Frostoms Over 35's team travelled to Basel in north west Switzerland last weekend to play in the OK-BAPДP. Anglo/ Balkan tournament at the Sportplatz Landauer.

As a warm up to the tournament Frostoms played ASC Sparta Helvetik and as usual the west Cumbrians proved to be the perfect guests, allowing hosts Helvetik to win 2-0.

The game was very close with Toprak Yerguz finally breaking the deadlock with 10 minutes remaining leaving Frostoms keeper Pierre Tordor stranded. Yerguz then scored his second with a fine header to seal the game for the home side.

The following day Frostoms played in a 6-team tournament with teams from Bosnia, Croatia, Jugoslavia, Macedonia, Serbria and of course England , the Workington team were drawn against FC Alkar from Croatia and FC Sloboda from Serbia.

In their first game Frostoms against FC Alkar were under pressure from the start and it came as no surprise when the Croatians took an early lead through Đuro Bankovic.

Frostoms battled hard but the Croatians were solid in defence and Eduard Koditek added two quick goals shortly after half time. Simon Ward gave Frostoms hope when he pulled a goal back. However Bankovic put the game out of Frostoms reach when he added his teams fourth goal to give the Croatians a 4-1 victory.

In their next group game Frostoms could not have had a worse start against FC Sloboda from Serbia when Nebosja Ojdanić scored within a minute. Tony McMullen then scored an own goal of the best quality with a looping header to put the Serbs two goals up despite Brian White trying valiantly to keep it out.

Then Niko Jokić scored a penalty to double the Sloboda lead when Richard Tordor handled.

Frostoms tried hard and Mike Cameron, Barry Hitchen, Joe McGuiness and Bob McGarry all had goal bound efforts turned away by Sloboda keeper Dragisa Anđelković.

Sloboda then sealed the game when Jokić scored his second goal, Frostoms battled hard but were unable to find a way past  Anđelković.

With two defeats the Workington side were out of the tournament, however as both FC alkar and FC Sloboda went on to qualify easily for the final, Frostoms were obviously drawn in the harder of the two groups.

In the final FC Sloboda beat their Croatian neighbours 2-1 with Jokić scoring both goals for the Serbs and Bankovic replying for the Croatians.

The next day Frostoms played their final game against FK Vardar from Macedonia for the FK Vardar Turnier Pokal, and as usual Frostoms were good to their hosts when a defensive mix up by Jeremy Lihou and Tim Linford let in Be!ikola Gergev.

Barry Hitchen then scored to even the score, but then Tony McMullen then scored for the first time in 30 games on tour to give the visitors the lead.

He then scored his second the take Frostoms into a 3-1 lead before Branko Gramatnikowski pulled a goal back for FK Vardar.

Then Kuzman Miladinov equalised on the stroke of half time for the Macedonians who powered into a 5-3 lead with a Krunislav Pop-Ordanov penalty.

Hitchen missed a penalty which would have brought the scores level before Gergev then scored his second to give FK Vardar a two- goal lead with eight minutes remaining.

Ben Hadfield then had a goal bound shot inadvertently blocked by team mate Jim Mavir but fortunately the loose ball fell to Tim Linford who chipped home from just out side the penalty area.

In the last minute Hadfield put the ball in the net from close range to put the teams level, and it went to a penalty shoot to decide he outcom,e of the trophy.

Bob McGarry, Mike Cameron, Tim Linford and Ian Lowery (pictured at the top of the column) scored for Frostoms to give them a 4-1 win on spot kicks.

A very enjoyable weekend was had by all with the hospitality provided by the Swiss and Macedonian teams of the highest quality.

Frostoms are still seeking their first victory after 10 tours and over 30 games but are hoping to break the hodoo in Leige in 2010.

The clubs in Basel have asked that if any teams of any age group wish to travel to Basel they would be honoured to organise games against similar standards and age groups. Please contact Tony Mcmullen for further details.

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