A London Titans squad is leaving this Friday from St Pancras International for the 2010 World Gay Games, being held in Cologne, Germany.

The World Gay Games takes place once every four years and this is the first time Titans will be attending the tournament.

The biggest sports and cultural festival in the world will take place in Cologne from July 31 to August 7, 2010. Some 10,000 participants from more than 70 countries will converge for the Gay Games VIII Cologne 2010 and celebrate the principles of participation, inclusion and personal best.

The motto is “Be part of it!” And the invitation is open to everyone – regardless whether you are heterosexual or homosexual, male, female, transgender or transsexual, and regardless of religion, nationality, ethnic heritage, political convictions, athletic skills, physical capabilities, age or physical condition.

There are approximately 60 teams competing in the mens’ 11-a-side football competition which is split into 2 divisions, plus a large womens’ 7-a-side competition.

You can follow the progress of the Titans during the games on our dedicated page – http://www.londontitans.com/cologne

Prague is most famous for the Charles Bridge, built in the 13th century, which every visitor to Prague has to see. There’s a plaque on the bridge, and rubbing it is alleged to bring you good luck.

The Charles Bridge was to end up having an important role to play in the Titans’ roller coaster ride in the Galibi Cup for those with a superstitious disposition!

At last yast’s tourno some (but not all) of the squad rubbed the plaque. We lost in the Final because not everyone rubbed it. Inspired by being last year’s runners up, most of that squad returned this weekend to see if they could go one better.

Last year’s veterans (Aussie, Sally, Rueggy, Miller, and Beal), Birchy, Peter K and old hand Carlos with his German mate Julien and 5-a-sider Tom Hooper (drafted from just over the border in Nuremburg where he’s working) did meet up on Friday night with WAGS Chopper, Ali and me for a few quiet beers at the registration party.

The Tourno kicked off with Titans drawn in the Group of Death – with the Slovakian team containing the hottie Miller fancied from last year, Lyon (who had 2 very good female players in it), and teams from Milan, Frankfurt and Nuremburg. Matches were played on a handball pitch which meant very narrow pitches with handball goals more suited to hockey than footy.

There was little space to play much good football and the ball kept going out of play every 30 seconds or so, and chances and goals were at premium, mostly coming from mistakes. Temperatures in the 80s didn’t help either. But thankfully messrs Beal, Birch and Knight are masters at playing with hangovers!

Drawing 0-0 with Milan in their first game (no sign of Benitez anywhere), the Titans lost the next game 1-0 to Slovakia who scored a stunning free kick. Remember Slovakia are the team with the hottie Miller fancied from last year. Miller was in the wall for the free kick. In fact Miller WAS the wall. The shot was rifled into Sally’s top right hand corner. But there were still 3 games to go.

Next game was against Frankfurt. Aussie put Titans 1-0 up. They equalised. Tom Hooper made it 2-1. They equalized in the last minute. There were now more goals scored in this game than in the whole group so far. With 30 seconds left on the clock Titans broke down the right wing, one of them was fouled as he passed to Beal. Thankfully the ref played the advantage (what on earth he thought the advantage was with Beal having the ball I don’t know) and Matt rifled home the winner in the dying seconds. Titans won 3-2.

On a roll, they went on to beat Nurenburg 1-0 (Beal again) before losing 1-0 to Lyon (the lesbian got the goal, she was really good). Titans had finished 4th in their group and only just made the cut to go into the knock out quarter final stage, where they would play Friends Prague, the winners of the other group and the team who beat them in last year’s Final.

The pressure was immense, but the Titans were getting the hang of how to deal with the narrow pitches, and the rule that goalies couldn’t throw or kick the ball beyond the half way line. That meant very tight marking in their half when their keeper had the ball.

The Prague boys were over confident and soon realized they had a game on their hands when Titans stopped them from playing and managed to kick balls into touch for ‘kick ins’ (there were no throw ins) in their half to box them in. The break came when, in desperation having no clear teammate to pass to, their keeper kicked the ball out on the edge of his area straight to Tom, who chested it down with such force that it deflected off a defender into an empty net. Titans knocked the reigning champions out 1-0 and had got the revenge they came for. Beal is still disputing crediting the goal to Tom and may yet refer it to the sub-committee, if not the IGLFA/FIFA as an OG!

They were winning ugly, but they were winning. In the semis Titans drew Lyon, a team they were confident they could beat having only lost 1-0 in the group stage. Chances were few and far between and the boys knew they had to make them all count.

Thankfully Matt Beal did with a corker of a shot (first time shot you’ll be pleased to hear!) which he turned on a sixpence (that’s the size of a penny in new money, but penny doesn’t have the same ring to it) and lashed into the roof of the French net. That’ll teach them for cheating Ireland out of the World Cup. He was now the Titans’ joint top goalscorer with Tom.

Amazingly, the Titans were again in the Final. Would they manage to go one better and win it this year? They would meet Wildboys Karlsruh. Titans did their best in exhausting heat, after little sleep and a long hardslog of a battle to get to the final, but we lost 2-0 in the final.

Once again the Titans made new friends and were welcomed back by old ones, enhanced the Club’s reputation in international football, lived up to our high standards of teamwork and football, and gave you good reason to be proud of them. I certainly was.

And they all agreed that next year they would meet on the Charles Bridge and rub the lucky statue the day before the tourno.

Big thanks to Aussie for organising it all, and well done to everyone who put a Titan’s shirt on and gave their all for the Club.

More to follow…

The London Titans OutWest team today sealed their place as league champions of the London Unity League with a 2-1 win over Romans Emperors team at White Hart Lane, winning all but one of their league fixtures in the season.

