Established in 2009, the Patriot’s Cup is a contest of sporting endeavours between Cartmel and Furness. With last year’s contest finishing a ‘tie’, both teams went into the competition having gained some decent positions in the college leagues.
For the first time this year, the event was spread over two days. The bar sports and novelty events took place on the Friday evening with the remaining events occurring throughout the Saturday. Conveniently, week seventeen of term had seen Cartmel and Furness face off against each other in the George Wyatt league. Cartmel had achieved convincing wins in all events but B team pool and so, it was fair to say, there was a definite feeling of Cartmel dominance in the air. This dominance was made ever more prominent by the fact that the fixtures were to be played on Cartmel’s home turf. Both pool and darts began at 6pm with differing successes. Cartmel dominated the male bar sports beating Furness 8-5 in pool and then 6-3 at darts. However, despite being defeated earlier in the week, the Furness women triumphed at both pool and darts winning the two events 4-1 and 3-2 respectively.
With the conventional bar sports having taken place which included a win for Furness in the dominoes, attention turned to the additional events planned for the evening. This included most notably the compelling President vs Principal pool matches, and the Sport Sec dominoes fixture. Furness claimed both of these, adding another six points to their Patriots tally. Attention then turned to the male and female boat races, as well as the President-VP three legged race. Cartmel claimed all three leaving the final nights score at 29-28 in favour of Furness, and leaving everything to play for in Saturday’s remaining events.
The miserable weather caused havoc for the early Netball fixtures. Due to the slippy surface, the referee ruled the courts unplayable and after all other possible scenarios were exhausted, the decision was made to cancel the netball and scrap the Patriots points available.
As the sun then came out, the focus of the tournament turned to football. With both teams electing to pick positions out of a hat, both took to the field at 11 am with ten Patriots up for grabs for each fixture. Whilst the A team game took an edgy first half tenure, the B team fixture was shaping up to be a brilliant spectacle when Furness grabbed a second equaliser to take it to 2-2 at the end of the first half. Ultimately, Cartmel ran out comprehensive winners with a 7-2 victory. The A team fixture remained edgy with Cartmel attaining an eighty fifth minute goal to claim the fixture 1-0.
With Cartmel now dominating the scoreline ( 48-29) , attention turned to the afternoons outdoor events of Rounders, Ultimate Frisbee, Tag Rugby and the Tug of War. Furness claimed the first three and Cartmel the latter taking the scoreboard to 52-47 with all to play for as both colleges moved to the sports centre. This was where the cup was won. With forty one points available in the sports hall events, Furness claimed thirty eight of those, dominating the Volleyball, Dodgeball, Kwik Cricket and Squash. With the event won, Furness managed to maintain their composure to also win the ‘Capture the Flag’ competition and eating contests making the overall score 92-55.
