CHARLTON ROVERS UNDER 12’S
REPORT ON
The
18th trip was successfully completed with a squad of 26 boys, 16
from last year’s U11s, 8 from last year’s U12s, and 2 from Windsor Drive U12s.
(
Ian Coote and I took charge of the Rovers 1 squad, while Tony Ashton and Neil Wood took charge of the Rovers 2 squad. The Rovers 1 squad was Daniel Aslan, Tom Coote, David Kane, and Will Mansfield from U12s, Martin Whitelow, Ollie Babbage, Jack Tinton and Tom Collinson from U12s Blues, Robbie Baker, George Baldwin and Matt Tennant from U11s, and Matt Clutterbuck and Dan Anderson from Windsor Drive U12s.
The Rovers 2 squad was Joe Ashton, James Buckingham, Martin Dick, Ben Jenkin, Tom Kent, Charlie Paddock, Chris Robins, James Townsend, and Josh Wood from U11s Blues, and Hayes Jenkins, Harry Oates, James Dimery and Will Goring from U11s.
Rovers
1 played Bosdam from
Rovers
1 second game was against DCV from
In
the afternoon, Rovers 1 played
Back to pitch B for the match against Ik Dien, local rivals to Olve. They took the lead but David Kane scored direct from a free-kick to equalise. In the second half, they took the lead again and once more Rovers 1 came back with the equaliser from Matt Tennant. Rovers could even have won the game late on – 2-2 and a total of 5 points. Matt Clutterbuck was doing a fine job throughout in goal, and Dan Anderson in midfield. Credit to all the boys for blending so quickly as a team.
The
last match of a long day on pitch ‘C’ at 5.20 was against SEJA, also from
We
checked on our start time on Sunday when the draw for the last 16 (excluding
the 8 in group A) was made – 9.00! I asked Erlend to
ensure that all host families knew this so that our team would be there in good
time. Several of our party went to
So,
come Sunday morning at five to nine, we had 7 boys of our 13 available! By the
kick-off we were up to 12 but played with no warm-up or stretches.
Unfortunately, we were outplayed at the start by OXACO from
On
pitch C we played OSSMI from
We
really needed to step things up again but against OLVAC from
This
left us with a play-off against
Thus, we finished 13th out of the 16 and didn’t really fire on the Sunday, but could have finished in the top 8 from the day before with a bit of fortune.
On balance, I don’t think the refereeing and assistant refereeing was biased but it was poor and the standard needs to improve in many ways for the sake of the competition.
I’ll
leave Tony to write about Rovers 2 but the draw did not favour this young team
with Elinkwijk from Holland, the winners for the
third year running, and San Ignacio from Spain, the other group A finalists,
both in their first round group! Esztergom, a young
team from
All other aspects of the tour seemed to go smoothly and we cleared the group passport check on our return journey. As I said on the coach coming back, thanks to all the boys for coming, the parents for sending them or bringing them, and for their best efforts. We would like to win this competition again but the technical ability seen in some European boys is reflected in the senior game in those countries. If we can’t win and cannot find boys easily of the ability to do this, then all we can do is try our best.
Thanks to Ian Coote for assisting me on his fourth trip and everyone else for their support. I shouldn’t forget our Seniors who came for the first time and played three friendlies – W1, D1, L1 – it was good to have you on board. We also had fine weather but the seniors got a soaking in their last game.
Thanks
to Tony Woolams and Marchant’s
for getting us there and back safely – do avoid the Kennedy Tunnel at
For details and pictures, see the Olve Flanders Cup website. Simon Kane.
CHARLTON ROVERS UNDER 12’S
REPORT ON
The trip was successfully completed once more with a squad of 30 boys, 24 from last year’s U11s and 6 from last year’s U12s. There were no major mishaps and the journey was completed safely and very punctually.
I took charge of the Rovers 2 squad, while Kevin Averiss took charge of the Rovers 1 squad. The Rovers 2 squad was Daniel Aslan, Bradley Attwood, Louis Capaldi, Tom Coote, Ryan Davies, Jamie Evans, Alex Jones, David Kane, Callum McDonnell, Robert McGeever, Jack Merrett, Ryan Moore, Aaron Brown, Ryan Temple and Alex Wade.
On the Saturday in Group 1, we played the highly rated French team Trellieres first. I was very pleased with our performance and we seemed to be comfortable at 0-0 in the second half with neither side very threatening. Then out of the blue, one of their players launched a thunderbolt from outside the penalty area and that decided it.
Next
we played VDP from
We then came up against Olve 1 and we were fortunate to hold out as long as we did. Two goals put the game out of reach and this was the best team we had faced. Jack was playing brilliantly in goal throughout all the matches.
