Meerkats leave their mark in Blackpool!

What a great bunch of girls and parents the Meerkats have! We have just come back from the Bispham juniors Football Club Tournament held in Blackpool and we’ve had a cracking time!

We arrived in Bispham on Friday (evening for me due to that great car park aka the M6) ; the majority of families’ descending on the Premier Inn Bispham, with the exception of the Lloyds’ and Venables opting for the local Haven site, as they have more kids than an average orphanage. Friday evening was spent in the pub consuming copious amounts of alcoholic beverages and talking tactics for the objective in hand! Some parents are obviously seasoned drinkers as the amount consumed could have flooded a small village. Mr Mitchell, Mrs Clay and Ms Sturch-Porter or should it be Slurrr-Porter lead the way with the drinking, all was good and no squabbling within the ranks, and the kids were ok too.

We knew it was going to be tough as we heard from the kids on the street that the big Manchester side (that’s City Keith, the premier league champions) had put a girl’s side in. To be fair Burnley, Blackpool, Preston, Man City all had affiliated ladies teams within the tournament so we knew the standard would be high. The day of reckoning came and we all gorged ourselves on the quality Premier Inn breakfast before setting off en mass to the tournament site. We pitched camp adjacent to the England pitch, which was to be the home of the Meerkats, with Mr Parker owner of Elite Sails erecting the biggest event tent on site! It was that big we were thinking planning permission may be needed! For all your boat and Sail needs visit www.spboats.co.uk.

We kicked off our campaign against Barrow Celtic to which we hit hard! Eloise led the line as Chloe had turned up late. 2 early outstanding individual goals by Erin ‘The General’ Waddilove sealed the win with great effort from all Meerkats. Ellie ‘The Enforcer’ took a whack to the chops and claret was spilt. To our dismay the Alcohol wipes from the first aid kit had been taken by Ms Slurrr who was sucking said wipes for the alcoholic content. We wiped Ellie’s nose on a couple of till receipts and she battled on. The bigger problem was the fact of her boots being too small for her which was causing her to run in a comedy style. Anyway 2-0 to the Meerkats great start!

The kids gorged themselves during their breaks on a range of food stemming from Hotdogs, Candy floss and crisps. Hopefully they will make the most of this, as this bad diet won’t hold them in good stead for 9 v 9 next season. Expect more Cardio work during the next couple of training session’s girls.

Game 2 saw the Meerkats take on St Annes a local side sporting a Fiorentina type shirt. We reverted to the usual formation with Skye, Abbie, Millie, Faith, Erin, Eloise and Chloe which boded well as the passing was slick and some great interplay lead to Eloise firing passed the keeper. Another sortie leads to a St Annes defender handling the ball resulting in a penalty to the Meerkats. Up stepped Millie ‘Stonewall’ Sturch who calmly and effortlessly deposited the ball in the bottom left hand corner of the goal – England would be glad of Millie’s style of penalty kicks!!! St Anne’s got a consolation goal but the Meerkats were always in charge of the game.

Burnley Ladies were next up and they had the tallest under 11 girl imaginable. She reminded me of a young Ian Ormondroyd and played in a similar manner. Meerkats were told to play with no fear to which they complied. They played as a team passing and moving and thus creating the chances for Chloe, Eloise and Erin to strike at goal. We had the lion’s share of the possession and when we didn’t we were hacking at their ankles showing them who we are. Skye ‘Loco’ Lee made braves saves diving at the feet of the oncoming claret insurgents. Faith was busy leading the charge on the right flank looking for the quick ball through to Chloe or Eloise. The tenacious Chloe ‘Sonic’ Venables was ensuring she was leaving her mark by charging the defenders The game finished 0-0 which is a credit to the girls considering the quality of opponent. There manager had pre-conceived opinions of the Meerkats and congratulated us on a hard fought battle.

Hesketh Colts were next up in the ‘Crystal Palace’ style kit! This team were runners up to Man City Ladies in their respective league. After watching their previous games they were the toughest team in our pool. We kicked off again telling the girls ‘no guts, no glory’ and they got stuck into the game from the off. Ellie ‘the Enforcer’ who would run through a brick wall if you told her too was charging every ball down. Erin ‘The General’ was spraying the passes across the field to try to prompt an attack. Abbie ‘Delap’ Clay and Millie ‘Stonewall’ Sturch were regiment in their position and thwarted the oncoming attacks. The Meerkats took the lead through Eloise ‘The Engine’ Yates who fired a shot passed the helpless keeper, a quality finish which invoked a roar from the travelling cheerleaders. Whether through complacency or lack of concentration the Meerkats conceded 2 goals in quick succession through defensive mistakes. A through ball that both defensive men thought the other was dealing with it allowed the Hesketh striker through on goal who slotted it past Skye. The next attack resulted in a cross that again was poorly defended and was neatly tucked away for their 2nd. The game ended 1-2 to Hesketh and left the Meerkats rueing their mistakes.

 

Last game and other results within the pool meant it was a must win for the Meerkats. Denton was the opposition dressed in a putrid Pink shirt similar to the highlighter colour. Our girls were visibly jaded either through sheer exhaustion or too many hotdogs! Did they have enough for this game? The game kicked off and again the Meerkats retained the ball well and passed their way through the Denton defence. Opportunities fell for Katy Mitchell whose shot passed wide of the mark and when she was replaced with Chloe, a one on one with the keeper she also shot wide of the mark. The possession was all Meerkats and a great piece of interplay with precision one touch passes allowed Eloise an opportunity. The shot curled towards the corner of the goal but it didn’t dip and sailed over the bar! The gaffer later said he’d of put his house on Eloise scoring, good job he’s got a caravan too. It was going to be one of ‘those games’! Dentons only sortie into the Meerkat half resulted in a dubious freekick being awarded when it clearly struck Eloise’s chest / arm. The resulting free kick rifled into the top corner of the Wyrley net with Skye unable to stop it. As soon as we kicked off the ref blew for full time, the Meerkats journey ended here.

 

Superb effort made by all Meerkats who put their hearts and souls into each game. They can take a lot of positives from the experience and can safely say that Wyrley Meerkats are certainly known in Bispham and the North West.

 

The weekend was topped off with a visit to the South pier to see the tramps, drunks and Stag ‘n’ hen parties. We refrained from walking on the beach as we’d heard some unsavoury stories regarding items found whilst making sandcastles. The evening was spent with some folks in a local Indian restaurant and the others slumming it with a takeaway pizza which was consumed in the beer garden of the Premier Inn. The later nearly ending in disaster when the kids who were all sitting the same side on the wooden table / chairs decided to all get up to visit the play area, thus causing the table to tip up and for the parents to nearly go A over T – funny though!!!

 

Meerkats Blackpool

The following day half of the team made their way down to the pleasure beach for some fun. The day was spent either getting wet or riding rickety wooden coasters that just didn’t seem safe! Guy Lloyd was a picture nearly vomiting on his kids as they took delight in spinning the carriage on Diego’s rainforest rescue ride.

 

Ellie Parker you owe me a £1 for failure to ride the Pepsi Max big one. Failure to pay will result in extra running in your training sessions.

 

Great kids and great families = good times

 

‘simples’

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