixture of errors and rustiness. This close defeat to the eventual winners of the cup seemed to encourage the team as they set about beating a similarly young Eisden in what was perhaps their best performance of the weekend, winning 2-0 convincingly. This gave the squad new confidence in reaching the top pool for the second day as the four teams competing in pool B took sets and games of each other. However with a long gap before their last game of the day UBVC could not raise their game and were soundly beaten as much by themselves as by the experienced London Docklands team. This sadly left Birmingham competing for the plate, missing out on points difference to Docklands.
The Sunday saw another early start for UBVC against the Kiwi outfit Business Time. This proved to be another scrappy performance but with no bench to turn to the team had to find a way to win despite a performance riddled with errors. However the 2-1 win led to another tough match against Eisden, this time seeing a much better performance from all the players, particularly the dreadless Tom Tomczak. Finally the fairly tired group played Leicester, the first opponents in next year’s national league Division 1, which thankfully finished 2-0 to Birmingham giving the team a chance to celebrate their victory, winning the Plate Competition, and see the final of the men’s cup between the first days opponents Team Northumbria and London Docklands.