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@punkture
Maddie and I were in Venice so went along to padova to watch the final day on saturday which was fucking fun. Heres a writeup for those who didnt get to see it.
We got to the courts just as Peregrine started their 5-0 destruction of Bambule with Mat and Cam's attacking instincts being held together well by Chris. So, a sweet start to the day, especially with the UK contingent Kawkawing in support from the sidelines. The Break Up were also looking superstrong, beating up some very good teams like Cool Story Bro, Scallywags and others very convincingly with big, spectacular shots from Josh and fast passing polo from Jono and Hayden meaning that they deservedly finished the top ranked UK team.
I didnt see enough of the UK Champs, Mondial but they played 3 out, resolutely looking to play good, passing polo in the face of plenty of negative Euro double goalie stuff. Unfortunately this often meant that teams would just double goalie and then try and take their chances with long shots. This meant that games were perhaps tighter than they should have been with the quality of players on this team. The introduction of a crease would make this kind of play deadly however and it would be great to see.
The level of polo on show has surely never been higher with CMD and Edisons perhaps a level above the rest but the next 9/10 teams all could have rounded out the podium. Whoever and Sophie were tough, gritty teams that knocked out Mondial and Peregrine on Golden Goals after #ourbraveboys had been ahead in both games only for unlucky errors to cost them. Unlucky guys, you both looked set to go much further.
The Swiss showed a serious return to Euros form after last year's no show with Outlaws MF (guest starring Dodi) and Wolfgang playing some top polo as well as True Danger who, along with Edisons were the best to watch. These two teams both played fast, direct and super clean polo. Alex (True Danger) was next level, pulling some incredible stuff out of the bag to the chants of 'MVP, MVP' and Edisons did as they always do: exciting, tough and clean polo with Mo's shot even more destructive than Josh's, Eddy hustling hard in defence as well as making some brilliant attacking plays, and David the glue that held them together, playing brilliantly and barely a single foul play from him. What a team.
1st favourite game of the day was The Break Up vs True Danger (Loser's Bracket Semi final). one side of the court was full of French fans, the other was the Brits (with some Germans) and it was like a football game as chants (the big break, various Warin chants, your support is fucking shit etc etc) went back and forth over a frenetic game of class polo. Josh's shot was hard at work (as was his middle finger - aimed at the French heckles) pushing The Break Up into a good lead but Alex made some unbelievable plays to leave it 5-4 to TD. Such, such good polo.
By now everyone who was not playing are pretty smashed, not least Rob snottyotter who took his clothes off far too many times....
With Call Me Daddy looking almost totally unbeatable with their unspectacular but effective play, the winners bracket final was the first time they looked shaky as Edisons went ahead. CMD looked down but in a game that was at times hovering on the edge of the legal, they levered themselves back to parity before Luca's 3 goals in a row saw off that first challenge.
This set the tone for the Final finals though (after Edisons negotiated their way past a classy True Danger) as CMD struggled with Edisons' top play and began to get very very dirty. Everyone was now absolutely bollocksed and the UK contingent were leading the CMD heckling, partly fed by everyones' desire to have a new champion and partly due to the difference of polo styles. Luca especially was playing out of his skin although mixing in some consistent and dangerous foul play. Tim Warin, #bestrefever was having to call up CMD more and more regularly for foul play and had to dissallow some goals but Edisons forced a second final.
The second final was played under floodlights, with some fucking good (and loud) drummers, someone let off a flare while the crowd was so loud, Ref Tim needed a microphone to be heard and the players could barely hear the whistle over the chanting. Edisons went ahead with Mo's ridiculous shots keeping hitting the back of the net. CMD had yet more goals disallowed as they got pulled up more and more for foul play. The crowd were going nuts with the UK contingent even louder than the Germans, especially heckling the pantomime villain of the day, Luca for his constant infringements.
Chief warin eventually had enough and rightly hauled Luca off for what has to be the first 30 second penalty in a major final ever (?). CMD held firm though and Edisons couldnt profit and began to look like they were running out of steam. CMD scored again and again to the dulcet tones of Chan and Badger screaming 'inter fucking ference, inter fucking ference na naa naa na' etc. Guess who scored the final goal? Luca, rising above it netted to give CMD a third consecutive title. Despite the foul play etc, you have to hand it to them to keep up that level of excellence for so long. Next year Euro polo really needs someone to come and take it off them...
Then we all got wankered, various people passed out, threw up, danced, hayden put a tarp over his head and rode into a tent, numerous times, Tim climbed the floodlight pole, we stole beer from the beer tent as hayden taunted the security guy until he called his scary skinhead mates who kicked us out
good times...