An OHAFC squad of seven made the effort to turn out for the first official Arthurian League event of the new season, the annual Jim Dixson six-a-side tournament that acts as the curtain-raiser before League action gets underway this Saturday.

This season's tournament was held at Aldenham School north of London and, in truth, was a low-key affair, with only nine teams entering, four of whom were provided by two clubs, the Old Foresters and Old Marlburians.

The OHAFC, led by Will Orr-Ewing, were drawn in a group alongside one of each of the dual-represented clubs, Charterhouse and Repton. The squad was a mixture of old and new faces, with the skipper joined by club regulars Phil Berry, Azhar Khan and Theo Gordon and two recently-graduated players Jonathan Lalude and Harry Gibson, who was last seen enjoying himself on the 2012 tour to Prague. Veteran 1st XI stalwart David Lederman completed the squad, but his contribution was expected to be limited given that he was playing a pre-season friendly for his new Sunday team prior to the tournament kicking off.

Indeed, Lederman arrived shortly after the opening fixture against Charterhouse, a 2-0 defeat that saw the OHAFC perform creditably but unable to match their much stronger opponents.

Match two was a disastrous affair with a 4-0 reverse to Repton courtesy of some charitable defending leaving the Blues with an uphill task to qualify for the semi-finals.

The third game against Forest saw the team produce it's best performance of the competition against one of the stronger teams. Lalude nearly opened the scoring with a powerful run early on, sprinting past two players but unable to finish as he tired when bearing down on goal. Forest scored before the break but Harrow pressed in the second half and should have equalised at the death when Gibson teed up Lederman but the 'keeper rushed off his line well to smother the attempted shot.

The defeat left the final game against Marlburians an irrelevant affair with neither side able to progress. With Khan injured, Lederman barely able to walk and the other five players also shattered it was little surprise the side suffered another defeat, this time 2-0.

Despite the four defeats and lack of a goal the afternoon did serve as useful fitness for the seven ahead of the new season and credit as ever is due to them for making the effort to turn out and represent the club. Lallude and Gibson both showed enough to suggest they will be useful additions to the Club this season and Azhar Khan at least received confirmation that goalkeeper is definitely not his best position.