Lancashire Lions novice team wearing their gold medals in front of two Goalball UK banners.The Novice season continued on Saturday 15th January for Tournament 2 in Sheffield, Birmingham and Winchester!

In an exciting action packed day, all 3 tournaments went down to the wire!

Region A

West Yorkshire, Lancashire Lions, Mersey Sharks, South Yorkshire and a Composite team descended on the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield for Region A’s second tournament of the season. It was great to see so many new faces at the tournament, with debutants featuring across the day!

It literally did go down to the wire in the contest for gold between Lancashire Lions and West Yorkshire, with only goal difference separating the two teams! In the end, Lancashire Lions came away with gold, with a goal difference of +15 compared to West Yorkshire’s +2. Lancashire Lions boast a great attacking threat via Sammie Korosi, who along with Jade Burniston of West Yorkshire, have a scored an impressive 11 goals across the 2 tournaments. Winning 3/4 fixtures leaves Lancashire Lions in a healthy position at the top of the table in Region A, with 18 points and a 4 point gap to West Yorkshire going into future tournaments!

West Yorkshire novice team with their silver medals, wearing their infamous yellow kit with coach Phil Green!

Gold medalists of tournament 1, South Yorkshire had a mixed bag of results in tournament 2, losing against West Yorkshire, Lancashire Lions and the Composite team. Nevertheless, they were victorious against Mersey Sharks. The team gained valuable experience with two members of the team in Andy and Ameen making their debuts! Not to mention, Andy went on to win Player of the Day!

South Yorkshire Goalball team, with a row of three seated on the floor and three seated on a bench in their blue jerseys smiling.

Mersey Sharks will go into Tournament 3 in 4th place, looking to close the gap against South Yorkshire in 3rd. After winning 2/4 games, could they do it? Josh Prince may play a big part within that chase as he goes into Tournament 3 as the male top goal scorer for Region A, scoring the same amount as Jade and Sammie previously mentioned, with 11 goals!

Mersey Sharks team photo wearing their bronze medals.

Read the full results via the Novice Region A – Tournament 2 – Results page!

Region B

Region B kicked off in the same fashion as Region A with a 5-2 victory, with Birmingham overcoming a resilient New College Worcester. The similarities continued as the rule book was needed to decided the gold medalist! It came down to goals conceded with Birmingham and RNC Academy having the same number of points, winning the same number of games and scoring the same amount of goals!

Birmingham team with coaches and players huddled together in front of a Goalball UK banner with their gold medals.

Despite being pipped to the gold medal, RNC Academy had a great tournament with convincing wins versus South Wales (9-1) and New College Worcester (8-3) and winning a close encounter against Birmingham (2-0) with a team featuring Robyn Gell, competing at their first tournament and scoring 9 goals, making Robyn the female top goalscorer! It is all to play for in Tournament 3 with both Birmingham and RNC Academy going into it with 18 points!

RNC silver medal photo with fur players and coach Aaron Ford.

A lovely story to come out of Region B, was South Wales fielding a Young team, literally! Sisters Catrin and Bethan Young played on court with mum Gwennan, is that a goalball first! The Young family, along with the rest of the South Wales team will look to keep a hold of their 3rd spot with 10 points going into the rest of the season, with Nottingham Sheriffs hot on their tail with 6 points!

Catrin, Bethan and Gwennan Young on court together in a goalball game.

Read the full results via the Novice Region B – Tournament 2 – Results page!

Region C

And finally, Region C! The home of Winchester Goalball Club, Peter Symonds College welcomed Cambridge Gown, Cambridge Town, Croysutt Warriors, Croysutt Crusaders, Winchester Kings, and Winchester Knights. 

Winchester Kings were the kings of Tournament 1 winning and got off to a good start in Game 2 winning 9-3 against Croysutt Warriors. Following their game against the Warriors, Winchester Kings would go on to draw against Cambridge Gown 6-6 who themselves were searching for their first win of the season and coming so close! It was eventual gold medalists Croysutt Crusaders knocking the kings crown beating them 4-2! Going into future tournaments for Winchester Kings, Marcus Bu-Rashid will look to continue his prolific goal scoring form, coming away from Tournament 2 scoring 11 goals!

Winchester Kings team photo with them wearing their silver medals, with all players wearing Winchester kit with pride!

As previously mentioned, Croysutt Crusaders improved massively from their 4th place finish in Tournament 1, coming away with gold!! They got off to the best start they could beating Tournament 1 bronze medalists Winchester Knights 3-1 and remained unbeaten all day finishing with a record of 3 wins and 1 draw. Congratulations once again to Susan Hookway who as well as a gold medal, won Player of the Day!

Croysutt Crusaders with their gold medals, with five players standing together with coaches Alex Uylesses and Jack Peters!

Cambridge Gown, who have finished in 6th place in Tournament 1 & 2, have lots of positives to take into future tournaments after improving their results against teams who beat them in Tournament 1. As told best by player Eilidh Johnstone in her post tournament blog , the team headed into the final minutes of fixtures one goal up against Winchester Kings but agonisingly conceded a penalty in the final seconds meaning the game ended 6-6!

Cambridge Gown team photo with four players and coach Sarah Leiter.

Check out the full results via the Novice Region C – Tournament 2 – Results page!

Well done to all teams and good luck for the Novice Shield on Saturday 2nd April at Bromsgrove School, Worcester Road, Bromsgrove!