A fortuitous conversation between our chairman, Len Cheston, at the Mallorca walking football tournament in May had led to Leyton Orient being invited to the KVVE Massemen tournament in Belgium. With some hard work on Len’s part a tour was put together and a squad of sixteen players signed up to make the trip to Wetteren in the rural heartland of Belgium.

Early on the morning of Tuesday 24th September with the squad met up at King’s Cross/St Pancras. Before the trip had even started nerves were set jangling as Cox was caught up in a Victoria line suspension and looked as if he was going to miss out before the tour had even begun. Fortunately, with a significant amount of running, he made it to the train with seconds to spare. An uneventful journey finally deposited the squad at Wetteren station where our hosts from KVVE Massemen very kindly picked us up and ferried everyone to our hotel. A short break to book in and then the squad were picked up again to be taken to a very wet KVVE Massemen ground where a series of friendly games had been organised. Stevenson had to step down as he was carrying an injury and wanted to give himself a chance of playing in the tournament the following day so this left one team of seven players and another team of eight players to play two twenty minute games to try and get Orient used to playing five-a-side to the Dutch walking football rules.

The first games resulted in both Orient Reds and Orient Blues losing with both teams only managing to score one goal each – Manicom for the Reds and Lillington for the Blues. Unfortunately Russo took a heavy fall and injured his shoulder putting him out of the tournament.

The second games were slightly more competitive with the Reds losing but still managing to score four goals – Mullins 2, Manicom and Ridley, while the Blues got a very creditable four goal draw with goals by Cox 2, Brooks and Lillington.

After this short taster session it was back to the hotel to dry off, relax and prepare for the following days exertions.

The fourteen teams competing in the Tournament were split into two groups of seven with the top two in each group going through to the semi-finals. The rest of the teams would playoff third v third etc. Even before a ball had been kicked Stevenson had to admit he just was not fit to play which reduced the Reds team to four players. Cheston had already replaced Russo in the Blues squad so the Reds had to borrow Brooks from the Wyverns. To allow Brooks some recovery time Brennan and Neophytou also turned out for the Reds. To spread the playing time around Cheston, Weston and Wahlhaus turned out for the Wyverns while Brennan was substitute for the Blues.

The first game featured Leyton Orient Reds v Leyton Orient Blues and with some slick passing and sharp finishing the Reds won this ‘local’ derby with the most significant action being Weston scoring the first tournament goal for an Orient player which was also his first ever goal for Orient and rumour has it his first goal ever, anywhere. Final score: Leyton Orient Blues 0 v 4 Leyton Orient Reds (Ridley 2, Manicom, Weston).

The Orient Wyverns were the next to play and they met a very good Massemen A and although playing manfully were out played. Final score: Orient Wyverns 0 v 4 Massemen A.

Orient Reds second game of the day was against Lede. Once Orient got into their pass and move game they opened up a two goal lead and never looked like relinquishing it. Final score: Lede 0 v 2 Leyton Orient Reds (Ridley 2).

Meanwhile the Blues were taking on Old Vets who were a very good team and although Mullins scored for the Blues the Old Vets ran out comfortable winners. Final score: Old Vets 4 v 1 Leyton Orient Blues (Mullins).

Wyverns next game was a creditable draw against OHL. Final score: OHL 0 v 0 Orient Wyverns.

Orient Blues next game was against Vissenaken. This was a very competitive game with Orient Blues scoring first through that ‘fox in the box’ Hockley but conceding late on for a hard won draw. Vissenaken 1 v 1 Leyton Orient Blues (Hockley).

Orient Reds now took on a Waregem. An early goal by Ridley settled the nerves. Waregem now laid siege to the Reds goal but sterling work by the team repulsed wave after wave of attack. Final score: Waregem 0 v 1 Leyton Orient Reds (Ridley).

It was now the Wyverns turn takng on FCB Old Stars in this their third game of the day. Wyverns were very unlucky to not get something out of the game as they only went down by the one goal. Final score: Orient Wyverns 0 v 1 FCB Old Stars.

It was now Orient Reds turn to play Vissenaken and the good passing, controlled football that had served them so well in previous games seemed to desert them as they first conceded a penalty and then a late second. Final score: Leyton Orient Reds 0 v 2 Vissenaken.

Orient Blues now came up against Massemen B and this was another close encounter with only a single goal separating the teams. Final score: Leyton Orient Blues 0 v 1 Massemen B.

It was now over to the Wyverns who were playing Genk. Again this was a close contest with the Wyverns being found out by a single goal. Final score: Genk 1 v 0 Orient Wyverns.

