Old Oak FC's 9th annual end of season tour this year took them to France. A party of 27 including, supporters and a few friends from Newington FC set off by coach from Woodstock Park last Friday for central France and Saint Quentine in the Picardie region.

In 80 degree heat Oak took to the field on Saturday against Urvillers FC and James Ellis soon let everyone know his intentions for the weekend when he netted straight from the kick off- a goal timed at 35 seconds! Oak were by far the stronger of the two teams and they soon had a good lead going in 5-2 up at the break. A few changes by Oak and the desire not to upset their hosts allowed the French to get the game back to 5-4 where it remained for most of the second half. In an effort to show who was the boss Oak put in a good final 10 minutes and they finally ran out 8-4 winners. For the record James Ellis got a hat-trick to add to two goals each for Graham Cloake and Aaron Hayward. The other Oak goal was a collectors item as veteran keeper Mark Rees in a rare stint playing on the field scored with a 20 yard lob!

In 81 degree heat Oak had a much more evenly matched game on the Sunday. On a better pitch against a better team in Vesigny J.S. at the Stade de la Sabliere they ended up with a 2-2 draw. Aaron Hayward opened the scoring and despite Ellis hitting the woodwork twice that was the score at half time. In the second a bizarre own goal gave Oak a two nil advantage only to see the French get a goal back through a penalty and then an equaliser two minutes later. With 10 minutes left on the clock and with Oak looking the more likely to end up winners the game was abandoned by the French ref in weird circumstances. Two of the Vesigny FC players started fighting each other and it took a number of players from both sides to break it up. As the match was only a friendly the French ref abandoned the game and apologised to the Oak for the two players behaviour!

Another successful tour had been completed bringing down the curtain on the longest ever season in the clubs history.

Au Revoir Boys!

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