Our latest club Christmas dinner was held at the Dumb Post Inn on the 21st with just under 40 footballers and their wives/partners joining for the evening. As well as enjoying fine food and plenty of banter, the highlight of the evening was the presentation of the club awards for 2024. Phil C started by thanking Nicola at Omnium for the welcome sponsorship provided in 2024, and expressed the hope that the partnership would develop to the benefit of both club and Omnium going forward. Then on to the awards, preceded with 'thanks' to Paul W, in his enforced absence, for designing not just the club kit but also the award certificates (in club colours, of course!) which were presented on the night. Hopes were expressed that Paul will make a full recovery and be able to return to the field of play in the not too distant future. The Awards First out of the blocks was the 2024 Clogger Award, given to the the player who occasionally forgot tha...
The All Stars were invited to an evening tournament with our Hungerford friends at their John O'Gaunt 3G centre and, with storm Bert unable to flood this particular venue, it was a successful evening. The format was originally 6-a-side and as Hungerford could field two squads of 7 and wanted to give them both game time, we agreed to the change as we had 6 and a sub. Both games were 12 minutes in duration with a half time switch around. The pitches played well given the very heavy rainfall over the weekend. The Calne squad comprised Charlie N in goal, a defence of Graham N and Andy S, a midfield of Bob B, Kevin G and Rob H with Sion up front. Hungerford played two strong sides and we found Hungerford's first team well organised and they moved the ball around like the experienced team they are. Overall, we played well in a tight first game and despite the scoreline, we were comfortable against their second team. Game 1 It was clo...
It was always going to be difficult to match last year’s performance following the loss of two key players leaving us with just five Calne players for the tournament. Some last-minute transfer activity in the Algarve market and a lot of administration however saw us secure the services of two players from local side Ferreiras for the first day. We were also drawn in a tough group with Portsmouth, Odiaxere (winners of the May Tournament) and another local side, Tavira. Joao B , Charlie N, Graham N, Manuel C . Jon H, Ollie S, Dave H. Charlie N, Graham N, Dave H. Andreas A, Jon H, Ollie S. Unfortunately, we lost our first game 1 v 0 to Portsmouth and a last-minute strike, and then were beaten 2 v 0 by a very good Odiaxere side (the eventual tournament winners... again!). We did however manage to secure a 0 v 0 draw with Tavira in our final game. Though as a result, we finished bottom of our group. This meant we needed ...