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BW Football Tournament 2001
Ed Spencer from Barnett Waddingham's Leeds office reports on the 2001 showing in the annual Barnett Waddingham 6-a-side Football Tournament.
The annual Barnett Waddingham 6-a-side tournament took place on Friday 10 August 2001 at Newlands Park College in Buckinghamshire. Conveniently this happened to coincide with the date of the Leeds office move to West Riding House in Albion Street - a fact that may not have been quite so appreciated by the non-footballers left to pack up the office!
The teams
After a narrow defeat to Cheltenham Actuarial in the 2000 final, the Leeds office were hoping to go one better and bring the trophy home to Leeds for the first time.
This year's tournament was contested by seven teams - two from each of Cheltenham, Amersham and London and one from Leeds - in a league format. Each team would play each other team once in a ten minute game.
History repeats itself?
Victories in our first three games, including an 8-0 win over London Pensions Admin (surely a tournament record), put us in a good position with dreams of the "Grand Slam". But it wasn't to be. Disaster struck with a 2-0 defeat to Cheltenham Actuarial (again!).
In the end it came down to the final game against London Actuarial. Good early saves from David Dibble in his final BW tournament gave us the start we needed and two goals from Andrew Overend sealed the victory to leave us top of the table with 15 points. As in previous years the football was followed by a barbecue, a few celebratory drinks and of course the trophy presentation before the long journey home.
Football's coming home
Not wanting to single out individuals - as Hayley put it "There's no 'I' in Team" - but credit must go to Keri Bunnell and Adam Tye who scored 4 and 5 goals respectively. I'm sure Keri would be welcomed back as a summer student next year! And all this without the aid of the Leeds partners; their years of experience can only add to our chances next year!
Those visiting the new Leeds offices cannot now help but see the BW football trophy that now has pride of place on a spare desk at the back of the office.
Thanks to all who took part and especially to Paul Latimer for his organisational skills. The Leeds office look forward to successfully defending their title in 2002!
Ed Spencer, October 2001.