The OutWest team went into today’s final match of the season 2 points behind the Falcons Fitlads who had already played all of their games, so a win was required to take the title and end what has been a magnificant inaugral season on a fully deserved high note.  Good chances were few in number and it seemed that the Romans’ keeper might just stop anything that OutWest did create.  Nevertheless OutWest took the first goal and it looked as if that might be enough, until the somewhat unexpected equaliser.  Some good play in parts of the second half failed to seal the second and in the end a scrappy tussle in front of the goal resulted in the ball being saved by the keeper as it went over the goal line, only for the referee to judge that it had in fact passed over the goal line and hence award the goal.

OutWest Man of the Match: Neville Cross.

London Titans finished their 2009/10 GFSN season with a stylish and comprehensive 5-0 victory over Nottingham Ball Bois at The Beveree Stadium.

Titans raced into the lead courtesy of Tickner, who then grabbed his second goal of the game. Titans were cruising, and aside from one or two shaky moments at the back, were safely in control of the game by half time.

In the second half Titans quickly added a third goal to their tally, with Tickner completing his hat-trick with a stunning solo goal. Racing with the ball down the left hand side, he cut inside two Nottingham defenders before smashing a low shot into the near corner.

With a comfortable lead manager Ed was able to make a number of substitutions, Miller came on at rightback, Tezza in centre midfield, and Peter K on for Tickner.

Despite the changes, Titans maintained their energy and passing football and soon added a fourth goal via Beal – heading home from close range after an in-swinging Tezza corner.

Debutant Mark “Chappers” Chapman came on at centre-back for the final 15 minutes, winning some important headers and challenges.

With full-time approaching, Tezza finished off a memorable game for the Titans with a free-kick that found the top-corner.

The passing, work-rate and counter-attacking of the Titans was excellent throughout the match, and the team can be very proud of the their performance. It’s fair to say that if we could have managed to perform like that in previous games, the Titans would be much higher up in the table.

Titans are now guaranteed a top-half finish in the table – we’re currently fifth, however if Nottingham win their two remaining games this season they shall leapfrog above us (and Yorkshire) and push us down into 6th place.

London Titans vs Nottingham Ballbois
1. Felton
2. Serge
3. Wheeler
4. Birch
5. Sheila
6. Mikey
7. Sean
8. Matty
9. Beal
10. Tickner
11. Tom S

Subs
12. Tezza
13. Miller
14. Neville
15. Peter K
16. Chappers

All Titans fixtures have now been arranged.

Please note that players travelling via Waterloo will need to get the 0918 train and change at Kingston for the 111 or 216 bus.  Spectators can take the 0948 train from Waterloo to Hampton (arr 1029) – the ground is a few minutes walk away.

Directions to Hampton and Richmond’s ground, the Beveree, can be found at http://www.hamptonfc.net/tickets/directions.html

The Roman Emperors v OutWest LUL League game already scheduled for Sunday 16th May will also be at White Hart Lane Community Sports Centre with a 2.00pm kick off.

With four players unavailable and Adrian running the London Marathon, manager Ed had to contend with a selection headache.

The vertically-challenged pairing of Tezza & Serge took up the roles of centre-backs for the game, alongside fullbacks Wheeler and Miller. Matty, Felton, Mikey and Sean lined up in midfield, and Tickner was paired with Beal up-front.

Titans got off to the worse possible start when they conceded a penalty in only the second minute – however blushes were spared when the Blaze striker blasted it over the bar.

The nervous start continued with wave-after-wave of Blaze attacks, but Titans slowly got out of first gear and Tickner was running riot on the left flank and linking up well with Beal.

It wasn’t long before Tickner got the ball in the Blaze net, but his wonderfully lobbed goal was inexplicably ruled out for offside – despite it being plainly obvious he’d sprinted past two Blaze players.

The referee, who produced probably the worst performance I have ever seen from a man in the middle of a GFSN game (and thats saying something), consulted his linesman and it was obvious he wasn’t going to overrule him.

Inevitably, Blaze then went on to take the lead with a soft goal that went through the heart of the Titans defence. Birthday boy Matty tried desperately to intercept a pass but unwittingly played in the Blaze striker in acres of space. He wasn’t going to miss and slotted into the bottom corner.

Tickner though showed his class just before half-time. A dazzling run on the left-hand side and an inch-perfect cross was met by Beal who headed across goal with the keeper rooted.

HT 1-1

Yep – you guessed it, another Titans slow start. And this time, it was punished in the worst possible way with a goal to the home side. A lob from the edge of the area crept into the far corner and Titans were behind again.

Titans were linking up well and putting some good passing moves together but the home side were managing to deal with our attacks and countering with potency.

Blaze doubled their lead with an outrageous goal from their own half – spotting OJ of his line, the Blaze striker struck an accurate lofted shot that was going in from the moment he hit it.

The rest of the game was played out with some desperate defending, and some equally desperating attacking, but clawing back the goal was sadly beyond us.

Blaze deserved their win, but their can be no denying that with a full-strength squad and more depth on the bench, Titans would have been more competitive in this game and possibly earned some vital points.

The result means Titans have only won half their games this season. In the final league game of the season, Titans simply must record a win over Nottingham Ballbois if they are to finish in the top half of the league.

Thanks to Blaze for their hospitality (excellent buffet!) and playing the match with great fairness and spirit.

By all accounts, he was doing extremely well up until the 15 milepost, when the metal plate in his ankle started causing him some pain.

However, it’s plain to all who know Adrian that he isn’t a quitter, and he eventually managed to complete the 26.2 miles.

He was running in aid of Spinal Research – a charity dedicated to funding medical research around the world to develop reliable treatments for paralysis. His aim is to raise £1,600, and he’s almost reached his target.

You can sponsor Adrian online – please email enquiries[at]londontitans[dot]com for the link to his VirginGiving Donation Page.

Well done Adrian!