Barts’ & The London Dental School held its first ever 5-aside Dental Football Tournament on 9th of April, with the participation of 12 teams. A large and loud crowd of spectators attended the event at the Mile End Leisure Park cheering for their chosen teams and enjoying the entertainment offered by the dentists, Ronaldinhos and Thierry Henrys. These guys are usually seen in scruffy lab coats at the London hospital giving quality care to patients but on this off chance you got to catch a glimpse of the teeth carers in football gear.
Beneath the spectacular sunlight on the day, the teams played 25 games in just 5 hours. There were acts of heartbreak and joy presented throughout the entire stages of the tournament. The competition saw lots of skilful play and tremendous enthusiasm from all players.
Eight teams qualified from the group stages. Eric Koy’s heroic goalkeeping performance saw Nick’s 3.6ers finish off Dharmesh's team on penalty shoot outs in the quarter finals. Monty put 4 goals past Stu's team to book his 3.4 team a mouth-watering semi-final clash with Kwok's 5th Yr team. Mo Akbar's team beat Saeid’s 2nd Yr hopefuls and Nick's 3.6ers in the quarter and semi finals respectively to book a place in the final.

After surviving the group of death, Monty's and Kwok's teams entertained the spectators with a magnificent semi final performance, which was nothing short of a Champions League Final football match. The match ended in a penalty shootout after the teams were held at 2-2 after extra time. Emotions were running high as Mo Akbar's and Kwok's teams got engaged in a fierce battle to become champions. It was then time for the 5th Years to score first but Mo Akbar's team put the tie on level shortly. The referee awarded Kwok's team a penalty for a ‘penalty area infringement’ two minutes from time. Kwok's team scored and deservedly won the £100 prize provided by Dental Protection. The 5th Yr dental finalists were luckier on the day and went through to the final of the 2008 B & L Dental Football Tournament.

Monty Bains’ 13 goals tally made him the Oral B goal scorer of the tournament and he was awarded with an Oral B Triumph Professional Care 9900 electric toothbrush whilst the best Female Player of the Tournament trophy was awarded to Ramona Rajikouma.

Congratulations to the Champions and well-done for everyone who helped out in making this event a huge success.

The tournament was not just a great sporting event for the school, but also gave the dentists the opportunity to put communication skills such as team work into action!


We will have a bigger tournament next year!!

Bryar Fattah


Event Organisers: Bryar Fattah, Saied Haghri