Wednesday 13 February 2019

Match report no. 4 (12/02/2019)... Make mine a pinter

Following a fortnight’s hiatus, partly due to the big freeze that never was, I returned to the fray on Friday and selected the two following teams:

Yellows: me, Kanat, James, Simon Ink, Bristol Paul, Tony, Joe and Mario

Blues: Ian Gooner, Danny, Nick, David, Simon Gas, Mick, Ed and Yev

Eight aside and a pretty much a full house from the off, which makes a pleasant change.
An already greasy pitch was made positively slick by a sharp shower just after kick off, with the result that the surface played extremely quickly. A slight tap to a team-mate required very soft feet or the ball would career beyond the white line and into the next postal district. Just as well we’re such a deftly footed bunch then, eh? 

A very low scoring game this one, despite the surface being wetter than an otter’s pocket and there being plenty of space on the park to let rip speculative efforts from distance. Simon Ink was in goals for the Yellows for much of the game which may explain why they kept a clean sheet for around 50 minutes, while the prodigal Danny (welcome back), Nick and David did most of the keeping for the Blues.

The most notable element to proceedings was what the prevalence of what the cricket fraternity would refer to as “chirp”, with Tony, Danny and Mick providing enough dialogue (and enough robust Anglo-Saxon) to form a lost Harold Pinter script, as David sagely observed at full-time. Happily, there were few contentions decisions in terms of the outcome and it all made for an enjoyable game, despite the fact both teams struggled to string more than three passes together.
Just the two goals to report; I believe Mario bagged the opener for the Yellows, before Yev turned back the clock to provide a splendid example of speed and dribbling before firing the ball home for a relatively late equaliser for the Blues.

Final score: Yellows 1 – Blues 1

To the pub then, for one of those evenings which make me very pleased to part of the Coram Fields contingent. Among the luminaries under discussion, in no particular order, were: Max Weber, Niall Ferguson, Daniel Levy, Éamon de Valera, David Baddiel and Charles Haughey. This was with reference to items such as the European Union, the history of the Republic of Ireland from independence onwards, Tottenham’s new ground (wot no fromagerie?!), the Protestant work ethic and, obviously, football. You couldn’t buy that mix of high brow and working man’s culture. And all topped off with a semi-flirty, semi-aggressive interjection from a young woman with a stupendous cleavage. 

Come to think of it, David’s comment about Harold Pinter was very apt.

Monday 4 February 2019

Match report no. 3 (03/02/19)+++Match postponed+++++

Pools panel result:

Blues 3 - Yellows 3 (three points)*

* (Based on Yev being ten minutes late for the Blues and Tony leaving ten minutes early for the Yellows. Steve sent off at the 40 minute mark for taking an illegal elbow sharpener onto the pitch).

A full preview of this Friday's game to come in Wednesday's Midweek Sports Special.