You know I don’t even know where to start its Monday night and I am absolutely knackered, so many things to say about the whole event
For those who have asked, I will go through each game so as to avoid confusion about how we got to 1-2 play off
First off and they know it already the whole team were great. Big squad for some hot weather
Pete Phouli, Chris Edwards, Neil Campbell, Colby Keats, Al France, Chris Schooling, Clint Moore, Kyle Milton, Billy Smith and of course Russ Steele
We started the event very poorly on the Thursday, mostly because of driving round for hours on end getting lost and multiple flights bringing the squad together for walking the field
CPL field, well lets say it wasn't my favourite field of the events so far, more about the field later
The event itself in my opinion is a step back and not forwards by any stretch of the imagination, right in the middle of an industrial region way outside the city centre and a nightmare to navigate, and a very strange sewer smell when you left the site
For those of you that know me will know I live in Spain and love the place, its part of Spanish culture to have football and small stadiums, in almost every village/town/municipal you go to throughout the country
The way it was positioned away from the main stadium and on what can only be described as rough ground a bit like Campaign from the 1990's
Very dangerous and unlike Campaign where it usually rained, it was like playing on concrete and spectators had to put up with dirt and dust
The netting looked like it was second hand and poorly constructed, an unusual amount of paint came over, under and through the netting
I have no idea what the other fields were like as I only got the chance to look at 1 other field to watch a team play
The grandstand well, more akin to benches at my son's school sports day at infant school
Sod moaning about the event so much down to the nitty gritty, I understand that it had been down to being let down at the last minute and we were there to play and give the maximum we could to represent ourselves and supporters
The field
The snake side was massively dominant and the bag side was just the bag side
The comment made at the start of the season, was to have the field so the game could twisted. For example a team could gain an advantage and push the snake heavily, if the opposing team pushed the bag side heavily this would create a very crowd pleasing format. With most of the cross field shots cut out by the X some very intense play
Friday Game 1 Tigers
The scoreline as it stood looked very biased to us having an easy game, honestly it was not. Tigers to there credit put up a very strong challenge and it was a hard fought out contest
We got to have a look at the field early on and I was looking at a field that needed me to give it a whole lot more of our attention
Saturday Game 2 Ducks
Alot of speculation with this game as you may or not know that we have one brother Colby Keats with Shock and the other Sam Keats with Ducks
So much had been flying around about this epic battle and only one survivor left standing, gamesmanship more like and it backfired
This game was more than just that though, it was our first meeting at an event to date and with most games it starts 5 on 5 and the "team won this match". Some interesting decisions from the Ducks for whom to play on the field pretty much sealed their fate of not making the Sunday club.
I still was not happy with the way we were playing the field though, and it was bothering me
Saturday Game 3 Yoy Division
Compounded my thoughts about the field and the way we were playing it
Lost out 5-1 and we had lots of work to do as we had pulled Excessive in the next round as they were winners of Division 1
On this note I had the chance to watch XSV play and quickly saw their game plan
So after an early start to the day we had to walk the fields again and change our tactics for Sunday
Sunday Game 4 play off XSV
I won't bore you with the details of the crowd trouble in this game, but a huge thank you to, Nexus, Tigers, Ducks, Kane and Dave Stewart and all the other supporters, there were many, for dealing with the spectator problem
Very tight game, mirrored breakout and not our usual style of play, but you play the field and that’s exactly what we did, complete team game
First game was intense it went down to a 1 on 1 with Neil Campbell and XSV player Dave Williamson in the back corner. Neil was quickly up the field aggressively into the 50 on the bag side, eventually Dave made a move up the the snake and Neil edged closer the XSV base
Dave wisely not entering into a foot race made his way back to his original back corner stand up bunker. There was the mistake, giving Neil the opportunity to work his way blindly right into the XSV centre can....right on top of the breakout start point and more importantly on top of the buzzer
Now out of paint Neil coolly stepped across and pushed the buzzer, Shock 1 XSV 0 and a huge amount of time swallowed up
2nd game I cant even remember, I was still buzzing from the first but I know we won Shock 2 XSV 0 and we were now starting to control the game and more importantly the field
Game 3 went to XSV
Game 4 well again we had lost heavily during the game it was 4 XSV and 2 Shock, Neil in his back corner and Clint in the other. It all happened very quickly XSV made the moves up the field. Clint tagged the Snake player, and quickly crossed to centre for a great shot on the centre X, then he gets clipped from the bag side....Takes us to a 2 on 1 situation, Neil on the other side is battling with his tape player and a centre player, Neil tags the tape player and as the centre player moves in for the kill Neil wraps and shoots him clean on the hand and arm, with the exchange Neil also takes a shot....
