With the B-team’s season concluding a week earlier, it was the A-team’s turn to show off the developments that have been going on at Tees Tigers over the last few years…

With expectations of a white wash with a relatively inexperienced team playing against the big hitters of the Canoe Polo world, the journey down to Coventry was apprehensive to say the least!  We got their early to get some competition fuel (Nando’s was a suitable alternative!) and came up with a plan of attack.
 
Game one against Meridian C was anticipated to be a bit of a struggle, but a final score of 7-2 wasn’t too bad and to be fair to our lot, didn’t necessarily reflect how much of  apresence we had in the game.  Game two saw us match up against Meridian A, a very experienced team who have been competing at the highest level both nationally and internationally for a number of years.  The game started well and we had several opportunities to take an early lead.  The opportunities kept coming as the match went on and a final score of 3-1 to them showed how close the game was fought and a bit of practicing of finishing should see us having a better chance at the next tournament. 
 
The final game of the night was against Aberfan, a team who have been in Div 1 for a couple of seasons, and being well on the Tigers’ radar for an upset!  The game started quite cautiously on our part and led to us being a goal down at half time.  Some hard graft and determination in the second half had us level going into the last minute, but Aberfan defended well and the Tigers were only able to create half chances.  With the clock ticking, we were awarded a penalty in the dying seconds, after George was fouled.  Final score 3-2 to the A-team, and the first 3 points of the season. 
 
The night was a relative success, with a win and two games where we kept the goal difference down.  Lets see if we can improve on this going into the next couple of tournaments…
 
Nicky