Railsport ’05 Tops the Bill at Blackpool

July 11th 2005

The ninth annual Railsport Games took place at Stanley Park, Blackpool, on the 2nd weekend in June.

Sportsmen and women from all over the rail industry took part, including crack teams from RailStaff, in Badminton and Football. A total of 1100 enthusiasts contested the eleven events on offer.

Cricket
Eight teams contested the six-a-side cricket event this year, with the group stage providing several close matches, decided in the last few balls of the innings. A slow outfield meant the batting teams had a good deal of running to do, although several balls were struck for six.
In the semi-finals last year’s winners Collis Engineering were defeated by Virgin Rail’s Euston Boys One, while First Great Western beat Euston Boys Two.

The final was a repeat of the final from two previous years, both won by First Great Western. This time Euston took their revenge and the Railsport trophy too, by reversing the result and holding First Great Western to only 35 runs in their allotted overs. All of the games were played in an exceedingly good spirit and with consummate sportsmanship.

Football
An absorbing competition played in the warm Blackpool sunshine, provided a feast of excellent competitive action from all the competing teams. The RailStaff team, having reached the Sunday play-offs last year, were back again on Sunday this year, losing 1-0 to eventual finalists Arriva Trains Chester Train Crew.

With the group stages and most of the early knockout rounds played out on the Saturday, Sunday’s play reached an exceedingly high standard with last year’s winners, Network Rail Birmingham, in the guise of Gaskins Marauders, defeating Arriva Trains Chester Train Crew 1-0 in the final.

In the semi-finals Marauders had beaten Carillion’s Legia Walsall 2-1, while Chester Train Crew beat Northern Trains Dynamo Deansgate by the same score.

In the over 35s tournament Arriva Trains Arriva Valley veterans, who came through their group stage without conceding a goal, defeated GNER’s Glasgow Enforcers 1-0 in an excellent and well played final.

Netball
Northern Rail’s Northern Devils from York, captained by Sandra Wake, remained undefeated all afternoon and duly won the coveted Railsport Trophy with 20 points. ONE Railway with 16 points finished second, with last year’s winners, Pensions Management, in third place.

Rounders
Always a competitive and keenly contested event, this year’s tournament proved to be no exception. Following twelve group-stage matches, the semi-finals were contested by two teams from Midland MainLine and one each from Serco Railtest and Serco Property. In the first semi-final Midland’s High-Speed Runners beat Serco Starlights 6 1/2 to 4 1/2, while their colleagues Meridian Movers defeated Serco Railtest 5-4.

The final was an all Midland Mainline affair with High Speed Runners captained by Christine Beesley proving decisive champions in out pointing Meridian Movers with an innings to spare, the score was 6 to 4 1/2 pts.

Ten Pin Bowling
Richard Hall (South East) and Val Eggleton were the leading bowlers, winning the men’s and women’s singles titles, while Richard was a member of the combined GNER and South East team which won the open fours team title for the third successive year. Other members of that successful team were Bob Clark, Ian Hays and John Hewitt.

Husband and wife team, Brian and Julie Thomas, enjoyed a successful weekend winning the mixed doubles and helping EWS to finish runners up in the open fours team competition, while Julie was runner up in the singles and Brian third in the men’s singles.

Flat Green Bowls
Richard Hart representing Network Rail in Ely, comfortably won the Flat Green bowls remaining undefeated all day. Mark Goldsmith of Southern finished runner up.

Chess
After two days of concentration, in what proved a highly competitive tournament, Graham Bolt of Network Rail emerged a decisive champion with retired employee Paul Jackson taking silver.
Network Rail, comprising Graham Bolt, Ron Crooks and Mike Broad won the team event, with a combined South West Trains and Siemens team in second place.

10k Road Race
Train driver Phil Johnson representing Freightliner Heavy Haul, retained his Railsport 10k title winning in a time of 35m 19s. Neil Farquason also from Freightliner came second in 36m 09s, with Martin Ward of Interfleet Technology third in 36m 35s. The first lady to finish was Rebecca Freeman of Wessex Trains in 42m 01s.

Tony Barrable of Serco Railtest, second in the overall race, was the first veteran home in the excellent time of 35m 42s. The team title was won by Serco Railtest with Freightliner Heavy Haul second.

Beach Volley Ball
Balfour Beatty, Eastleigh, took the Open team fours together with the men’s pairs gold medals, by defeating favourites Serco Railtest in the pairs and then First Great Western Link Oxford in the Open fours. Serco Railtest’s Swingers won the women’s pairs.

Badminton
With Railsport’s team for the forthcoming European USIC Championship being held in New Delhi, India, in November, being selected on the outcome of these results in Blackpool, everyone was eager to display their top form.

Kevin Langley of EWS took the men’s singles title, defeating Ross Campbell of Westinghouse Rail in a closely fought out final. The Veterans singles title went to Stephen May of Silverlink.
In the men’s doubles Craig Harrop of Thales Telecom and Duncan Fraser Midland Mainline teamed up to beat Kevin Langley EWS and Simon Rhoden of Amey Rail.

The ladies singles was won by Louise Trueman of Thales Telecom who beat Alexandra Langley of EWS in the final.

Alexandra teamed up with Alison Jenkins of Merseyrail to win the Women’s doubles. While Alison Jenkins and Craig Harrop won the Mixed Doubles.

Table Tennis
Network Rail’s Trevor Kerry from Derby proved to be the man of the tournament, in winning both the men’s singles and men’s doubles events. In the singles final he beat Ian Quinn of Vital Rail Solutions and then teamed up with Railsport Table Tennis organiser Dave Fox of W S Atkins to win the doubles final. This was played out against Ian Quinn and Rueben Okai of WAGN.

Dave Callija of Network Rail Waterloo won the Plate competition.

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