The XSV player moves to press the buzzer only for the ref to pull the player and 0 the game no points scored there
We now enter the longest 2ish minutes of the whole event and its standing Shock 2 XSV 1. Yep its 2 minutes left of game time, again we play the field and play the lane shooting, mirroring XSV and relying on our skill and gun(DM6) in case you didn't know we play the game out to a draw and take the spoils
Real character and determination showed there from this team, taking themselves out of their style of play to win the point and progress to the next round
Have I said how hot it was yet, Madrid in the summer...damn it’s hot
Sunday Game 5 Vision
A great bunch of players who are working hard and learning quickly
This ones down to stretching the legs and taking out the frustration of being forced into a negative style of play from the last round against XSV
Lots of lanes lots of quick bumps and wham the boys really turn on the style
Plays coming all over the field and we get our first chance this year to play for 1st and 2nd place
Sunday Game 6 Joy boys again
We were up for this and the crowds you did us proud, at this stage of a tournament you are running on instinct really and without your support to lift us for every game
Joy ran out winners by a margin and it hurt mentally but we have shown our strength and it has made us more resolute to come back and we will have our day Magued not just with that coin
Whats left to say
Great job refs you turned it on again when needed and boy in that heat and with that field you needed at least 6 more refs and double pay
Thanks to all our sponsors, Jeff at Dye for the fantastic DM6 the best gun on the market, Goggles and playing gear head to toe quality and superb, Casual gear for making us look cool
Andy Piper PMI for the paint, Marb with evil fill perfect, air tanks and regs
Russ Steel at Bristol outdoor pursuits, training facility and life long sponsor of Shockwave
Sloth for the pots, Jackie Sosta for the loaders, OPSL, Clarity, Computacentre and Repton
Finally to everyone that supported us and thanked us for the entertainment
Mr Robinson please accept my apologies for my grammar. Again it will have not been to a standard that I would have liked, I should have spent more time listening in those English lessons but its 11-30 now and I am going to sleep
Hasta LLuego y buenos noches
For those who have asked, I will go through each game so as to avoid confusion about how we got to 1-2 play off
First off and they know it already the whole team were great. Big squad for some hot weather
Pete Phouli, Chris Edwards, Neil Campbell, Colby Keats, Al France, Chris Schooling, Clint Moore, Kyle Milton, Billy Smith and of course Russ Steele
We started the event very poorly on the Thursday, mostly because of driving round for hours on end getting lost and multiple flights bringing the squad together for walking the field
CPL field, well lets say it wasn't my favourite field of the events so far, more about the field later
The event itself in my opinion is a step back and not forwards by any stretch of the imagination, right in the middle of an industrial region way outside the city centre and a nightmare to navigate, and a very strange sewer smell when you left the site
For those of you that know me will know I live in Spain and love the place, its part of Spanish culture to have football and small stadiums, in almost every village/town/municipal you go to throughout the country
The way it was positioned away from the main stadium and on what can only be described as rough ground a bit like Campaign from the 1990's
Very dangerous and unlike Campaign where it usually rained, it was like playing on concrete and spectators had to put up with dirt and dust
The netting looked like it was second hand and poorly constructed, an unusual amount of paint came over, under and through the netting
I have no idea what the other fields were like as I only got the chance to look at 1 other field to watch a team play
The grandstand well, more akin to benches at my son's school sports day at infant school
Sod moaning about the event so much down to the nitty gritty, I understand that it had been down to being let down at the last minute and we were there to play and give the maximum we could to represent ourselves and supporters
The field
The snake side was massively dominant and the bag side was just the bag side
The comment made at the start of the season, was to have the field so the game could twisted. For example a team could gain an advantage and push the snake heavily, if the opposing team pushed the bag side heavily this would create a very crowd pleasing format. With most of the cross field shots cut out by the X some very intense play
Friday Game 1 Tigers
The scoreline as it stood looked very biased to us having an easy game, honestly it was not. Tigers to there credit put up a very strong challenge and it was a hard fought out contest
We got to have a look at the field early on and I was looking at a field that needed me to give it a whole lot more of our attention
Saturday Game 2 Ducks
Alot of speculation with this game as you may or not know that we have one brother Colby Keats with Shock and the other Sam Keats with Ducks
So much had been flying around about this epic battle and only one survivor left standing, gamesmanship more like and it backfired
This game was more than just that though, it was our first meeting at an event to date and with most games it starts 5 on 5 and the "team won this match". Some interesting decisions from the Ducks for whom to play on the field pretty much sealed their fate of not making the Sunday club.
