Raptors win Pendine double - Cardiff Raptors Touch

Raptors win Pendine double - Cardiff Raptors Touch: "The Raptors won both the Men's and Mixed divisions of the 2011 Pendine Touch Tournament, along with the Women's Plate competition.

The Raptors Women's team put in some strong performances to take the Plate at Pendine on Saturday 27th August.

In the pool stages, they lost to eventual winners The Durkas 2-1, drew 0-0 with Hot Custard, lost 4-2 to the Bristol Fijians and beat The Vandals 2-1. That set up a replay against the Vandals in the Plate final, which finished 0-0 at fulltime and went to drop-off. Both teams were down to 4 players each when Emily Baird delivered a pass to Nia Evans who touched down for the win.

Nia Evans picked up the most notable performance award for the Raptors.

Touchdowns: Nia Evans 3, Emily Baird 2, Pam Tomlinson 1
Assists: Emily Baird 3, Pam Tomlinson 2
Discipline: Emily Baird forced-substitution (only the 5th Raptor ever to be forced-subbed)"
he Men's team were unbeaten all day, with win's in the pool stages against North Wales Crusaders (8-0), Bristol Fijians (4-1) and the Gower Dragons (4-0). In the quarter-final, they beat Gwladers 9-1 and then Hot Custard 5-1 in the semi-final.

The final against the Kiwi Dragons was a close game, with the Raptors trailing 2-0 after 5 minutes. Scores from Gareth Revell and Lewis Hessey tied the game but the Dragons went ahead again. Nick Seymour scored the equaliser with 30 seconds remaining to take the game to drop-off. The Raptors scored straight from tap-off with another Lewis Hessey touchdown and then put in some strong defence, which was the main feature of their day, to keep the Dragons out and win the competition.

Lewis Hessey picked up the most notable performance award.

Touchdowns: Gareth Revell 10, Lewis Hessey 7, Shane Scott 5, Ben Smith 4, Martyn Seymour 3, Jason Hori 2, Nick Seymour 1, Leyton Rees 1, Dan Rees 1
Assists: Ben Smith 10, Gareth Revell 8, Martyn Seymour 7, Dan Rees 5, Lewis Hessey 2, Jason Hori 1

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On the Sunday, the Raptors beat NPW 7-2, Touching Me Touching You 5-2 and Hot Custard 3-2 in the pool stages of the Mixed competition. In the quarter-final, they beat Bristol Tigers 6-0 and then Halton Wildcats 4-2 in the semi-final.

The final against Hot Custard was another close game, with the Raptors going 1-0 up but then spending a lot of time on their own scoreline. Hard work in defence and on yardage earned them a 4-2 win and secured the double.

Dan Rees and Jade Phillips picked up the most notable performances awards.

Touchdowns: Gareth Revell 14, Martyn Seymour 5, Dan Rees 4, Nia Evans 1, Nick Seymour 1, Jade Phillips 1, Emily Baird 1, Sarah Barrett 1
Assists: Martyn Seymour 11, Dan Rees 8, Gareth Revell 8, Jade Phillips 1
Discipline: Martyn Seymour forced-substitution (only the 6th Raptor ever to be forced-subbed; for an exchange that went as follows; Opposition player - "Is that a tap or a roll, sir?", Martyn - "He's not going to be able to help since he just made that rule up.")

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Other highlights:

• Sophie Lewis became the youngest ever Raptors captain after leading the women in the Plate Final.

• Gareth Revell scored his 500th Raptors touchdown and equaled the record for most touchdowns in a year (140).

• Dan Rees made his 50th appearance of the season.

• Hash Elsarrag said he was playing and didn't turn up for the second year in a row.

• Nick Seymour came out of retirement to score a critical equaliser in the dying seconds of the men's final.

• Martyn Seymour made his 50th assist of the season.

• Sally Davies-Williams won the fancy dress wearing her own clothes (Katie O'Neill, Chrissy Williams and Emily Baird would have stood a chance if anyone had heard of whoever they were meant to be).