Dodgeball Tournament takes no prisoners

At 12:00 on Saturday 10 March, Imperial College’s second ever dodgeball tournament kicked off at Ethos Sports Centre. 12 teams entered but only a few had paid attention to the poster stating: ‘Fancy Dress Advised’! ‘Dodgey Balls’ came in a football kit and at first thought it seemed they had turned up to the wrong event, while ‘Why Always Us?’ came wearing hats which were used to distract their opposition throughout the tournament! However, the prize for best costume went to ‘Orient Hurricanes’ (representing Orient House) who turned up wearing suits and steaming drunk. Apparently this had been from early morning drinking and not the night before!

The group stages went smoothly, with three teams undefeated in their group, ‘Handball’ who tactically threw their balls together and blasted their opponents away with the sheer strength of their throws, ‘Garden and Weeks’ who used the expert knowledge from two players from the IC Dodgeball Club to their advantage, and ‘Wilson Old Boys’ led by Scott Esnouf. ‘Beit Hall’ also scraped through to the semi finals by beating ‘The Mechanical Dodgineers’ in a play off for the last place in the semis.

Teams not managing to secure places in the finals then played again to determine their tournament ranking, which can be found on the IC Dodgeball Club Website. The semis, played at an intense pace, produced ‘Handball’ and ‘Wilson Old Boys’ as the final two. Next came an epic contest of strength and agility where ‘Handball’ definitely had the strength advantage but were finally outmatched by the more experienced Wilson team who were more solid in their catching game.

The last-man-standing competition, a game where everyone is placed into two huge teams and is a free for all, was won by the team captain of ‘Wilson Old Boys’, Scott Esnouf, who was clearly having a great day!

Be sure to come next year as the event was a tremendous success (raising approx. £150) and will certainly be repeated!