Swift (w) and Rise (m) claimed victories in their respective final matches at The Fly to take home the inaugural women’s and men’s titles on Sunday afternoon.
After a morning session that had seen Rise (w) and Hustle (m) complete their weekends with wins in the 3rd place play-off games (14-9 v Hustle (w) and 11-10 v Swift (m)), the afternoon belonged to the finals at The Fly.
Swift (w), who were looking to maintain their 100% tournament record, took on Forge (w) in their final where eventual Golden Stick winner and England international, Torz Anderson, scored seven as her Swift team proved too much for Forge, who employed some innovative tactics.
As he had done on Opening Weekend, Forge Head Coach, Conor Dockery, left a player in the attacking half and utilised the pinpoint clearing of goalie Emilie Chandler to pick up multiple quick transition goals, Chandler finishing the game with four assists.
The tactic worked and the game was finely balanced going into the final quarter with Swift holding a slender 15-13 lead.
Swift came out strong after the quarter break and set about taking the game away from Forge with a mix of fine goalkeeping and deadeye shooting.
They scored seven goals in this final quarter, conceding only three in reply, to win the game and take home the trophy.
Meanwhile, in the men’s final, Rise (m) competed against surprise package Forge (m) for the right to call themselves The Fly 2021 champions.
In a tense affair that would be won by a single goal, Forge started the better and settled into the match, taking their scoring chances, forcing mistakes from Rise and goalie Tim Blower carried on his top form from the semi-final the day before in making multiple saves.
Forge led 5-3 midway through Q2 but Rise’s options and potency in attack always allowed them to keep touch and eventually they began to find their rhythm.
Ryan Hunns, added to the Rise roster for Finals Weekend, demonstrated his pure class scoring two outrageous one-handed goals on his weaker right side and was a threat throughout tallying four goals.
As has been clear in the Sixes game throughout the Championship, the role of goalie has been crucial to team success and the Men’s Final was no different.
Rise ‘keeper Will Baxter made stop after stop, closing down angles, and forcing the Forge attack to be perfect with their shots to hit the target.
At the other end, another of Rise’s group of attackmen, Will Prescott, scored three in quick succession to drive Rise ahead and open up a small lead heading into the final minutes.
But Forge refused to roll over - Dan Watson (5G) and Ben Page-Laycock (3G) chipped away at the Rise lead and with a minute to go the advantage had been closed to just a single goal at 13-12.
Rise ran down the clock on their final possession giving Forge seven seconds to take the game into overtime but a Hail Mary from Tom Hallam on the buzzer sailed wide, and Rise were crowned inaugural men’s champions of The Fly.