Last week saw 18 teams from all over Europe descend on Herne Bay to take part in the European Veterans Roller hockey Invitational Cup (EVRICup).

Hosts Herne Bay United put on a great event which has been hailed by many taking part as the best run tournament they have attended.

Herne Bay United played exceptionally well in the over 35 competition coming an impressive 3rd, only beaten by the 2 Portuguese teams.

HBU’s 1st game in Group B was against previous winners of the competition CT Barcino (Spanish) on Wednesday night. United dominated the game straight from the start and ran out comfortable 9-2 winners. Their 2nd group match was against Italian side Carbonia on Thursday morning, the Italians proved to be a very good side but United were eventual winners (6-3). United’s 3rd group match was against Portuguese stars Lobinhos, however the Portuguese proved to be too big a mountain to climb and United went down 3-8.

Friday morning saw United take on Spanish side Voltrega, the winner would progress to the semi finals, whilst the losers would be confined to the playoffs for 5th – 8th place. The game was incredibly tight from beginning to end but United dug deep and ran out winners 6-4. Having come no higher than 11th in previous EVRICups United were now playing for a place in the final, to get there they would have to beat the other Portuguese team in the competition (Paco De Arcas). The game was played at 21:30 on the Friday night. United had a shocking start to the game and the Portuguese went 5-0 up in the first 10 minutes. The damage was done and there was no way back for United, despite pulling one back in the second half United went down 1-5. Lobinhos defeated Belgian team Rolta in the other semi final so HBU were now to play Rolta for 3rd & 4th place.

Herne Bay United v Rolta was the penultimate game in the tournament. Rolta have always been extremely tough competitors and they were proving to be exactly that again. The halftime score was 1-0 to United, the second half was as close as the 1st with Rolta creating the majority of the chances, however it was United who capitalised scoring the 2nd and final goal of the game to come out 2-0 winners and take 3rd place.

The final of the competition saw the two Portuguese giants face each other (Lobinhos v Paco De Arcas). The game lived up to all expectations and was a fantastic advert for the sport and the tournament. Lobinhos scored in the last minute of the game to make the score 2-2 and to take the game to a penalty shootout. Lobinhos then won the penalty shootout 3 penalties to 1 to win the competition. A packed house saw the drama unfold and all were thrilled to have been there to see such great teams and great players perform.

Local rivals Herne Bay were also in action in the over 50’s competition, for many this was the first time they had played for a number of years. Although they lost their first 2 games their touch was coming back to them. In their final 2 games they improved dramatically, drawing their 3rd game with a late equaliser in the final seconds of the game, then winning their 4th and final game of the competition to secure 5th place.

Following the tournament all of the competitors and officials who took part in the competition attended a banquet held at the school. This too was a huge success and the perfect way to end the 4 days of competition.

EVRICup president Ben Veerman from Holland said afterwards: “We would like to thank Herne Bay United and all of their volunteers for all the great things they have done. We will never forget this week in Herne Bay. We look forward to seeing all of you next year in Voltrega (Spain)”.

HBU’s player coach Phil McVey said: “We are absolutely thrilled with how this week has gone, both on and off the rink. A huge thank you to all involved in organising the event, the club pulled together and to see all of the volunteers there helping out from as early 8am every morning until late into the night is amazing. For the event to be as successful as it was, we needed everybody to step up, if any one element failed then the whole thing would have failed. But that didn’t happen. The School, the Arena, our sponsors, our members and of course our players were all brilliant. This tournament has put the town of Herne Bay on the map. We have shown every one we can run a major international tournament, I hope this is the first of many. We plan to attend the tournament in Voltrega next year so we look forward to seeing all of our friends there again.”

 
In the final tally of Goal scorers over the total of 45 matches HBU’s Brendan Barker came 5^th with 9 goals and just two places below him was Simon Hosking with 8.

 

HBU Team Players over all their matches: David Garlick, Dan Barton & Garrett Priestly (gk) Paul McVey, Phil McVey, Brendan Barker, Neil Austin, Nick Barton, Jon Barton, Nigel Mills, Peter Taylor, Richard Walker.

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