Newcastle University

The annual Newcastle University Summer Business League proved to be yet another successful tournament for all involved.  Eighteen teams which were made up of local businesses in and around Newcastle City Centre entered this year’s tournament.  The fixtures were played in mixed weather conditions during the months of July, August and September at Newcastle University’s Longbenton and Cochrane Park sports grounds
 
During the group stages the teams in each division played each other once.  After this the top four teams in each division entered the Championship knock out Stages and the bottom four teams in each division entered the Shield knock out Stages.   Once the knock out stages commenced, the pressure on each team increases as defeat means elimination from the competition.  
 
BACK Consulting and XMP Services who won their respective groups were favourites to reach the latter stages of the competition. Both BACK and XMP eased into the semi-finals with convincing victories over PricewaterhouseCoopers and International Paint respectively. Meanwhile Pure Panel Management who finished 2nd in their group, had to dig deep to get passed Connect Physio and reach the semis.  In the semis XMP beat Connor Solutions 4-1 in a very competitive game while BACK were dumped out of the tournament losing 9 - 2 to Pure Panel Management.
 
In the Shield, British Airways and Newcastle Legal claimed hard fought victories to reach the final of this competition.
 
In the finals, which were played on Tuesday 20 and Wednesday 21 September at Longbenton, British Airways beat Newcastle Legal 3-1 in what was a very competitive game to claim the Shield title while Pure Panel Management finally tasted victory after three consecutive Business League Final defeats with an easy 4-0 victory over XMP.
 
In the individual awards Dan Jowett (British Airways) was crowned top goal scorer with 18 goals for the season, Adam Slesser (Pure Panel Management) was voted Player of the Tournament and Bobby Hamilton was named player of the season for the beaten finalists (XMP Services).  In the Shield final Dan Jowett (British Airways) was also named Man of the Match.