This year’s Patriot’s Cup was as close as humanly possible finishing 116-116 after a thrilling day of sporting endeavour seeing the sides share the cup until next time.
Cartmel flew out of the blocks winning the first two events of the day, Men’s A’s and B’s football. Cartmel B’s forced a penalty shoot-out after a late equaliser which saw the match finish 1-1 in normal time. Cartmel Goalkeeper Phil Flenley simply watched as three Furness players missed the target, meaning that Cartmel drew first blood. Cartmel A’s won in convincing fashion to compound Furness’ early morning blues.
However Furness soon clawed their way back into the contest as they dominated the ultimate frisbee winning 17-7 with the result never looking in any doubt. In a much closer contest Furness triumphed in a tense encounter 12.5-10 in the rounders.
Netball A’s and B’s were played simultaneously and both were worth an equal number of points. This saw no points lost or gained as Furness won the battle of the A teams 12-3 after dominating defensively, whereas Cartmel won the B’s 27-15 courtesy of some fantastic shooting by Natalia Weglarz. Promptly after the netball the tug of war took place and Furness were immovable, claiming victory with consummate ease, seeing the scoreline evenly poised after the morning session.
The afternoon session was to take place in the Sports centre, with plenty of points to be played for in dodgeball, volleyball, basketball, squash, badminton and table tennis. Furness dominated the early proceedings, winning the first two events of the afternoon dodgeball and table tennis. Furness soon consolidated their advantage picking up further points in the two racket sports badminton and squash. However it was not all plain sailing for Furness in the Sports Centre as Cartmel triumphed convincingly 2-0 in the volleyball before an unbelievably tight game of basketball finished 5-4 to Cartmel. This left the overall title still wide open before the evening of bar sports would commence.
Pool and darts were to be played home and away with men’s pool playing a best of nine at both Cartmel and Furness and the women’s team a best of seven. Darts followed a slightly different format with men’s and women’s playing separate matches at Cartmel, but playing a mixed format at Furness. Cartmel Men’s Pool team were on top form to win 8-1 victors at Cartmel JCR with Gareth Pickup the only loser. Cartmel Women’s Pool won 4-3 after Ema Brennan secured the victory at 4-2.
The Patriot’s Cup seemed to be heading Cartmel’s way, as the dominoes tumbled in Cartmel’s favour. Cartmel were triumphant in the battle of the minds as they cruised to quiz victory. The chilli eating contest came to a premature end with Cartmel having three left standing to Furness’ one when, as perhaps you might have expected, they ran out of chillies. This saw Cartmel awarded six points to Furness’ two.
In spite of this controversy the main excitement was to be had at the darts, with both the Men’s and Women’s coming down to deciders. Men’s Darts finished 5-4 to Furness who won the last two games to steal victory from the jaws of defeat, while Cartmel Women’s made sure that their college would take the advantage up to Furness as they sneaked a 4-3 victory.
The change of venue marked a change of fortune for Furness in the second half of the evening session as they sewed up victory in the boat race and President/Vice President three legged race. However it was Furness’ Women’s Pool team that made the largest improvement with the change of venue, going from a narrow 4-3 loss to 6-1 winners. Cartmel Men’s Pool team won 5-4 in an extremely tense decider to place an unbelievable amount of pressure on the darts games that were still to be played.
As the Men’s Pool Team won Furness were 3-1 ahead in the mixed darts and needed just one more game of darts to secure overall victory, with the overall score at 116-111 to Furness. Cartmel had other plans. Cartmel were resilient under intense pressure and had soon edged their way to 3-3 and within touching distance of a tie. It was left to Matt Dawson and Jess Horsfield to prise victory away from Furness, but they were up against stiff opposition in Ash Deadman and Kate Utton. Matt Dawson however had nerves of steel, single-handedly taking the game by the scruff of the neck; he hit both doubles sparking jubilant scenes amongst the on looking Cartmel fans. This saw the Patriot’s Cup finish 116-116, in the closest and most keenly contested inter-college sporting contest in recent years.
Cartmel’s Male Sports Representative Owen Williams said: “Neither Cartmel nor Furness are renowned for their sporting success, but it was great to see a vast array of talent from both colleges competing on what was a glorious day.” He added: “It was great see everyone enjoying themselves whether they were participating or supporting. I must thank everyone that attended. Hopefully this year’s exciting encounter will cement Patriot’s as one of the University’s top inter-college tournaments.”
