Comment

Darlingtons 21st Allstars were invited to play in a football tournament in Amiens France during April. So rE-view asked some of the team to write about their experiances in France.

Friday: We set off on our journey to Amiens at 6 o'clock in the morning at the Rolling Mills club (Darlington). We stopped at the service station, before we went to get on the ferry to go to France.

On the Ferry it only took one hour to get to France. Then when we got off the ferry it took about two hours to get to Amiens. When we finally got there we had to go to the local football ground (US Camon) to split up with our French families.

After that they took us to there home which was huge and enjoyable to stay in. On the night our family took us to the Amiens stadium to watch Amiens v Clarmont which unfortunately was 0-0

Saturday: The next day our family took us to our destination where we had to play here US Camon play. Our first match was a positive 2-0. Then we lost a few but we had our heads up high believing in ourselves. After, on the night our family took us round the town to have a look and to see what it looked like.

Sunday This was our final day at the tournament hoping we could be unbeaten all day, which we successfully did. Our first match went to a penalty shootout and won 5-3. Then our next match was against Metropole (French team) which we won 1-0. On the Monday morning we had to say goodbye to our families which were fantastic to stay with. Hopefully we can get invited again next year and stay with them again.

Connor Bain

Friday We got up early on Friday morning to set off on our bus journey to France. We knew it would be a long journey so we brought along plenty of stuff to keep us entertained along the way such as PSP's, Mobiles etc. Although it was a long journey we managed to keep ourselves entertained, stopping for a burger king and playing Fox & Hounds on the ferry. When we arrived we were lined up and distributed to our French families for the weekend. Every one found their pairs and French Partners except I had to stay on my own for the first night, which, on the whole, was a good experience.

The guy I was staying with was called Francois and he seemed to have it all planned out for the evening. Once we got to his fairly modern house in a village on the outskirts of Amiens I had just a few minutes to adjust to my surroundings before we headed of to the local Football stadium to watch Amiens FC take on Clermont. It was a different but cool stadium and the match was average, ending in a 0-0 draw; however it was interesting to watch a proper football match in a different country with completely different atmosphere. The evening was capped off with a long anticipated meal at Quick, a fast food franchise in France.

Saturday I was up sharpish the next morning raring to go for a solid day of football action. I was dropped off at the ground and met up with the rest of the lads, then much later the Adults finally turned up. After a long warm up and an introducement to the surroundings, including our very own changing room we were ready to kick off. Allstars got off to a great start as well; with a one-goal lead going into half time we managed to pull off a solid 2-0 victory, kicking off the tournament with a bang!

The day got tougher from then on but I thought we did well. We knew it was going to be hard as we were playing teams the age group above us but we had no idea we were going to be playing against academy teams as well! One team we played trained six times a week with a game on top of that! Six Times! We train twice if we're lucky!

Anyway, after a tiring successful day we went back to our families for some well deserved rest. We watched DVD's and went on the Internet before getting ill of some dodgy pizza and almost ending up staying up all night!

Sunday Once we up the next day my slight illness seemed to have passed yet his hadn't. Despite this a good day of Football was ahead of the whole team! First of all were the semi-finals of our mini-playoffs. Despite having a few chances it was a pretty tight game and it ended up going to penalties. I was pleasantly surprised at how confident our team was at taking them and we ended up scoring all five with Johnny, our goalkeeper, saving one to help us progress through to the final of the play-off.

The match itself felt like a cup final, and it's probably the closest I'll get to one. We cam out of the tunnel and lined up like professionals and we ended up winning it like professionals too. One goal in each half and another 2-0 victory sent us back to England feeling happy and ending up coming 9th place. Not bad for a year younger.

It wasn't over yet though we still had an extremely long awards ceremony to stand through! We got a nice trophy but it ended up falling to pieces within about 5 minutes of our Captain holding it in his hands. That night we slept better.

Monday This journey went a lot quicker. We said goodbye and set off back home exhausted. But still stopped along the way for some last minute shopping and earlier because the police needed to make sure there were no terrorists on the bus!

We got home safe and sound about 8 o'clock on the Monday night. It was a great experience and a really fun time!

Daniel Jones

Saturday Arrived in Amiens by aeroplane a day late because had something planned the day the team was travelling down. Arrived after the first match had been played, looking forward to playing four more matches on Saturday. After two more matches had something to eat, it was a very nice chicken dish. After this we played two more matches to end off Saturday. We stayed with French families so when the games had ended the family came and picked us up and we headed off to their house. We were staying in pairs, the family was very nice and for our tea we had pizza.

Sunday We arrived early Sunday morning for two more matches, we won both of them. The first on penalties and the second one - nil. This meant we finished ninth out of twelve. Playing against older lads as well meant we finished the highest out of our age. There was a ceremony afterwards where we were presented with a cup for finishing ninth and t-shirts to remember Amiens. Again our families came and picked us up and went back to their house and had pasta which was nice as well. After this we went to bed because we needed to be up early the next day.

Monday Set off from Amiens early on to make the ferry in Calais. The bus journey to Calais was proper funny. We stopped off twice before we made it to Calais to get drinks and some food. Then once we got to Calais and were allowed on the ferry the lads played fox and hounds which was class. Some of us got food and drink which was good. Then when we arrived in England we were on the coach again stopping off one more time for McDonalds or KFC.

