There’s clearly one thing within the water on that facet of the Severn Bridge, with Wales now having taken the final 4 MAN v FAT National Tournament titles (Newport the earlier winners) and Swansea and Newport once more went face to face within the last two at the weekend.
But this yr’s event was additionally a celebration of how MAN v FAT has developed in recent times.
Not solely had been there a bunch of MAN v FAT golf equipment making their event debut at the weekend, we additionally had our first worldwide illustration, with a MAN v FAT Soccer crew from Florida making the lengthy journey over to take part.
The Americans had been welcomed to the Lilleshall National Sports Centre on Friday with a sport towards a MAN v FAT HQ facet to get the journey out of their legs, and so they went on to make many new pals throughout the course of the afternoon.
It was a narrative that unfurled throughout all the 16 teams, with golf equipment developing towards different MAN v FAT set-ups from completely different elements of the nation, permitting them to share their experiences and successes on the programme thus far.
Despite wet climate situations, the group levels had been performed in a optimistic temper because the 5 rounds of video games noticed the tables take form.
Across the 16 teams, there have been solely three groups with an ideal qualifying document as Swansea, Margate and Bromley gained all 5 of their matches. Meanwhile, there have been an additional 9 unbeaten data forward of the knock-out levels, with Salford unfortunate to not emerge from Group C regardless of avoiding defeat.
As the day wore on, the climate picked up and so did the extent of competitiveness as the possibility for glory moved nearer.
The group video games noticed the title holders Swansea knock out their membership mates to make it to the final sixteen and the drama continued to unfold elsewhere with various penalty shoot-outs being required to separate the groups.
Despite sides now having performed a variety of soccer because the event progressed, the standard remained excessive – each when it comes to the ending to attain objectives and the usual of goalkeeping to maintain them out.
Swansea had each side of the sport sorted and had been proving to be a tough nut to crack, however they had been run shut within the semi-finals by a powerful Margate crew who had been finally edged out by a slim 2-1 scoreline.
On the opposite facet of the draw, Newport had wanted penalties to edge out Harlow at the Quarter Finals stage however discovered their rhythm once more within the semis to see off Peterborough.
And so one other Welsh last awaited and in a extremely aggressive fixture, Swansea edged out their neighbours to carry the silverware as soon as once more.
A memorable afternoon’s work by all involved and the query for lots of the groups there at the weekend was “How will we overcome the Welsh subsequent yr?”