The Harlequins made a better showing at this year’s Annual Black and Blue Tournament with fewer problems with injuries, family commitments, and end of season fatigue that led to poor attendance in the past.
Head coach, Kent Lowe, had run the team pretty hard (“come fellas, an hour of tackling, a half hour on the sled and then 30 minutes of sprints”) and everyone hoped to let out a little steam on the pitch.
Appleton/Green Bay/Wausau
Our first game was against an Appleton/Green Bay/Wausau mixed side. After some mutual booting, the Harlequins broke it open and finished with a 40-0 victory.
The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel even showed up and put us in the paper (above).
Milwaukee RFC
The second game was against Milwaukee RFC. Needless to say, everyone wanted some time in this one.
The Harlequins scored first on a penalty kick, but then Milwaukee RFC shut us down afterwards resulting in a 3-14 loss. With a little bit of cursing and muttering about monkeys on people’s backs, the team sat and waited to find out who would be our third round opponents.
Milwaukee Black and Blues
As it turned out, we were to compete for third place against our past Division 3 nemesis and hosts of the tournament, the Milwaukee Black and Blue.
Both teams initially fielded a lot of rookies, but as the clock wound down and tempers began to flair, veteran replacements streamed on to the field with games of yesteryear in mind.
The Sir knew the history of the two teams and enforced the rules of warfare with a liberal sprinkling of penalties. The Sir contained the game, but the B&B couldn’t contain Bryan Hintz with the Quins prevailing 22-15.
