The the second edition of the gay-friendly rugby tournament was held in Lisbon from Thursday to Saturday: the Pitch Beach 2011 organized by Dark Horses.
Teams participated from Belgium (Straffe Ketten, Brussels), Netherlands (Amsterdam Lowlanders), UK (Kings Cross Steelers RFC, London), France (Les Gaillards from Paris and Les Rebelyons from Lyon) and Portugal (Oporto Spartans and the host Dark Horses) as well as several individual entries from other countries.
The festivities began on Thursday evening, in a terrace at Portas do Sol where the participants could get to know each other and also take care of the registration against a backdrop of the sunset over the city of Lisbon. In the same place the draw for the scheduling of matches was made and then the group moved to a welcome drink in the bar Tr3s at Príncipe Real.
Sevens Tournament
On Friday the game was Rugby Sevens in the Jamor sports complex, all morning and afternoon.
The morning was marked by the supremacy of the Amsterdam + London team being the only one that won the two games that participated.
The teams stopped for lunch in the form of a hearty picnic organized by the host team. After the brief pause for a siesta everybody returned to the field, with some reflections of a lunch served, and a sun that was now the fullest and made life difficult for the players. London + Amsterdam remained invincible and thus was the day's winner. The results were: 1st Amsterdam + London, 12 points, 2nd Dark Horses, 7 points, 3rd Straffe Ketten, 4 points, 4th Les Gaillards + Lyon, 4 points (but with fewer points scored in games that the 3rd), 5th Oporto Spartans with 1 point.
Beach Tournament
It was at Carcavelos beach in an area prepared for team sports that the second day of the tournament took place now in Beach Rugby variant.
Teams arrived at nine in the morning and almost the same time the organization, which quickly set up the whole structure teams support.
And shortly after the first game was played between Oporto Spartans and Straffe Ketten which resulted in victory for the second team by 4 to 1.
The games followed a good pace so that the organization got all the games played before lunch.
When the games started the air temperature was cold and the rain threatened with some dark spots in the sky, but a little after ten o'clock in the morning the sun broke in the sky and the heat was installed during the rest of the day.
While in the grass the bi-national team that combined Dutch and English was the unbeaten in the sevens tournament, in the sand it was the Belgians who were invincible.
The results of the second day were: Straffe Ketten, first with 12 points, second place was Gaillards + Les Lyon with seven points, followed by Amsterdam + London in third place with five points, then the Dark Horses with four points and finally the Oporto Spartans who did not score in this series although they have lost three of four games by the minimum difference.
Among all the feeling that the tournament was getting better and bigger, but with the feeling that this tournament is also special because it has a limited number of participants ("only" a hundred) and thus promotes more interaction between everyone.
After lunch the teams relaxed on the beach with several visits to the ocean also had the opportunity to play beach volleyball.
Closing
The grand final of the tournament was Bric in a farewell party where the trophies were distributed, more precisely Galos de Barcelos (a.k.a. Rooster of Barcelos), very conveniently baptized into English by the organization of "Portuguese Cock".