Orient Reds penultimate game at the group stage saw them take on Massemen B. Ridley put the Os ahead after some lovely interplay between Wahlhaus and Manicom but the lead didn’t last long and Orient just couldn’t find a way through. Final score: Massemen B 1 v 1 Leyton Orient Reds (Ridley).

Orient Wyverns now took on t Werftje. As much as the Wyverns pushed to get on the score sheet t Werftje held firm and then hit them twice on the break. Final score: t Werftje 2 v 0 Orient Wyverns.

Orient Blues penultimate game at the group stage had them competing against Waregem and Orient just had no answer for Waregem’s pass and move football. Final score: Waregem 5 v 0 Leyton Orient Blues.

Orient Reds final game of the day was against the very good Old Vets team. Needing to win to go through to the semi-finals Orient gave the game everything they had. Unfortunately a combination of both mental and physical fatigue saw them ship six goals with only a single Ridley effort in return. Final score: Old Vets 6 v 1 Leyton Orient Reds (Ridley).

Orient Blues final game at the group stage was against Lede. Unfortunately, as hard as the team tried, they were out played with Lede scoring three goals with Orient’s Cox managing to grab one for the Os in reply. Final score: Lede 3 v 1 Leyton Orient Blues (Cox).

Orient Wyverns final game of the day was against Gent and the guys gave everything to try and go out with something and although Gent scored three the Wyverns finally managed to score their only goal of the day thanks to Wahlhaus. Final score: Gent 3 v 1 Orient Wyverns (Wahlhaus).

Final calculations showed Leyton Orient Reds had finished third in their group just missing out on a semi-final place by two points. Leyton Orient Blues and Orient Wyverns had both finished bottom of their respective groups but had both played creditably given the various injuries plus getting used to some very different rules.

Leyton Orient Reds now had to play a fifth/sixth place playoff game against FCB Old Stars. The team were determined to come home with the best return they could. By now the long journey, friendly games the evening before and the ninety minutes of football that had already been played was really telling with tired legs and tired minds. This wasn’t going to stop these lads and an early move from Bancroft at the back, through Brennan and onto Wahlhaus found Manicom in the space to fire Orient ahead. Old Stars came back at the Os putting everything they had into getting squaring the game. Finally the pressure told as an overlap on the Orient right saw one of the Old Star players rifle a shot into the net. Still Orient pressed for the winner but Old Stars were not going to give up easily. The breakthrough came when FCB Old Stars were reduced to four players due to a blue card. This gave Orient the chance to press higher up the pitch and when Ridley nicked the ball from a hesitant Old Star’s player and passed it, left footed, into the net from just inside the Old Stars half, the game was all over bar the shouting. Final score: FCB Old Stars 1 v 2 Leyton Orient Reds (Manicom, Ridley).

This was a fine end to this exceptionally well run tournament. There was absolutely no dishonour finishing fifth in a five-a-side tournament, played on grass to Dutch walking football rules and no goalkeepers. The whole two day experience was made all the better due to how well the squad were looked after by their hosts from Massemen who so warmly welcomed Leyton Orient into the Belgium walking football family.

After the tournament was over the squad held a ballot to find the Players Player of the Tournament and totally justifiably this went to Tony Brooks who tirelessly played consistently well for both the Orient Reds and the Orient Wyverns.

Finally, every single player would want to acknowledge the fantastic work put in by Len Cheston in organising the whole trip. Without Len’s organisational skills and patience the trip would not have gone nearly as smoothly nor successfully as it did.

Tuesday’s squads:

Leyton Orient Reds: Brennan, Everett, Hockley, Manicom, Mullins, Ridley (Capt), Russo.

Leyton Orient Blues: Bancroft, Brooks, Cheston, Cox, Lillington, Neophytou, Wahlhaus (Capt), Weston.

Wednesday’s tournament squads:

Leyton Orient Reds: Bancroft, Brennan, Brooks, Manicom, Neophytou, Ridley, Wahlhaus (Capt), Weston.

Leyton Orient Blues: Bancroft, Brennan, Cheston, Cox, Hockley, Mullins (Capt).

Leyton Orient Wyverns: Brennan, Brooks, Cheston, Everett, Lillington, Neophytou (Capt), Wahlhaus, Weston.

Goal Scorers: Ridley 9, Manicom 4, Mullins 3, Cox 3 Lillington 2, Brooks, Hockley, Wahlhaus, Weston.

Location

Wetteren, Belgium