Our
last scheduled match was against
This
meant we would be in the Plate Competition on Sunday. Our first game was
against Avesteyn from
Next
we played OLVAC from
Next we played Belgica but this finished 0-0 and we were slightly lucky to draw with them. This left us needing to beat the Undercover team, the eventual Plate winners, making up the numbers to replace a missing team. Although several Rovers boys played for them when possible, they were carried forward by several Elinkwijk boys guesting for them. We needed to beat them to reach the final but went 0-2 down before Ryan pulled one goal back. This meant we finished tied with three teams on 5 points behind Undercover on 10 points. Alex Jones and Ollie Babbage played in the Undercover team in the final.
The Saturday was ideal for football – fairly cloudy – but Sunday was more suited to cricket and was too warm for football. By the end of Sunday, five boys were carrying injuries and although the games are spread out, 80 minutes of football on each day is a lot and we needed the squad of 15 available.
The
main thing was that everyone seemed to enjoy the trip and I think many will
have benefited from the experience. We could have done a little better overall
but the top teams were excellent and the Dutch winners, Elinkwijk were in a
class of their own – 31 goals for and nil against, although they saved two
penalties in the final against Ik Dien from
Thanks to all the boys, for the great effort put in, parents and supporters for their help, and Steve Mattos for all the hard work, organisation and efficiency.
For details and pictures, see www.scolve.be Simon Kane.
(Friday 23rd August to Tuesday 27th August 2002 inclusive)
As mentioned in the September newsletter, unfortunately the Tournament eligibility date has been changed from 1st August (2001 = under 12, born on or after 01/08/88) to 1st January (2002 = under 12, born on or after 01/01/90).
This has the effect of preventing those boys born between 1st August 1989 and 31st December 1989 from being eligible to play in the 2002 Tournament.
It also means that to go in future years we would have to take squads of boys from a “calendar year” and not from teams as such – this has worked the other way for the last 24 years of the Tournament, where the date was previously 1st August benefiting the (3) English teams as opposed to the (17) teams from elsewhere in Europe, which have 1st January eligibility !
Of the 90 boys Registered currently for the Under 11 and Under 12 teams, there are 45 born in 1990 and 27 in 1991 who are eligible to play, and 18 in 1989.
(It should be noted that our eligibility dates are in the process of being altered to 1st September !!)
BELGIUM 2001
A party of 75 players and parents travelled to Antwerp, Belgium, for the “Flanders Cup 2001” an International Under 12 Tournament, based on 2000/2001 eligibilty.
This was our fifteenth trip to the competition and Rovers have been semi- finalists six times out of the previous fourteen visits but only won it once in 1990, being third in 1988, 1992, 1994 and 1996.
There were twenty teams taking part from six countries – Holland (3), Germany (3), France (1), Spain (1), England (3 – we had 2 teams, the other Club being Windsor Drive from Gloucester, who won it !) with the remaining teams from Belgium.
On the first day, teams are divided into four groups of five teams on a League basis and on the second day the best 10 teams go into two “A” Groups and the other 10 into two “B” Groups, the winners of each going into the two Finals.
In their first round group matches, “Rovers 1” beat Avestyn (Holland) 1-0, drew with Kleve (Germany) 0-0, drew with Olvac (Belgium) 1-1 and beat their hosts FC Ik Dien 4-0 to finish 2nd in their Group, with goals coming from Steve Brown 2, Matt Jennings 2, Matt Greaves and Jon Spurway 1.
“Rovers 2” lost all four of their Group matches 0-2 to San Ignacio (Spain), 0- 1 to Belgica (Belgium), 0-2 to SC Olve 1 (Belgium, Tournament hosts) and 0-4 to Straelen (Germany).
In their Group “A” matches, “Rovers 1” failed to win a game finishing overall 8th of 20 in the Tournament – drew 0-0 with SC Olve 1, lost 0-1 to DCV (Holland), drew 0-0 with Straelen and lost 0-1 to Elinkwijk (Holland), the eventual runners-up.
“Rovers 2“ did not lose any of their Group “B” matches winning their Group and qualifying for the Plate Final – won 1-0 v SC Olve 2 (Tom Wilson), drew 0-0 v Olvac, drew 0-0 v FC Ik Dien, won 1-0 v Oxaco from Belgium (Robert Leahy). In the Plate Final they lost 1-3 to Belgica with Tom Wilson putting them in to an early lead, finishing 12th of 20 teams a very creditable performance.
The boys stayed as the guests of families from local Club FC Ik Dien, who will be visiting Cheltenham at Easter, the parents staying in a hotel near the football ground in Edegem, south of Antwerp.
On the Monday, the party visited a Theme Park and in the evening an International Select team (anyone who wanted to play !) lost 3-5 to SC Olve veterans team – ask Ady Middleton about his super run up the wing, but he forgot the ball !! After this there was the farewell Bar-b-Q and party.
The excellent hospitality of the Belgian families was greatly appreciated, I think our parents also had a good time – no mention of the two Dads who arrived back at the Hotel from the trip to Antwerp on the Saturday night in time for breakfast on the Sunday morning !!!
More information is available from the SC Olve site.