I still was not happy with the way we were playing the field though, and it was bothering me
Saturday Game 3 Yoy Division
Compounded my thoughts about the field and the way we were playing it
Lost out 5-1 and we had lots of work to do as we had pulled Excessive in the next round as they were winners of Division 1
On this note I had the chance to watch XSV play and quickly saw their game plan
So after an early start to the day we had to walk the fields again and change our tactics for Sunday
Sunday Game 4 play off XSV
I won't bore you with the details of the crowd trouble in this game, but a huge thank you to, Nexus, Tigers, Ducks, Kane and Dave Stewart and all the other supporters, there were many, for dealing with the spectator problem
Very tight game, mirrored breakout and not our usual style of play, but you play the field and that’s exactly what we did, complete team game
First game was intense it went down to a 1 on 1 with Neil Campbell and XSV player Dave Williamson in the back corner. Neil was quickly up the field aggressively into the 50 on the bag side, eventually Dave made a move up the the snake and Neil edged closer the XSV base
Dave wisely not entering into a foot race made his way back to his original back corner stand up bunker. There was the mistake, giving Neil the opportunity to work his way blindly right into the XSV centre can....right on top of the breakout start point and more importantly on top of the buzzer
Now out of paint Neil coolly stepped across and pushed the buzzer, Shock 1 XSV 0 and a huge amount of time swallowed up
2nd game I cant even remember, I was still buzzing from the first but I know we won Shock 2 XSV 0 and we were now starting to control the game and more importantly the field
Game 3 went to XSV
Game 4 well again we had lost heavily during the game it was 4 XSV and 2 Shock, Neil in his back corner and Clint in the other. It all happened very quickly XSV made the moves up the field. Clint tagged the Snake player, and quickly crossed to centre for a great shot on the centre X, then he gets clipped from the bag side....Takes us to a 2 on 1 situation, Neil on the other side is battling with his tape player and a centre player, Neil tags the tape player and as the centre player moves in for the kill Neil wraps and shoots him clean on the hand and arm, with the exchange Neil also takes a shot....
The XSV player moves to press the buzzer only for the ref to pull the player and 0 the game no points scored there
We now enter the longest 2ish minutes of the whole event and its standing Shock 2 XSV 1. Yep its 2 minutes left of game time, again we play the field and play the lane shooting, mirroring XSV and relying on our skill and gun(DM6) in case you didn't know
we play the game out to a draw and take the spoilsReal character and determination showed there from this team, taking themselves out of their style of play to win the point and progress to the next round
Have I said how hot it was yet, Madrid in the summer...damn it’s hot
Sunday Game 5 Vision
A great bunch of players who are working hard and learning quickly
This ones down to stretching the legs and taking out the frustration of being forced into a negative style of play from the last round against XSV
Lots of lanes lots of quick bumps and wham the boys really turn on the style
Plays coming all over the field and we get our first chance this year to play for 1st and 2nd place
Sunday Game 6 Joy boys again
We were up for this and the crowds you did us proud, at this stage of a tournament you are running on instinct really and without your support to lift us for every game
Joy ran out winners by a margin and it hurt mentally but we have shown our strength and it has made us more resolute to come back and we will have our day Magued not just with that coin
Whats left to say
Great job refs you turned it on again when needed and boy in that heat and with that field you needed at least 6 more refs and double pay
Thanks to all our sponsors, Jeff at Dye for the fantastic DM6 the best gun on the market, Goggles and playing gear head to toe quality and superb, Casual gear for making us look cool
Andy Piper PMI for the paint, Marb with evil fill perfect, air tanks and regs
Russ Steel at Bristol outdoor pursuits, training facility and life long sponsor of Shockwave
Sloth for the pots, Jackie Sosta for the loaders, OPSL, Clarity, Computacentre and Repton
Finally to everyone that supported us and thanked us for the entertainment
Mr Robinson please accept my apologies for my grammar. Again it will have not been to a standard that I would have liked, I should have spent more time listening in those English lessons but its 11-30 now and I am going to sleep
Hasta LLuego y buenos noches
