It’s as you were for the Summer 7s. Both Swiss Kickers and British Embassy regained their Cup and Plate trophies for another season.

The worry with every Summer 7s is the weather. We have been lucky over the last few years as the clouds have come to our rescue but on Sunday the clouds were few and far between for the first half of the day. All 150 plus players arrived on time and slapped on the Suntan lotion and attempted to find shade where they could.

Four of the five teams in Group A kicked the tournament off. Nepal Utd lost to Oakwood Geckoes 2-1. Musketeers continued their good form from last season to beat 7s newsboys En World with the same scoreline.

Group B saw Berkeley Athletic draw with the British Embassy and Inter MinatoMirai lose to another new 7s team Aqaunaut. The opening 4 matches only produced 10 goals. With the crowd booing and shouting ‘Attack, attack, attack’ Tokyo Hibernian soon entertained us all by knocking 7 past Subaresee FC. Shane FC started with a respectable one all draw against Division 1 Champions Swiss Kickers.

The goals soon started to flow with Nepal beating En World 3-0. By this stage Sendagaya Park Rangers had informed me of some drop outs from their squad. So it was time for me to get my kit on early and also grab the closest ref near me (Steve) to make up the numbers. After a brief introduction it was match time and our center forward Taka knocked in a scrappy winner. Next we saw a 7 goal thriller with Aquanaut scoring 4 goals past Keith in the Embassy goal to claim the 4 points(Bonus point for scoring 3).

The very Japanese looking team of King George started with 3-2 win over Swiss Kickers. The next round of results saw the tables take shape. Just like all 7s tournaments it takes some teams longer than others to get everything to click. Pumas were progressing nicely and won their opening two matches. Swiss Kickers drew again in the easily the biggest match of the group stages v the Hibs. After a shock defeat to En World Oakwood Geckoes smashed 5 past Musketeers. Shane FC claimed another respectable draw v King George.

By 2pm all the group stage matches had taken place and it was time to lose 3 teams. After 3 draws against Hibs, Swiss and King George, Shane FC had not scored enough to stop them exiting the tournament. Inter Minatomarai and En World were the others to head for an early afternoon beer.

The draws were made for the Cup & Plate knockout rounds. 7 of the 8 Cup quarter final teams were TML teams. In an all Division 1 affair we saw Oakwood Geckoes narrowly lose to the ever improving Swiss Kickers. Alex Sahara had arrived on the scene to help inject some more pace to the swiss forward line. Pumas lost to Musketeers 2-1. A special mention to the Musketeers keeper who broke his collarbone while making a great penalty save. We wish him a speedy recovery.

Hibs beat King George 2-1 and Aquanaut continued their good form and knocked out 7s specialists Nepal United.

The Plate Semi finals saw Sendagaya Park Rangers(SPR) and Subarshee compete in the most exciting matches of the knockout rounds. Subarashee took an early 2 goal lead, SPR got it back to 2-2. The last few minutes saw another 4 goals scored and it was time for some PK actions. SPR missed their 3rd PK and Subarashee progressed to the final.

The other semi final saw British Embassy defeat Berkeley Athletic 3-1.
The Cup Semi Finals saw Swiss knock 6 past the keeper-less Musketeers to reach the final. Hibs coasted to a 3-0 victory over Aquanaut.

So it was Finals time. Aaron took charge of the Plate Final. It was a colourful match in more ways than one. He wore a yellow referee top, BEFC wore luminose yellow bibs and Subarashee were wearing an all pink kit. The match certainly lit up few tired eyes from the fans. It was end to end but the Embassy used all their 7s experience to win 2-1.

The Cup final saw the Swiss/ Hibs rivalry continue. A few tired legs were on show but Swiss won it with two breakaway goals from Alex Sahara. The usually loud Hibs seemed to tired to even moan at the ref, each other or me. A nice change!

A big thank you to YC&AC and the 4 referees who did a great job( Aaron, Jonathan, Steve & Kazu).

We hope to see you all at our next 7s tournament on Sunday 10th January.

Until then look after yourself and each other.

For photos of the day please click HERE.