Tranmere Lions 11 v 9 Bebington Flaming Fircones

Report by Rob Marland (West Wirral Snakehips – @WWSnakehips)

Lions – Marshall, P. Devlin, C. Devlin

Fircones – Wareing, A Marland, Goldup – sub Evo

Both teams struggled in the first quarter, which ended 2-0 to the Fircones thanks to one-pointers and blocks from Andy Marland. Then, seconds into quarter 2, Andy Marland came up smelling of roses with his third volfsball of the day. After the ball was tipped out of play Wareing retrieved it for the Lions but, flouting volfsball’s rule number one (no dickheads), she dropped the ball rather than hand it to her opponents. A dick move, but the onlookers loved it. Seconds later they were catapulted to the brink of ecstasy by an outrageous behind-the-back toss from Marland. “Are you kidding me?” yelled the crowd. But Marland was not kidding. Not one bit. It was one of the most glorious points in the storied history of this great game.

As the half drew to a close, the Fircones looked the more confident team, before Poppa Devlin let loose a mighty volfsball only seconds before the buzzer to bring the Lions within 2, the Fircones now leading 8-6.

The third quarter was an absolute clang-fest, with Charlie Devlin and Fircones sub Mike Evo rimming their ballsy volfsball attempts. Lions captain Chris Marshall blocked virtually every Fircones’ gambit, but nobody was complaining about the lowest scoring quarter of the tournament thus far: 9-6 to Bebington at the close.

Paul Devlin threw a cat among the pigeons at the start of the fourth quarter as he slung in his second volfsball from deep in the attacking circle. The Fircones had no answer. When Wareing’s lace came undone, the magnanimous Lions called for a stop to play on health and safety grounds. Everyone suspected Wareing was pulling a switchblade from her sock.

In the dying embers of the game, Evo rimmed another volfsball bid that would have snatched glory from the slavering jaws of defeat. It wasn’t to be. The Tranmere Lions emerged victorious, 11-9.