Under 7s at the Havant Mini Festival

As part of their South Coast Tour, Luton Under 7s attended the Havant Mini Festival on Sunday, 27th April. We were fortunate enough to be able to enter two teams. In keeping with the Festival's ethos, we needed names for our teams. Our Red and Green squads formed Luton Lions and our Black and White squads were Luton Leopards.

The teams played a qualification stage in pools of 4 teams (so three games) before proceeding to the finals. Each of the three pool winners qualified for the Cup, the three runners-up to the Plate, 3rd places to the Bowl and 4th places to the Spoon. Unfortunately, two Clubs were unable to attend: a major accident on the M27 may have had a detrimental effect. As a result, both the Lions and Leopards had one less pool stage game to play.

Both teams had excellent records in the pool stage. The Lions beat Fawley 18-15, Eastleigh "Seadogs" 21-11 and had a walkover against Petersfield. They topped the pool and went through to the Cup. The Leopards beat Portsmouth 15-13, drew 14 all with Havant "Cowboys" and also had a walkover, against New Milton. Once the analysis was done, they also went through to the Cup. Having both teams in the Cup was way beyond our wildest dreams!

Once again, then, the Leopards and Lions were destined to play each other in a Festival this season: the Lions won 17-9. The Leopards finished their day with a 12 all draw with Andover. The Lions went on to defeat Andover 20-8.

The Lions ended the day with four wins and a walkover; a hard earned but well deserved Cup was claimed. The Leopards won one, drew two, lost one (against Luton Lions!) and also had a walkover. They finished as the second best team at the Festival - Cup runners-up.

There were no "Man of the Match" awards: to select a couple of players as being better than the rest would have been unfair, and frankly impossible! They all played to their utmost all day. A massive "well done" to all the players who were brilliant all day: it really capped a great season.

The scores and scorers are given below. Congratulations to Thomas Read and Conor O'Donnell who joined the 100 Club.

Pool A
Luton Leopards 15-13 Portsmouth
Matthew Guy, Conor O'Donnell, Freddie Findlay (8), Harrison Storey (2), Sammy Maguire (3)
Luton Leopards 14-14 Havant
Marcus Richards (3), George Saunders-Grey, Conor O'Donnell (2), Freddie Findlay (5), Harrison Storey (2), Sammy Maguire
Luton Leopards w/o New Milton

Pool B
Luton Lions 18 - 15 Fawley
Tom Sturrock, Josh Wilton (6), Harrison Yang (3), Josh Crabtree, Charlie Barnwell, Thomas Read (3), Ryan Sears (3)
Luton Lions 21 - 11 Eastleigh
Tom Sturrock, Josh Wilton (4), Harrison Yang (5), Mason Davis, Charlie Barnwell (3), Thomas Read (3), Ryan Sears (4)
Luton Lions w/o Petersfield

Cup
Luton Leopards 9 - 17 Luton Lions
Leopards: Freddie Findlay (5), Harrison Storey, Sammy Maguire (3)
Lions: Tom Sturrock (2), Josh Wilton (4), Harrison Yang (2), Josh Crabtree, Charlie Barnwell, Josh Allen (2), Thomas Read, Ryan Sears (4)
Luton Leopards 12 - 12 Andover
Mason Davis (2), Matthew Guy (2), Freddie Findlay (4), Harrison Storey (3), Sammy Maguire
Luton Lions 20 - 8 Andover
Tom Sturrock, Josh Wilton (5), Harrison Yang (2), Charlie Barnwell (3), Thomas Read (4), Ryan Sears (5)