Farnham Fireballs first match against the Arrows at the Gloucester League on Sunday 15th March was closely fought but the experience of the Arrows, one of the top teams from the League, finally lead them to a 3-2 victory against the inexperienced Surrey side. All the Fireballs players put in a good performance and the excellent marking meant that the Arrows top two shooters rarely got a chance to strike. But the star of the show was undoubtedly Farnham's new goalkeeper, George Saunders, who after only 1 hours training the day before his fist ever tournament, managed to deflect many superb shots with ease.

In the second match, the Fireballs finally overcame one of their biggest rivals the Camden Dragons with a great performance. In every previous encounter the Dragons have provided the Fireballs with a text book lesson in floorball's high speed skill and tactics however this time round it was Farnham that turned on the style. Roope Rantala opened the scoring with a rocket shot which caught the Dragons completely unawares but the Dragons fought back levelling the score 1-1. Then Oli Welch was perfectly positioned to exploit some panic in the Dragons defence and pop the ball in the back of the net for his first goal of the day. Santtu and Andrew maintained a very solid defence whilst the Dragons continued to pile on the pressure and Farnham's forwards also came back into defence and 'defending as a team' they managed to keep the Dragons at bay. A few moments later both Oli and Seb Foster carried out the plan discussed in the pre-match briefing, as Seb stormed down the right wing he made a last minute cross to Oli who was waiting unmarked on the far post and was able to blast the ball in the back of the net for the his second goal. The Dragons replied with a major onslaught desperately fighting to recover some of their pride even sending Josh Purnell literally flying over the rink boards, luckily avoiding injuries. Farnham made a text book mistake moments later when two players chased a Dragon into the corner leaving another unmarked, the ball was passed out from the corner and the Dragons had scored. The Dragons were finally slain when the whistle blew for full time leaving the score at 3-2. This great result goes to show that if Farnham stick to the plan during matches and work hard in training they must be medal contenders for the National Cup in July.

The Fireballs who were playing in their brand new team strip also came up against the National and League Champions, the Eagles from Warwickshire. Unfortunately however the Fireballs were almost completely asleep Eagles during the start of this match and were two goals down after just 30 seconds. The Coach tried to wake the team up by doing some radical changes and calling for a Time Out. During the second period the Fireballs started to come back to the level that they can achieve when they are 'in it to win it' (as Oli says) and although the match could not be recovered the scoreline in this 30 minute match was lower than in the 20 minute match last time the two teams met.

Hawks 4-2 Fireballs
Hawkettes 5-12 Fireballs
Cobras 2-2 Fireballs

Hawks 'A' 15-1 Fireballs
Hawks 'B' 4-7 Fireballs

Match report

Shooting Stars
(their first event floorball matches):

Wizards 10 - 1 Shooting Stars
All Stars 3 - 6 Shooting Stars
St Catherines 5 - 1 Shooting Stars
Widdens 3 - 2 Shooting Stars
Eaglets 12 - 0 Shooting Stars

Farnham Fireballs

Arrows 8 - 5 Fireballs
Dragons 9 - 1 Fireballs

There was also an exhibition match during the GB National (adlut) Floorball team.

GB trials photos

Farnham Fireballs

Arrows 7- 3 Fireballs
Dragons 1 - 3 Fireballs

Farnham Fireballs

Eagles 2 - 11 Fireballs
Hawkettes 1 - 13 Fireballs

Farnham Fireballs

Hawks 10 - 4 Fireballs

Farnham Shooting Stars

Eaglets 9 - 2 Shooting Stars
All Stars 1 - 1 Shooting Stars
St Catherines 4 - 0 Shooting Stars
Wizards 4 - 0 Shooting Stars
Widden 1 - 5 Shooting Stars