Cross Touch 2008
Mr Weatherman had forecast heavy rain but the sun shone on Cross Touch 2008. Fifteen teams gathered from across the south of England to battle it out for the much coveted Cross Touch winners medals. After donning the specially designed shirts and limbering up, muscles and sinews were just waiting to be released by the whistle.
The competition in both the Social and Open Leagues was intense but the spirit on and off the pitch was really positive and light-hearted. The off-field banter was definitely helped along by a feast of a BBQ and some great discussion after Rico Tice, from Christians in Sport, spoke and challenged us about what’s really important in life.
When we hit the knock out stages you could see the teams’ focus sharpen and the level of play went up a notch, particularly in the Social League where some who had never played touch before were starting to run in the tries. In the Open League you had trouble spotting the ex-England and South African representative players, so the competition had to be good!
In the finals, the “Winners” beat “O Brother, Where Art Thou” to come through and top the Social League, and “Something Witty” overcame “Grassburns” to regain their Open League crown. There’s no doubt that some Touch stars of the future had their first run out and many found a great new sport but as they say Touch was definitely the true winner on the day!
A big THANK YOU must be given to the army of volunteers who helped out on the day! We have had loads of positive comments come back about the day: teams and Refs alike loved the Pitch Managers sorting them out! The ’scores ‘n’ draws’ and the time keeping were as slick as they’ve ever been, the pitches were set up great, and the BBQ and food were real winners. So whether you were designing funky t-shirts and fliers, manning the snack shack, taking pics, putting up tents or giving first aid we want to say a huge thank you for making Cross Touch 2008 a brilliant day!
Chris Stansfield
