View and Purchase Photos taken By John Mckay (More Photos to come thru out Sat and Sun.)
The weekend was packed with exciting, fast and very skilled inline hockey a pleasure for any spectator. Our Visiting teams staying in our local hotel Corrs Corner, enjoyed a well deserved knees up on sat evening after a hard day of play, courtesy of Corrs Corner with East Coast Blaze providing entertainment. Sunday proved to be the icing on the cake, with a fantastic days play. Teams played each other in the knockout rounds everyone pushing themselves to their limits, until 12 became 4.
East Coast Blaze the hosting team played the Cork Rebels a visiting well established team for 3rd and 4th place. This game nail biting stuff to watch with a 1-1 score, Nigel Smeaton scoring for Cork and Stuart Fleck scoring for ECB, pushing the game into sudden death penalties. Cork rebels first man up takes his position, skates in for his shot and it hits the post, the crowd goes wild. East Coast Blaze forward Stuart Fleck encourages the crowd to make some noise, circles, skates in for his shot and its a goal, the bench empties as East Coast Blaze celebrate their 3rd place position in the tournament.
BC Bruins local team played visiting team South London Snipers for 1st and 2nd position and the accalade of taking the Valley Vase home. This game again amazing, exciting, and the most skilled inline hockey you could hope to see, resulting in another draw 3-3 London Snipers goals scored by Py Gerdean (2) and Lee Hounslow (1), BC Bruins goals scored by Gareth Marin (2), Gareth Roberts (1) pushing this final into sudden death overtime, within a few minutes the BC Bruins Simon Black scores the winning goal which crowns his Belfast City Bruins team VV tournament champions keeping the vase home for the first time!
Special guests handing out the awards were Belfast Giant superstar and all round nice guy George Awada awarding first place and the Deputy Lord Mayor for Newtownabbey Alderman Victor Robinson and Wife Vicky Robinson awarding 2nd and 3rd places.
East Coast Blaze would like to send a special thanks to all our sponsors who make this tournament possible: Especially Newtownabbey Borough Council for their funding toward to Valley Vase. Without their help and support the event would not have been possible and such a huge success..Belfast Chrystal for their beautifully crafted Vase and All Hockey Gear for Sponsoring it, Corrs Corner Hotel and Restaurant, Vanscoys Jewellery, Prestige Metal Craft, Tweed Joinery and Shop Fitting, John S Devlin Printers, Biznet-Solutions, Movie House Glengormley, Sports Bowl Glengormley, Charles Hurst Toyota Newtownabbey, and last but not least St Johns Ambulance. We would also like to acknowledge the Valley Leisure Centre for accommodating us for the last 5 years training and 4 years tournaments, there would be no club with out this venue, and also to cafe Desporto recently opened in the Valley, with healthy affordable and delicious food. THANK YOU ALL!
