In driving rain and gales searing in from the Atlantic that would have made even Captain Oates think twice before he left the tent, the Ireland National 6-a-side Championships kicked off in Galway with teams descending on Ireland's third city from across the island.
The top two teams in every Leisure Leagues Division are invited to take part in the Championships to see who will be crowned the National Champions and received the coveted prizes on offer. Teams enter representing their town. Referees from across the country ensured the Championships were excellently officiated.
The standard of football was set in the group stages with the top two teams going through, notable absentees from the knockout stages including Limerick and Waterford, both highly fancied outfits.
In the last 16 notable matches included Sligo C defeating Tralee A on penalties after a hard fought 1-1 draw, and Wexford A winning in the same fashion against Armagh A.
Elsewhere Galway comfortably defeated Leixlip C to leave Dublin without a representative team going into the quarter finals.
In the quarter finals Clonmel C, who had done so well to reach the latter stages, were finally defeated by Wexford B, whilst Galway A moved serenely into the semi finals.
Letterkenny A, many spectator's tips for the title after some stunning early group stage displays, surprisingly were defeated in the semi-finals by Sligo C who went on to play Galway A in the Grand Final, who themselves had defeated Wexford B 2-1.
The Final was a tense affair with both Sligo and Galway playing cautious, defensive soccer, and the match unsurprisingly finished goalless at the final whistle. In the penalty shootout that followed GALWAY used their home advantage to emerge as Ireland's first National 6-a-side Champions.
Below see a slideshow of the days photos!