Boys of Summer

To the penultimate Friday of the season, and a fairly a high scoring game – 8-6 – as I picked two teams that both grew in numbers following kick-off.

Lining up for the Bibs were (initially) Simon Gas, Dan, the tall bloke with grey hair from the 7.40 crew, Joe, Andy, Geoff and Steve A 

Lining up for the Colours were Yev, Matt, me, Danny, Paul, Ian West Brom and Mick

Ergo, the game started as a seven aside, but an unannounced appearance from mercurial new wave legend Spizz, ostensibly to play a game of football but quite possibly to promote his gig on Sunday which coincided with the England v Italy game, meant that the Colours had a man advantage which duly resulted in their lead stretching to 7-3. To offset this imbalance Hugh joined the Bibs and the scores went from 7-3 to 7-6, before Matt made sure of victory for the Colours with a fine late goal that fatally punctured the hopes of the Bibs, who’d come within a goal of parity courtesy of a poacher’s finish from Andy.

With so many goals it is difficult to assign every one, but Yev returned from his sojourn in his homeland with at least three goals, seemingly spurred on by the injustice of his nation’s exit to England via the ghost goal of Donetsk. He formed a potent partnership with Matt, both six footers and reminiscent of the Shevchenko / Voronin forward line for the Ukraine, but with better hair cuts. Danny also scored at least one; I took a shot almost straight from the restart after the Bibs had scored and although my initial shot was charged down, Danny was on hand to win the loose ball and finishing unerringly into the corner. 

Other than Andy’s late goal Dan also got onto the scoresheet for the Bibs; their opener was a result of Dan not being closed down properly and passing the ball low into the bottom corner from about 15 yards.

Talking of the man himself, Spizz also managed to bag a brace; first a penalty, which this week he elected to take using the conventional method, i.e. kicking the ball rather than hopping over it (see last week’s blog) and secondly a fine run followed by a curling shot which the keeper really ought to have done better with. 

By the end the Colours were slightly grateful to hear the final rattle, which is testament to the tenacity of the Bibs, (as well as the impact that Hugh made). That said, we went from a situation where Simon Gas wasn’t sure that we’d have more than four aside at around twenty to seven to a game with sixteen people on the pitch, with predictable implications for the quality of the game.

I eschewed the delights of the White Lion (and Germany v Greece) this week, owing to the fact I had to work on Saturday. However, a full report on the final game of the season and the end of year dinner in the Red Dog Saloon awaits. Until next time....

We’re gonna score one more than you...

(Enough about England (for now)).

Somewhat unusually last Friday saw Ian pick the teams, and they lined up as follows:

Colours: Spizz, Dan, Steve A, Paul, Simon Ink, Hugh, Simon Gas,

Bibs: Boro Dave, Danny, me (following a late change), Matt, Alan, Ian

The game finished 5-2 to the Bibs. Goals came from Boro Dave, Alan (I think; if he scored and I didn’t credit him they’d be hell to pay) and Danny, who got on the end of a long, raking pass from Simon Gas which rolled back the years to tuck the ball home. Simon Gas almost repeated the trick for me, but Steve A in goals got out well to smother my left footed attempt to pass the ball into the net. The final goal was a late pile driver from Matt that dipped in the air and sailed past Paul to call time on the whole affair; with no 7.40ers in attendance and hence no one following us, we played on until around quarter to eight, when a combination of the three goal cushion for the Bibs and the looming kick off in Kiev called time on proceedings.

Other notable incidents a bizarre penalty from punk icon Spizz - a camp two-footed hop over the ball followed by an off target shot - and a testy verbal exchange between Steve A and Paul. Perhaps the most notable incident of all came before we took to the field, when Paul let loose a rallying cry of ‘Come on England!’ in the changing rooms prior to launching into the St Crispin’s day speech from Henry V, much to the confusion and, indeed, fear of everyone else in the vicinity. 

