On January 15th and 16th, seven lacrosse players from Clermont went to Lille to compete in the Franco-Belgian box lacrosse tournament with selected Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Dubbed the FBBL (Franco-Belgan Box League), this annual competition brings together the best French and Belgian teams. “Box League”, for box lacrosse, a type of indoor lacrosse close to hockey.
This discipline of North American Amerindian origin is also Canada’s national sport along with ice hockey and gathers tens of thousands of spectators in the country’s arenas with a maple leaf.
Discoveries
For the 2022 edition of the FBBL, the young clubs from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes have decided to unite in a regional selection that includes seven Clermont residents out of the thirteen players selected.
In the first weekend of competition in Lille, all teams from Group A faced each other: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bordeaux and Brussels. While Group B, formed by Lille, Ghent and Brian Lalloud, will do the same this weekend. In the end, this journey will end with two defeats for the players from the region, due in particular to a certain lack of experience.
While the play was indeed very high against Brussels, the mostly Belgian international, France’s encounter with Bordeaux would have started in earnest before Bordella took the lead.
But most of all, the team will keep its progress and discovery to compete. It should be noted that the young Clermont squad showed interest, but also received a lot of encouragement from rival players and organizers.
