Saturday 11 March 2017, Pretoria, South Africa:
The 5th edition of the Founders Cup attracted a field of 11 entries, including debutant Doane Paulse - welcome aboard Doane!
This event is staged annually during the club's anniversary month - on the 24th March, PFC will be turning 4, and what an eventful 4 years it has been to date. As has become customary now, this event certainly never fails to bring about some surprises - and this year was no different as the event once again produced a new name on the trophy. Bevin Reed became the 5th different player to get his hands on the trophy of one of the "highlight events" on the PFC Subbuteo calendar!
This triumph marks Bevin's 8th WASPA title to date. The event started with a heavyweight clash between Bevin Reed & Chessray Jooste - an enthralling encounter which ended 2-1 to Bevin, with Bevin capatalising on a defensive error by Chessray right on full time! Last month's Copa del Apertura winner, Kegan van der Merwe scored a last minute equaliser against Jayden van der Merwe to end 1-1 in their Round 1 encounter. Debutant Doane Paulse earned a point by way of a 0-0 draw against Julian van der Merwe. Stanton Nortjie ran out comfortable 2-0 winner over Rowin Wilson. Adam Murray then copied Stanton's success by way of a 2-0 victory over Neilon Waterson - by the end of Round 1 we surprisingly saw Adam & Stanton as joint leaders on the standings!
In Round 2, Marlin Boyd (playing only his second tournament) caused the biggest thrill of the day as he beat Julian by 1-0 : the ball hitting the net literally as the buzzer sounded for full time! Doane then beat Neilon by 1-0 to surprsingly jump to 4th on the standings. Rowin then shocked Kegan by 1-0 with 3 minutes left to play. The "top of the table clash" ended 0-0 between Adam & Stanton. Another heavyweight clash ended 1-1 between Bevin & Jayden - that result ensuring that Adam & Stanton still jointly topped the standings after two rounds of play!
Round 3 then saw Bevin beat Julian by 1-0 for Bevin to go 2nd for the first time on the day. Adam then surprisingly took an 8th minute lead over Jayden, and had to rely on his goalkeeping skills to keep out an onslaught by Jayden - however, Jayden got the equaliser right on full time to force a 1-1 draw after another impressive display by Adam! Stanton's 1-0 win over Doane then suddenly got everybody's attention as Stanton (voted PFC's most improved player for 2016) still found himself in the top spot after 3 rounds of play! In Round 4, Chessray recorded the day's biggest result (3-0) over Neilon - to secure 3rd place overall. Adam's 1-0 win over Rowin capped off an impressive day for Adam as he deservedly secured 2nd place overall! The title decider was scheduled for the final match where "a winner takes it all" match unfolded between Bevin Reed and Stanton Nortjie. Once again, Stanton gave a good account of himself in the match but eventually succumbed to a fast attack from Bevin - the 1-0 win enough to hand Bevin the honours!
Lastly a final word on some stand out performances - Marlin Boyd yet again produced an undefeated run ; Debutant Doane Paulse secured 7th place overall - finishing above the likes of Rowin, Kegan, Julian and Neilon ; Adam Murray enjoyed an undefeated run - to finish 2nd overall, and if memory serves me correct, his highest finish in an event to date. Finally.... the "player of the day" has to go to Stanton Nortjie who wowed everybody with solid flicking - overall a very confident display by Stanton, and if he continues with performances like this during 2017....he is bound to turn some heads!
As always, a big thank you to all who shared this memorable day with us.
LIST OF PREVIOUS WINNERS :2013 - Jayden van der Merwe
2014 - Chessray Jooste
2015 - Kegan van der Merwe
2016 - Clifford Graaff (JTFC)
The PFC website & facebook page will be updated shortly with photo's & news content at :
http://pfctest.leaguerepublic.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/PFC-SA/519566284755728
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