Manchester Touch Championships is a huge success

The 2017 Touch season got off to an excellent start with the 8th and Annual Manchester Touch Championships held at The Armitage Centre on Saturday.

Following last year's mud bath, and some people still trying to get clean, we ran the event on state of the art 3G pitches to ensure the weather couldn't ruin the day and the Touch could flow, and flow it did!

This year's tournament was ran as open mixed only and capped at 16 teams, 13 timeslots and 44 matches. We welcomed newbies GTR, Glasgow Lions and Catterick Touch to our schedule and watched how they all played, progressed and had fun.

[caption id="attachment_498" align="alignleft" width="304"] GTR plus special guests[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_499" align="alignleft" width="380"] Catterick Touch - 1st ETA event[/caption]

Mixed Open Results

Cup Winners: Galaxy Scotland

Plate Winners: Orrell St James

Bowl Winners: Thames Valley Vikings

Shield Winners: Chester Cheetahs

Full results online: RESULTS LINK

[caption id="attachment_31117" align="alignleft" width="300"] Galaxy Scotland – Cup Winners[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_31118" align="alignleft" width="300"] Plate Winners: Orrell St James[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_31115" align="alignleft" width="225"] Bowl Winners: Thames Valley Vikings[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_31116" align="alignleft" width="300"] Shield Winners: Chester Cheetahs[/caption]

As with any tournament, there is so much work that goes on behind the scenes to make the day a success, so a huge thanks to Gregg Cropper for planning and organising, Emma and Cari and their team of physio’s from Huddersfield University for keeping us all moving on the day and Jules for running the event desk.

Congratulations to all the referees who got their upgrades too. Dominic Shaw, Soul Phoenix, Kev Hattersley and Stuart Fraser. Thanks to all the coaches and assessors to get them over the line too!

And, there is no game without referees, so a massive thank you to #TeamRef who ALL did a stirling job over the day.

[caption id="attachment_512" align="alignleft" width="300"] Dominic Shaw - Level 1 Upgrade[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_513" align="alignleft" width="335"] Soul Phoenix, Kev Hattersley, Stuart Fraser - Level 1 Upgrade[/caption]

Finally, thank you to all the players who made the journey to Manchester and braved the cold!

Great to see so many new faces and teams along with some familiar ones too! Lots of youngsters out their getting experience and older ones showing them the ways.

We wish you all good luck for the rest of the season and hope to see you in Manchester again soon.

Manchester events coming up:

Men's/Women's Touch Cup: <Info link> <Entry Link>

National Development Touch Series: <Info link> <Entry Link>

Leagues will be starting early May too, so keep an eye out ON THIS PAGE for more info.

See you all on the 5, over the summer and back for more next year!