Dodgeball Tournament April 2013

Just over a month ago we ran our first inaugural Onside Ministries dodgeball tournament and it didn’t disappoint. We had six teams ready to prove their worth on the dodgeball field. Some of the teams really dressed up for the occasion with one team sporting some matching red vests and head bands, another consisting of the MVP of the tournament in a tiger onesie and a leprechaun ready for war while I managed to put on my basketball gear for the occasion. Other teams went for the standard look but certainly came to play.

So once the teams turned up probably not knowing what to expect we explained the rules, as demonstrated by my sister and Mr Kennard. Once the teams had a somewhat understanding of the rules (next time I’m going to really read up on them) we started off with the games. The music kept playing to keep the atmosphere pumped up and we were ready. One of the first teams that really wanted to establish their presence, especially with the matching vests, was Dodge This! They certainly bought a team of men who were here to win (while posing for pictures) and they didn’t disappoint and came top of the tree with the most wins and moved on to the semi-finals. The 5 D’s were another team that came to play, these guys really came to play with a certain Josh Kennard nearly taking someone’s head clean off when throwing a dodgeball only just hitting the wall instead of someone’s face (that would have been unfortunate), lucky boy! These guys only lost one game getting to the semi-finals, which was to my team I just like to mention, but they worked hard and had some great ball throwers!

The two team’s that travelled the furthest really stepped up to make themselves known to, HTC from Claygate, Surrey bought a great team with a mix of ages and certainly had two of the best dressed dodge ballers on the day. The tiger chants certainly came out for the star of the team when he came up with some superb blocking and cat like reactions to stay out the way of the oncoming balls. The Jammy Dodgers from the Surrey area, including some work colleagues of mine from Compassion, had a good mix bag of players and were a bit unfortunate in some of the losses. These guys had the biggest journey to make with the others being local to Worthing but certainly was appreciated and were a big part of the day.

Occupy Ball Street, headed up by my super sister Rachel, did have another good mixed team and with the late addition of my friend Nat due to one of her players having to drop out due to an injury (sustained at the Brighton marathon, not through dodgeball just to point out). Again very unlucky with the losses and did unfortunately come last but they did beat my team so my sister has bragging rights on those grounds, till next time. My band of dodge ballers consisted of photographer of the day Naomi (pictures are amazing), my fellow basketball playing friend Jez and his mate Rob and ultimate competitor and all round good guy Jeremy Rolph (see below picture). Apart from the game where I forgot my own rule when you are not allowed to throw a ball once you have grabbed it from the middle and must retreat before throwing it I think we played pretty well.

It came down to a joint 3^rd to 5^th place for two places in the semi-finals to play The 5 D’s and Dodge This. HTC, JD Ballers and Jammy Dodgers had to play each other again in a quick two minute game and would you have guessed we all won one game. It had to come down to players difference to separate the teams and how many still remained on the dodgeball court at the end of the game. This meant that my team lost out, which was a real shame but was happy to see how the semi-finals with Dodge This vs HTC and The 5 D’s vs Jammy Dodgers. There was an intermission at this point where some of the children who were watching had a go but obviously it was all supervised and glad they were able to take part.

The first semi-final turned out to be a surprise as HTC beat Dodge This and this was the upset of the day. Was a great team effort and managed to get the big guns out early and worked from there. The next match turned out to be a little bit more one sided as the dominant D’s managed to put away the dodgers despite the valiant effort. It then went to the final where the local boys The 5 D’s took on the out-of-towners HTC. It went down to the best of three series and despite a close start, the D’s had too much fire power and beat HTC in the series 2-0.

The presentation then followed in which ‘Dodge This’ won best dressed with the matching attire of red vests and headbands, the man simply known as ‘The Tiger’ won best dodge baller and won his very own dodgeball and finally ‘The Five D’s’ won some chocolate’s and a stack of DVD’s for being the winners of the first Onside Ministries Dodgeball Tournament.

Overall. I felt it was a great event and echoed by a number of the participants. Thank you to all the teams who took part and the journeys you made to make it a great day. Was fantastic to see some supporters come along to and cheer on their respective teams to and really added to the atmosphere. Certainly the event couldn’t of been done without Paul and Tim who kept the whole thing organised and games in order. Josh Kennard for helping set up the event and use of the van he borrowed and bringing some teams along, we talked about how it would be great to see a dodgeball tournament in Worthing and glad we could make it happen. My girlfriend Nisha for helping out with the odd jobs and taking pictures and not forgetting Naomi for all her great camera work to.

We would love to see this happen again so and raise more money for our charity so please let me know if you feel you would be interested in playing sometime in September and if you have four other willing players to come along and enjoy the beautiful game of dodgeball. More events to come soon and an exciting announcement should be coming up in the next few months……