I would definitely go back next year if we had a chance and think we would stand a good chance of winning as we would be playing teams of our age. Thanks to Robbie and Dave for organising it and all of the lads families'. And the DOSH for providing us with money to go.

Graeme Toppin

We were invited to take part in an under 15's football tournament in France by our "Twin Town" Amiens. Everyone on our team was eager to attend this, for the opportunity to play against older, more experienced teams from around Europe. The journey took a long time, since we had to travel by bus and boat, then bus again. However, it was well worth it.

Spending a lot of time with the lads, we had a good laugh with each other, playing games to pass the time and playing team games on the boat. After being paired up with a team-mate, we were then sent to live with a French family for the next few days. It sounded like a good experience; that's exactly how it was The family showed great hospitality, making sure we had everything we needed. We had a great laugh practising the French we learn in our schools, then comparing it to how they talk (picking some up ourselves). We also enjoyed the French culture with their "unique" foods such as snails and frogs legs.

It was the first day of the tournament. We arrived, taken by our hosts. Looking at the competition we knew we were up for some very hard games. The opponents were much bigger than us, but we still tried and won our first game 2 - 0!!! Unfortunately the winning streak did not continue. Next day in the play offs we had more success and finished 9th place in the tournament. As we walked out on to the field, the national anthem playing, we felt proud to be representing our home town and our country.

The tournament was a great experience and I think all the team got a lot out of it: It was excellent playing against foreign teams who were also academy teams; and travelling g abroad as a team was also a great experience; our team really bonded because that is the first time we have ever spent so much time together. Living with a French family was something I will always remember as well as representing Darlington, which was a great honour.

In conclusion, I am glad I had the opportunity to take part in the tournament and I look forward to going again next year.

With thanks to all the people who had a part in organising the trip: our managers, the council and all the customers at Asda, as well as our parents who came along to support.

Michael Bennett

On Friday we left early in the morning to get the bus down to Dover. We had a good laugh on the bus, I fell asleep and got Vaseline all over me by the other lads. We got on the ferry to get to France and it wasn't a long journey. We played Fox and Hounds on the ferry until we got to France. We got back on the bus and had another good laugh. We got to the place where we were playing football and we got picked up by our French family. I was staying in a house with my best friend. We went to the families house and then went to a French Division two match, that was a good night, we stopped and got a McDonalds then went home. The family we stayed with were really nice.

Saturday morning I woke up at 8:30, got in the shower and got ready for our first match. We got dropped of at the tournament and played 5 games all day, with twenty minutes each way. We played our first game that was great, we won 2-0. We got beat in all the other 4 matches, that was a down side. We then went back to the French family's house and had tea that was for me a bit different than English food but still nice. We went to bed at about 12:30 and had a laugh in our bedroom, I ripped my best mate's boxers and we couldn't stop laughing it was that funny. I then woke up during the night because I was sweaty and hot, so I went to the toilet to then come back in the room to find my mate had fell of the bed. Oh I was in stitches.

I woke up on Sunday, got in the shower, got ready and had breakfast. I had French breakfast that was nice. We got dropped off at the tournament to get ready for our other two games. Dave Simpson was getting tortured by a French bloke over a Darlo scarf, it was funny. Also Dave Wilson had a bit of bother ordering a chip butty, he was trying to explain he wanted a Frites de Pain (chip butty) but none of the staff new what he was saying, that was a laugh. These games meant a lot to us, if we won them we would finish 9th and if we lost we would come 12th, but we drew the first match and it went to penalties. Connor, Kerry, Dave, Sweety and me got picked to take them. It was my first penalty ever and I scored. I was very happy because it was my first goal for the All-stars. We then played our last match and won. We all started shouting that we won we had lots of encouragement from our family and other teams, that was a great experience. We then had a presentation at the end of the games and we got a trophy. We then went home had tea and went to sleep. It was brilliant the whole weekend it brought the team and lads closer together.

We woke up early on Monday to get the bus to the ferry. On the way we were all playing around and my friend Kerry fell asleep and we took his socks and shoes off and put Vaseline on his feet and drew on him. We then put Vaseline on his hand then he woke up and started laughing, that was a great time on the bus. We then got on the ferry and played Fox and Hounds again. We got to Dover and got on the bus, we stopped at a place for us to eat and everyone had a Burger King. I and Kerry got a KFC Family Feast Bucket, we were fat that day. We got back on the bus and watched Anger Management, the film; oh that is a funny film. We then got home at the Rolling Mills, got our bags, said our thank you's to the managers and bus driver and all went home.

Owen Fawcett

11:44am Monday 19th May 2008

Print

Email this

Comment

Add your comment

Name:
Email: *
Location:
**
	e.g. 123-123
Comment: Please note: All HTML tags will be ignored. Format Text:
By posting a comment, I confirm that I have read and agree to the terms of use. Comments are not moderated but we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention and we may delete inappropriate postings. Please treat other people with respect. You must not post anything that is abusive, indecent, unlawful or defamatory. Remember, you are personally liable for what you post on this site. If you wish to complain about a comment, contact us here.
* Your email address will not be displayed ** To avoid register now or login