Tour to Malta - October 2024
After an early start from Cyprus Wednesday morning, we arrived in Malta and all got to our various accommodations very smoothly.
Most of us were ready then for a couple of hours of warm up games between ourselves with some short round robin mixed games arranged on a local pitch for a welcome stretch of the legs.
The first night saw the party animals amongst us setting the post-match standard with a drinking/socialising vs playing football ratio of about three to one.
Thursday night’s football was from 8pm to 10pm, and was the first time we met our opposition. We had a good 2 hours of matches at a local school where the mixed teams were randomly selected between all players. It was a good fun night, and gave us a good insight into both the Maltese players skills and interpretation of the rules!
There was plenty of free time on this tour, and we had the whole of Friday to ourselves. Other than Kevin and Carol who unfortunately were taken ill for most of the tour, I think we all managed to visit some of the historic attractions the island has to offer, with Valletta and Mdina being the favourites
The match day proper was on Saturday at the training facilities of Pembroke Athletic FC from 1pm to 5pm. The ladies teams were again mixed, and there were three Malta men’s teams as well as ourselves and Aphrodite Wanderers, meaning we all played four games. Despite it being the first outing of our great new kit, Polis & Latchi Lions were narrowly beaten in all but one game, but the men’s competition was deservedly won by the Malta Black team.
The presentations followed, with all players getting a commemorative medal as well as trophies for the various winners. It was a good atmosphere, and I think it fair to say everyone enjoyed the day.
Thanks and well done to Lynne Bartley, Mike Ireson and Mark Burch for liaising and organising the trip along with Steve the Malta contact.
Thanks also to Micky & Lynne Bartley for their efforts on the day with organising, refereeing etc. - much appreciated. And a final thank you to everyone who came and either took part or came as supporters. A fun tour conducted in the right spirit.
Roll on the next tour – wherever it may be!