And so to the pub. With the Old Fountain’s Head now a distant and fading memory, the White Lion played host to the Sweden v England game. Given that the first time I went in there after playing football there were three men and a dog (and the saucy redhead behind the bar), I am starting to wonder whether, in fact, we are the avant-garde, as last Friday saw plenty of what can only be described as hipsters in there. They’ve clearly spotted something missing from the Old Fountain and have struck out to find that elusive Next Big Thing, the authentic London boozer complete with wheezy old geezers pink and vital from running around a five aside pitch. Then again, it could be the barmaid. As John Lennon said, avant-garde is French for bullshit.

And what about the England game? The best tournament game England have played, in terms of drama if nothing else, since the Argentina game in the 1998 World Cup. Bring on Italy. Come on football!

I digress.....

Firstly, many apologies for the blog appearing so sporadically (and so late) over the past two weeks; what with the Diamond Jubilee weekend (that three day week was a killer – how on earth did they manage in the early 1970’s?) and the start of the Euros it’s been difficult to find sufficient time. Normal service will resume from tomorrow, I promise. By way of a catch-up here follows another fortnightly round-up of action from the Finsbury Leisure Centre...

Friday the 29^th May saw a reasonably lively 5-3 game, with two nicely taken goals from Dan’s mate Matt, a fairly rare goal from myself which briefly levelled proceedings at 3 apiece and what Paul the Guvnor described as a “dinky” left footed goal from punk / new wave enigma Spizz, who was back for what has become an all too infrequent appearance, having seen the Punk Jubilee festival scheduled for that weekend cancelled at the last moment. 

Afterwards we headed once again for the White Lion, the Old Fountain’s Head having seemingly been eschewed by the Seven O Clock crew forever as a result of its apparent disdain for anyone under the age of 30 and not employed in the media. Of course, the White Lion is not without its own attractions, even if it is further away from the tube station and does not feature a beer garden on the roof. Chief among those attractions is the young redhead behind the bar, to whom I have promised to assign the adjective ‘vulpine’. Simon Gas seems particularly taken with this titian bombshell, something that conjures of images of Simon sporting a crimson hunting coat and a riding crop, bellowing ‘Tally-Ho!’ as he peers at her lasciviously over his Carlsberg with hounds at his feet.  I said that she was chief among the attractions of the White Lion, but actually the use of the plural was probably incorrect as aside from the 1980’s video jukebox and the stench of drains in the yard at the back there is little else memorable about the place. Nevertheless, we’ll be there tomorrow for the England v Sweden game.

Anyway, this is a Ronnie Corbett-style digression – I’m here to tell you about our game of football. Last Friday (so, that’s the 8^th June) saw Simon Gas pick the two teams and despite two excellent goals from Boro Dave, leading the line in swashbuckling style for the Colours, he and the rest of his team (including me, Paul, Mick, Steve A) went down 8-2 to a Bibs side featuring Andy, Dan, Danny, ParisIan, Sam , Simon Gas and the ringer Yousuf. And this after Boro Dave had taken the lead for the Colours and later levelled at 2-2. Alas, goals from, inter alia, Dan, Danny and Andy saw the Bibs run away with it. Other notable incidents from the game included a goodish save from myself at the expense of Simon Gas, cutting in from the left and letting fly a trademark curling daisy-cutter and one brief passage of play which saw me thread a delicious ball through to Paul who contrived to fluff his lines from around 5 yards, only to see the ball immediately hurtled forward to the other end where Andy lurked, Gerd Muller-like, on the edge of the area he was attacking and making no mistake with his finishing to complete a memorable brace. Both sets of posts came in for a bit of a pounding, (I was particularly cheesed off to see a left footed effort hit the bar and make a sound like a C sharp, if I’m not mistaken). 

And so to the White Lion to see the second game of Euro 2012 - Russia’s 4-1 mauling of their erstwhile Communist neighbours, the Czechs. It was like 1968 all over again. 

By way of an end of season spectacular, Sam and I have been working on a theme inspired by Dad’s Army that will be making its debut before the end of June.

Until then, come on football!