The U18s returned yesterday from their tour to Zevenbergen in Holland. After their arrival and some sight-seeing in Amsterdam on Friday, a friendly 6-a-side tournament was organised for Saturday with 15 mixed teams made up with players from the 3 clubs taking part – Zevenbergen, Chelmsford and Casuals.

On Sunday the more serious part of the weekend began, with Casuals winning both their morning matches against Zevenbergen and Chelmsford 4-0 and 3-1 respectively.  Curiously the Casuals’ return games in the afternoon produced exactly the same score lines, giving them first place overall.

On the Monday the boys proved their physical fitness with a 4 hour bicycle trip to the historic city of Willemstad. After a short rest, they took on the Zevenbergen U18s in a final evening match. In front of a large crowd, the boys played some of their best hockey of the season: they went 1-0 up from a penalty corner early on, but Zevenbergen equalised from the penalty spot. From then on, the Casuals took control of the game and were 5-1 up at the interval. Their irrepressible attacking play tore through the Zevenbergen defence, with 2 goals coming from moves of 8-10 passes. This was an impressive display that earned them plaudits from those present, and the final 10-4 score line reflects a thrilling display.

A great weekend of hockey was complemented by the social side, with the 3 clubs all having great fun at the Discos and Music Quiz. A big thank you is due to Zevenbergen for their excellent organisation and their great generosity and help with anything the Casuals needed.

In yesterday’s league match against Sport Club, the Ladies were looking to extend their lead at the top of the table. But Sport took the game to them from the start and, although the first half ended goalless, the Casuals continued to be under pressure and soon conceded 2 goals. Although they pulled one back, Sport kept up their attacking play and forced a third goal to take the game 3-1.

In the following match, the Veterans also faced a strong Belenenses team. Even so they built a 2-0 lead, but by the interval their opponents had pulled back to 2-2. With Belenenses twice taking the lead, Casuals fought hard to equalise each time and, at 4-4 with 5 minutes left, seemed to have secured a draw. But Belenenses took advantage of their strong midfield control to notch a further goal for a 5-4 win.

In this morning’s U14 Tournament, Casuals won their two games convincingly 7-2 and 9-2. The team simply outplayed Futebol Benfica, the U14 runners-up in the Indoor EN.NA. Trying out different field variations (with/without a goalie), they consistently outplayed their opponents with some nice passing combinations; and when the team started to get tired and stopped passing, they listened to advice and starting to pass again and scored even more goals.

At this morning’s U12 Tournament at the Estádio Nacional, the Casuals won both their games against Carris 4-2 and 1-0.

This was followed by the U18s match against Lousada. The Casuals went ahead after 15 minutes from a fierce reverse stick strike from the edge of the circle, and took this advantage into the break.  The second half continued to see both teams battling hard, but Lousada scrambled an equaliser over the line. Casuals pulled ahead again from a high penalty corner conversion, but their opponents again equalised with a simple tap-in at the far post. Even a last minute penalty corner to the Casuals could not give them the win they needed to overtake their rivals at the top of the table, and 2 shots off the post (one in each half) and several other unconverted chances may have left them feeling they deserved better than the 2-2 draw.

In yesterday’s league match away to Espinho, the Men struggled to contain their opponents in the first half. After going 1-3 down, they then conceded a fourth on the stroke of half time. But a much improved second half from the Casuals saw each side add one more goal for a 5-2 Espinho win, with 4 of the total goals coming from penalty corners.

This morning the U12s played their home tournament. In the first game against Futebol Benfica, Casuals managed to go into the interval with a 2-0 lead, in spite of an under-strength side due to two key absences. However, it proved too hard to hold onto the lead, playing without a goalie and with an injury to one of the defenders and Futebol Benfica scored four goals in a row to win the game 4-2. Casuals played a younger team in the second game against Carris but still won 4-0.

In the afternoon, the U16 Mixed team played ESLFB in their first league match. Although Casuals had most of the possession throughout and several chances to open the scoring, they were frustrated by some good goalkeeping. It was only in the final seconds that they managed to score for a 1-0 win.