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When competitor Rob O'Hare sent a text message from Peterborough to PSC colleague David Russell informing him of that Jeremy Bradley and Panos Stemitsiotis were the finalists of the FISTF satellite event, Russell replied with his prediction – “0-0, Panos to win on shots”, accompanied with a suggestion that the game would lack excitement.
A harsh assessment maybe, but ultimately an accurate one.
As a spectacle, the game between two evenly match participants was not great. For long periods, play was bogged down in a tactical quagmire, with the ball perched intercepting Stemitsiotis' shooting line surrounded by figures of both players.
When it was forced over, Bradley was given little option other than to force either a corner or a flick-in, from which the standoff would eventually resume.
In short, it was the type of game that Bradley was famed for during the early 90s.
For the former Milton Keynes player's slow patient build-up play to succeed, he was reliant, in part, on mistakes by his Greek opponent on which to pounce - unfortunately for him, Stemitsiotis completed all block-flicks that needed to be made, and hardly any clear shooting opportunities were forthcoming.
After a first half played out almost entirely on the outer edge of his own shooting area, Stemitsiotis' first sight of goal came some four minutes into the second period, when he attempted a shot from distance.
And he also enjoyed a brief attacking spell late in a half which was slightly more open and free-flowing than the first, but still ultimately goalless.
Overtime looked as unlikely to produce a winner as the preceding 30 minutes, and instead the lottery of shots would decide the outcome.
Shooting first, Bradley proved inaccurate with first three efforts, whilst Stemitsiotis scored twice. Bradley netted from the inside right position and after Stemitsiotis missed from the same spot, Bradley had one last effort to tie the scores, from the outside right.
But he found the angle too difficult and Stemitsiotis saved with his keeper to secure his first major tournament victory in his now native England.
The final was the second meeting between Stemitsiotis and Bradley after the pair had been drawn together at the group stage. The Atlas team member came out on top in that encounter by a single goal, leaving Bradley second in the table ahead of the unfortunate third constituent, Ally Stephen.
Ironically Bradley's group position gave him the slightly easier path towards the final rematch, and he dispatched of the Yorkshire Phoenix pair Martin Hodds and Paul Lawrenson by identical 2-0 scorelines in the barrage and quarter-finals respectively, before edging past Victor Jones 1-0 in the semis.
He made hard work of beating Jones though. Despite holding most of the possession, Bradley had few chances, as the Putney player held out until midway through the second half.
However Jones’ good work was undone when he was too casual and too short with a simple routine block-flick, leaving Bradley with a sight of the ball right in front of goal. From there he made no mistake, cutting the ball inside of the post. The accompanying cheer clearly demonstrated his relief in finally scoring.
The goal at least served to spur Jones to adopt a more attacking stance himself for the remainder of the game, but Bradley saw out the final minutes to advance to the final.
After disposing of Trevor Arthur 2-1 in the last 8, Stemitsiotis had put paid to any hopes of an all-Milton Keynes old boys final by edging past Steve Hawkins - a quarter-final winner over Simon Bryan - 2-1 in the semis.
The other beaten semi-finalist, Jones, had earlier found form so lacking in previous months when he scored four times past the usually reliable defence of Arthur, without reply, to ensure qualification from the group stage.
Putney clubmate Paolo Barone awaited in the quarter-finals, in what would prove to be a scrappy encounter, with neither player at their best.
However a goal hit low on the move midway through the second half settled Jones' nerves, before he completed a 2-0 victory late on with a risky long-range effort, where a miss would have left him exposed in defence on the counterattack, but instead a perfect contact was made to send the ball into the corner of the net.
Had Rob O'Hare shown better form in front of goal, it could have been him, not Jones, up against Barone. But he paid the price for poor shooting in his early games, to make another early exit in Peterborough.
The Cyprus international created countless chances against Arthur, but apart from one, he failed to convert them.
And a relieved Arthur, who admitted after that even a draw would have been an unfair point for him, took advantage of the situation by hitting the winning goal from distance with the last flick of the game, sending the ball creeping under O'Hare's keeper.
After tying 1-1 with Jones - about the right result, though it could have been a higher scoring draw in an end-to-end game - O'Hare finally found his scoring touch when it was too late.
He had needed Arthur to beat Jones, so his 6-1 victory over fellow Cypriot Paul Andreas - who had performed admirably in his first two games - was in vain.
A quick exchange of text messages with Mystic Dave and O’Hare would have been aware of that beforehand.
Martin Hodds - Jeremy Bradley 0-2
Trevor Arthur - John Turpin 2-0
Paul Lawrenson - Jeremy Bradley 0-2
Paulo Barone - Victor Jones 0-2
Steve Hawkins - Simon Bryan 3-0
Trevor Arthur - Panos Stemitsiotis 1-2
Jeremy Bradley - Victor Jones 1-0
Steve Hawkins - Panos Stemitsiotis 1-2
Jeremy Bradley - Panos Stemitsiotis 0-0 (ot, 1-2 shots)
eFlicker Merit Award: Kenny Scott (Putney SC)
Kenny Scott made an encouraging return to national tournaments, his first since losing in the final of the 1994 SSA Scottish Championships.
The London-based player held top seed Paul Lawrenson to a creditable 0-0 draw in his opening game to gain a vital point in what was a closely fought group.
However that wasn't enough to help him qualify, as he fell to an unfortunate 2-goal defeat against Simon Bryan in his second game.
His father's success in the main final clearly meant a lot to Panos' son Dimitris Stemitsiotis, but the youngster had already claimed a title of his own by securing first place in the under-15 competition.
The England Junior international finished above runner-up Jonathan Bryan and local player Alex Miller, though with an insufficient number of players competing in the category, he will have no ranking points to go with his winner's trophy.
Edward Whitehead took the honours in a highly competitive under-19 section, just edging ahead of twin brother Tom on goal difference, and leaving English U15 international Matt Lishman trailing in third. Lishman did however go on to win the overall plate competition, beating Yorkshire clubmate Richard Pepper in the final.
Tournament director Adrian Curtis topped the veteran's category table, where Neil Lishman - better known for his work in producing the Stefan Corda range - hit five against both Pepper and Les Commons on his way to securing second place on his debut in an individual tournament at national level.
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