Hobs Annual Football Tournament 2006

Another year, another annual Hobs Football Tournament - and 2006 was the best yet! This year, held in Blackpool, we had teams from Dublin, Glasgow, London, Birmimgham (2), Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and the nomadic Facilities Management division, Hobs On -Site. Almost 100 supporters also congregated in this bastion of northern English tournism - some for football, all for the contagious effervescence that Blackpool brings.

There were two groups, with the top two teams in each advancing into the semi-finals. Machester emerged as the winners of Group A, with Glasgow as the runners-up; Hobs On-Site won Group B with Leeds in second. Subsequently Manchester was beaten by Leeds in a true War of the Roses and Hobs On-Site emerged victorious over Glasgow in the other semi-final.

Hobs On-Site beat Leeds 5-1 in a well-contested final, winning the competition for the first time. After the competition, everyone met up for a presentation function and Ryan 'Georgie Best' McClintock gladly accepted the winners trophy as player-manger of Hobs On-Site. The rest of the team came from Hob On-Site locations in Manchester (Leon 'Kaka' Concar and Tony 'Luther' Blissett), Liverpool (Patrick 'Chopper' Catterall) and London (Michael 'Robinho' Whyte), as well as two representatives from the Hobs branch in Warrington (Colin 'Crazy Horse' Davies and Dave 'The Cat' Quinn).

All in all, it was a fantastic occasion, with everyone enjoying the football as well as socialising into the wee hours in many of Blackpool's quality hostelries. A giant 'thank you' must go to Colin Davies, who orgainsed the entire event, from the football venue, hotels and function room for the presentations. Here's looking forward to 2007!

Winners - Hobs On-Site

Runners Up - Leeds

Player of the Tournament - Phil Newton (Manchester)

Golden Boot - Colin Davies (Hobs On-Site/Warrington)