On the 4th of September the Hunters welcomed all Lax-interested persons to their fields to play a friendly game day. 5 men teams played 4 games of 2 times 20 minutes to prepare themselves for the competitions starting in October. Also 18 girls joined the clinic given by Anna Dockalova.

With the men 5 teams joined the tournament: Tilburg Titans, current winner of DNLL2, Red Rhinos, winner of the BLL11 and defender of the Belgian Cup, Ghent Goblins, Runner up of the Belgian teams, Heist Hunters, hosting team, and Team Galaxy, a mix of players from Buggenhout Brewers, Kings Lacrosse and Domstad Devil.  So we had a good mix of teams coming from Belgium and Holland.

At 10h00 sharp the first games started. On field A the Ghent Goblins tried to stop the well oiled lax machine called Red Rhinos. Even though the Rhinos were not complete, the boys from Rijmenam managed to get an easy win: 13-0.  At field B the Titans were surprised by team galaxy, as said the pick up team of this tournament. The 4 Devils playing for team Galaxy really took the lead and showed a game against a pick up team is not an easy walk over game. It was tight, but team Galaxy managed to win with 4-5.

04-09-2011, 11h10 was the date all Hunters marked in their agendas. The first time the Blue Boys will play a game. The other blue boys (Tilburg Titans) managed to win easy, but the Hunters fought for every inch on the field showing they are eager to improve themselves and willing to learn. End result 0-8.

Still enthusiastic about their first game experience, the Hunters had to play their second game against the Red Rhinos. Although they showed some good thing the difference between the two teams is way to big, which was clearly noticeable in the end score 17-0 for the Rhinos. On the other pitch Team Galaxy continued with winning serving Ghent a 2-7 loss.

After two losses for Ghent Goblins they hoped to get a win against the Titans. Their start of this game was really good resulting in a 1-0 lead, but eventually the experience of Tilburg resulted in 4 perfect team goals. Thanks to some good saves by the Goblin goalie the score was limited to a 1-4 win for Tilburg. Pitch B was the place were the two leaders of the moment had to determine who keeps the undefeated record. Team Galaxy made it very hard for the Rhinos. And even managed to take the lead in the game, But the Rhinos continued winning by defeating team Galaxy with 1-6 in the second quarter.

The Third game of the day for the hunters was against team Galaxy. And what a game it was. In front of the camera of the local news and a lot of supporters Maikel Cnop managed to make the first goal in a game for the Hunters after receiving a long pass from defender Yannick Schepers. Nevertheless Team Galaxy won their last game of the day easily with 1-8.

At 15h50 the Rhinos and Titans played against each other in their last game of this tournament. Both teams showed were they are made from, but the Rhinos took the 3 points by scoring 8 goals against 1 goal by the Titans.

The last game of the day was between Heist Hunters Lacrosse and Ghent Goblins. Both teams loosed their previous three games, so everything was possible. The hunters started great with two goals made by temporally Hunter Ingmar Klienbannik (normally player of Rotterdam Jaguars), who joined the Hunters to coach, and learn the Hunters during their first game experiences. But then the Green machine finally took of. Resulting in the first win for the Ghent Goblins, end score 2-8.

As said in the introduction of this article the Hunters also organised a Clinic for girls. Anna Dockalova and Jessica Stokhof both playing for the Den Haag first Ladies gave a clinic to all girls present that day. At 15h00 they also played a 4 times 15 minute game. The girls, coming from Ghent Gazelles, Tilburg Titanides, Buggenhout Bees, Red Rhino Ladies and Heist Hunters Lacrosse, were divided in two teams: Red Rhinos vs Heist Hunters. The really learned a lot during the day and had a lot of fun playing the game which was won by the “Rhinos” with 8-6. Now all Belgian girls are ready to defend the Belgian pride on the Goblin Games, Rhino Cup and of course the first women Belgian Lacrosse Cup.

The Hunters wants to thank all players joining their friendly gamesday, and wishes all the teams or individual player the best for the upcoming competitions.

Erwin Van Veen