The 2009 Algarve Open was our third tournament in Portugal and as the teams lined up we wondered if it would be 3 rd time lucky for travelling teams? Local side Padernesne won the 2007 Albufeira Fives and a Portuguese ‘Man Utd' won the 2008 Premiership In… Portugal . Who would stamp their mark on the 2009 Algarve Open?

This year's tournament saw us welcome back many friendly faces to eurofootballfives.com competition in the form of Bristol Phippy FC, Askeaton FC, The Northern Monkeys, CSF, Olympic Phill Babb and 3 teams from the Red Star Rickerbys stable .

In addition to our valued returning teams we were delighted to welcome Feltham Garrison FC and Hebden Bridge who both made their debuts.

Bristol Phippy FC made their eurofootballfives.com debut (as The Barry Moore's) in the 2008 Krakow Trophy on a stag weekend. The highlight of their performance was a thrilling Plate Quarter-Final tie against the CSF which finished 3-3. They then found themselves defeated in an epic 7-6 penalty shoot-out. The Algarve Open marked the stag do of Bristol Phippy FC goalkeeper Simon Phipps and they were looking to go at least one step further this time around.

Askeaton FC of Ireland took three teams (Lucky Leprechauns, Shooting Shamrocks and The Wild Rovers) to the 2008 Prague Masters. The Lucky Leprechauns and Shooting Shamrocks continued their challenge in this year's Algarve Open. The reason we mentioned penalty shoot-outs earlier was because the Shooting Shamrocks made it to the Plate final of the 2008 Prague Masters which was decided upon penalties in the closest final we've ever had. Sadly for the Shooting Shamrocks the luck of the Irish ran out on them as they went down 6-5 on spot kicks.

The CSF are seasoned professionals in eurofootballfives.com competition having participated in the 2007 & 2008 Krakow Trophy, the 2007 Prague Trophy and 2008 Barca Fives and so The Algarve Open marked their 5 th venture into Europe . The CSF, or Cobalt Silver Foxes to give them their full name, can boast silverware when they completed a 4-1 victory against Shock Soc 0.5 to lift the 2008 Krakow Trophy Plate. For Portugal they brought two squads to the Algarve under the names of CSF Porto and CSF Benfica.

The Northern Monkeys were the first ever winners of a eurofootballfives.com tournament when they claimed victory in the inaugural Krakow Trophy back in 2007. In 2008 they were on the march to defend their title in Poland until they came unstuck in the Quarter-Finals against eventual winners Red Light Runners of Scotland. For 2009 they turned their attention from Poland to Portugal in search of glory. Three members of the original 2007 winning squad Al Jamieson, Bill Fisher and Chris Wilson took to the field again in the Algarve .

On the subject of winners, Olympic Phil Babb won the debut Amsterdam Fives in 2008 and were aiming to become the first ever team to win two eurofootballfives.com tournaments. They were amongst the favourites to take the trophy as they had most of the Amsterdam winning squad on board.

Cantona's Classicos, the Ruud Boys and Maniche's Mean Machine all come from the Red Star Rickerbys stable. Red Star Rickerbys competed in the 2007 and 2008 Prague Trophy and were competing in Portugal for Craig Bryant's stag weekend. We wish Craig luck both on and off the field!

The Rolling Circus, Top Gun & Weasel and Jim Belch FC formed part of Ian Gibbins stag weekend. These three teams may be stretched as they were originally only supposed to be two teams. However, one of the local Portuguese teams dropped out late in the day so the squad was split three ways.

The nucleus of the Rolling Circus squad was a successful university 7-a-side team but that was 10 years ago and the intervening years (beers and pies) have not been kind so the Rolling Circus could well be candidates for the wooden spoon – especially as their ‘keeper, Doug Berwick, is prone to having a bottle of vodka by his post rather than a bottle of water.

The Top Gun & Weasel team consists of many players who played in Portugal last summer at the 2008 Premiership In…Portugal mixed across the ‘Liverpool', ‘Arsenal' and ‘Spurs' squads. Their Portugal experience would prove valuable this time around.

Jim Belch FC also consisted of a couple of players from the 2008 Premiership In… Portugal , three debutants and two members of the eurofootballfives.com team in Alastair Dickenson (4 tournaments) and Adam Hanmer (1 tournament).

The local Portuguese challenge came from Olhanense FC , Amigos da Loira , Moss Deb FC , Montenegro FC and Maritimo Olhanense FC.

So, the tournament was perfectly set-up. Please read on to see how the action unfolded over a great day of competition.