It has been a successful season so far for the PACE A team who have finished top of the London League, qualifying for the National League Finals with an unbeaten record.
Over the course of the season the team has featured appearances from Alex, Jason, Ted, Charlie, Reshad and Habib – overcoming last minute wheelchair breakdowns, injury and illness alike – to finish their campaign with 90 points scored across their eight games, and just 16 conceded.
The season began with a visit from Hackney Warriors B, with both the scheduled home and away games for each team played on the same day. Despite the dramatic late withdrawal of their captain Alex due to his wheelchair breaking, the team of Jason, Ted and Charlie ran out comfortable winners 8-1 and 16-0 in their two matches – Ted heroically battling through heatstroke to help secure the thumping win in the second game.
Next up were Hackney Warriors A, defeated resoundingly in both games, 13-2 and then 12-1, with Ted’s star turn earning him Player of the Match.
Two weeks later came a top of the table clash away at Phoenix Fire and with Ted out injured, it fell to Alex, Jason and Charlie to get the job done.
PACE A battled hard against their toughest opponents of the season, coming back from 4-0 down to win 5-4 in their first game and holding their nerve to win the second 5-3 – wins that guaranteed their place in the National League Finals.
There was however the small matter of the PACE A vs PACE B derby match to finish the season, the latter enjoying something of a hold over their fellow clubmates in practice matches. Sadly however, unavoidable absences left PACE B with just two players, and although they fought bravely the games finished 12-4 and 19-1.
It was somewhat emblematic of the season as a whole for PACE B, who were never really able to field a settled lineup and when it came to game time couldn’t quite manage to replicate the form they had showed in practice – the highlight of their campaign an Arinze-inspired 7-3 win over Hackney Warriors A.
PACE B’s Arinze with PACE B captain Savraj
Attention now turns to the 13th July when PACE A travel to the David Ross Sports Village in Nottingham for the National League Finals – 1st place there, against all the other regional winners, would see them return to the Super League at the first time of asking. This is no simple task, with the last success for PACE A at this level coming in the 2016/17 season. If you’d like to support the team at this competition, full details can be found here