Jeff Fletcher 2nd XI Cup 2005

A competitive preliminary round of the Jeff Fletcher Trophy resulted in a victory for Whitchurch who progress to the semi finals next Saturday. However Market Drayton pushed them all the way in the first match and then Ludlow dominated the first half of their match with Market Drayton and held the lead well into the second half. The final game saw Whitchurch over whelm Ludlow in the final minutes of the third match.

Roger Furniss, Chairman of Shropshire Hockey was delighted with the standard of play and the competitive nature of the matches, as the smaller Shropshire clubs battled for the right to challenge the second teams of the big clubs.

The Jeff Fletcher Trophy produced a high quality and competitive tournament at Telford on Saturday. The first game produced the surprise result of the tournament with Telford overwhelming Shrewsbury by 7goals to 1 in the first semi-final. Another surprise nearly occurred in the Bridgnorth and Whitchurch game, where a last minute goal secured victory for higher ranked Bridgnorth. Both finals went to penalty strokes with Whitchurch creating another surprise with their defeat of Shrewsbury in the third/fourth place play off, and Telford winning the Trophy for the first time, narrowly edging past Bridgnorth, despite heroics during the penalty shoot out from Graham Illic in the Bridgnorth goal.

The umpiring of Iqbal Chana, David Clark, David Last and Richard Arkesden was really appreciated at this tournament and all teams have asked me to pass on their appreciation for their contribution to a competitive and high quality tournament.