The Orthotic Cup 2013 Tournament
This year’s event was held in Sheffield on Saturday 1st June. It was a glorious day which set the tone for a most enjoyable day. This was the 12th annual tournament held in conjunction with www.orthotictechnicians.com and and we raised £130.00 for our chosen charity this year, Meningitis UK.
South Yorkshire was the destination of choice, as this area is a hotbed for Orthotic manufacturing with some of the UK’s premier companies based here. We knew it would be a competitive tournament with some fantastic local derbies to be played.
It was great to see some old faces trying their luck once again and we also welcomed some new blood into the competition who hoped to make an instant impact. The interest in the tournament was impressive yet again, with 12 teams taking part this year.
The format was x2 groups of 6 teams with the top 2 teams from each group going through to a knockout tournament. 2012 winners Aortha had returned to defend their trophy against newcomers such as QMC, OttoBock and Footlabs who were making their tournament debuts.
Once the action started it was plain to see the teams had not just turned up for a day out, they came to win! After the first few matches group A had 3 teams all pushing for qualification; Algeos, Head 2 Toe and RSL. The group B pacesetters were Aortha, Footlabs and Blatchfords.
After each team had played 5 pulsating group games in the sapping heat we had our 4 semi finalists. They were last year’s winners Aortha trying to defend their crown, 4 time record winners Algeos alongside Head 2 Toe and newcomers Footlabs.
It was an all Merseyside derby with Aortha facing Algeos and the other game had a Sheffield derby with Head 2 Toe playing Footlabs. Both games where hotly contested but also played in high spirits considering a place in the final was at stake! Algeos managed to defeat Aortha 4-2 and Footlabs beat Head 2 Toe 3-0 to set up the grand finale.
It was record winners Algeos up against newcomers Footlabs in the final. Both teams had battled hard to reach the final and were just 1 game away from glory. As usual the final game was a tense affair with both teams searching for a breakthrough.
The deciding moment came with just minutes to spare when Footlabs managed to break away and clinch the games deciding goal! Algeos pushed frantically for an equaliser but the Footlabs defence stood firm.
So Footlabs managed to hold on to secure the 1-0 win and claim the trophy on their 1st appearance in the tournament. Matthew Jordan, an Orthotic technician from Footlabs, also grabbed himself the prize for player of the tournament so congratulations to Matthew and Footlabs. James Jordan and Danny Revill, Footlabs Directors quoted “they had masterminded the victory from the sidelines and they are very proud of the lads. Now the celebrating can begin”.
Orthotictechnicians.com would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s event as without your continued support then none of this would be possible. We also would like to thank the major sponsors of the event Nora EVA and Timpsons.
The overall objective of the tournament is to create a good social platform for the O&P profession to network at an enjoyable event to hopefully get know each other better and share ideas to help promote our profession.
We have received some great feedback so far for this year’s event and this has inspired us to make next years even bigger and better. We hope to see you there!