Business Fives England Final

SF Recruitment Seal National Crown in Manchester

Business Fives Winter season reached a thrilling climax on Tuesday 5^th April as companies from across the country assembled in Manchester where only one could be named as the National Champions.

With £10,750 in donations up for grabs stakes were high and the standard of play on the pitch matched that as 637 goals were scored across the 144 matches on the day.

After 17 qualifying events across the country the best 36 companies in the country had won their right to bid for the National title in what has been a phenomenal series of events raising over £100,000 for various charities throughout the nation.

Sheffield Champions Fortem were the first to seal some silverware as they were named top fundraisers having raised £1,000 for their chosen charity, 52 Lives.

On the pitch there was donations on offer for the Champions League winners and runners up, Europa League and Europa League Conference section winners.

Making there way to the Champions League quarter finals it was teams from Cooper Parry, 3M, Nordens, SF Recruitment, Love Energy Savings, Cummings Group, EDGE PS and Pro Qual AB.

It was the Tees Valley, Birmingham, Leicester and London Champions, 3M, Cooper Parry, SF Recruitment and Nordens respectively, who made it to the semi finals with all to play for as the chance of a guaranteed donation loomed large.

Lead by captain Sam Smith eventually it was the SF Recruitment team who held their nerve to win the final overcoming Nordens who had a similarly impressive run to reach the final.  Paul Parker and Michael Brown singled out 2 goal hero Jordan from SF Recruitment as their man of the match in the final as they won 3-0.

That sealed a third donation in a row having already won £1,000 in donations as a result of winning the Leicester and Nottingham events with the Bodie Hodges Foundation winning a further £6,000 from their National Final win.

Nordens took comfort in the fact that their £500 donation won from the London event was bolstered by a further £2,250 going to support the Friends of London & Essex Homeless.

With £1,500 up for grabs in the Europa League section there was still a lot at stake for the teams who made their way in to the last 16.  Eventually that was whittled down to just four as Ian Williams, Hunter Selection, DHL and Mazars got through to the semi finals.

DHL booked their final spot courtesy of a 4-2 win over Leeds champions Mazars while Bristol based Hunter Selection got past Ian Williams 3-1.

In what was a thrilling final the DHL team managed to win 2-1 thanks to some fine finishing and boosted by the performance of the player of the tournament Jane.  They secured the bumper donation for the Great Ormond Street Hospital to add to the £250 they had already won in Nottingham.

In the Europa Conference League final Love Energy Savings ran out 3-1 winners versus Cummings Group as they scooped a further £1,000 donation for the Bolton Lads & Girls Club.

In other individual awards, the Top Goal Scorer award went to Mitch Hahn from Nordens who found the back of the net an impressive 27 times in 10 games.

Business Fives moves North for the Scotland Season finale on Thursday 7^th April before starting off the summer season again in June which runs right through to October with events throughout the country.

Highlights from the qualifying events as well as clips from the Business Fives England Final can be found on our Twitter.

Englands National business five-a-side Tournament is culminating on Tuesday 5th April at the Central Powerleague in Manchester after qualifiers throughout England in London, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Birmingham, Bradford, Hull, Stoke, Tees Valley, Sheffield,and Nottingham

Highlights from the qualifying events as well as clips from the Business Fives England Final can be found on our Twitter.