Greetings, compadres. It is now some weeks since our last
game of the season at Coram Fields and I have not posted any match reports or
blogs to mark the curtain falling on 2018/19; a season with its highs, lows,
flouncing, moaning, late arrivals, guest appearances (Sam! Ross!) and fond
farewells (Stu!), as well as Frank Sinatra / Status Quo-style ‘goodbyes’, i.e.
not goodbyes at all (Andy! Tony!).
As I look out at a Dreadnought-grey sky and with the second
Ashes test at Lord’s not taking place owing to weather more akin to March or
November than high August, I’ve decided it is high time to at least capture the
final stramash of the season.
Here are my contemporaneous notes:
Blues 5 -
Yellows 2
Blues: Alan,
me, Joe, Steve, Tom, Ben, Pete, Ross and bloke called Richard Felton
Yellows:
Bristol Paul, Parminder, Patrick Chen, Charlie, Mick, Harry, Stan, Ian Gooner
Blue Goals:
Alan x 3 (one stuffy cross-cum-shot that crept in the near post with
thingymajig from Morgan Stanley in goal; one sublime lob over Ian and one near
post effort after Ian parried in his initial shot); Harry drilled in following
good work on the left; A N other.
Yellow goals:
trademark bullet header from Pete from an outswinging corner from Tom; another
rifled effort following a decent passage of play.
Make of that what you will. Alan’s terrific hat-trick was the
take-away, stand-out memory of the game, with the lobbed goal still instantly
memorable even now. I think I was in goal when Pete swooped down from the
clouds to nod the ball in, as similarly, I can still recall that.
From there it was off to the pub for all the usual nonsense. Ross,
a rare visitor to these shores in the Summer months when he migrates from the
chilly Norwegian peninsular he now calls home, was disappointed to finish
without a goal to mark his return home.
I’ve been thinking about the match reports over the past couple of
days and I don’t see any reason that they should cease over the Summer, as they
only have the most tenuous link to the actual game anyway. So here’s one for
you – feel free to re-read in the depths of February when you’re looking for
something to occupy yourself with.
Blues: Len Shackleton, Ernest Shackleton, Tony, Captain Oates,
Alan, Danny, Simon Gas, Simon Ink
Yellows: Doc Holliday, me, Thomas Cromwell, Ian Gooner, Mick,
Limahl, Yev, Steve
Play got underway with the Yellows a player short owing to Yev
being late. The Blues sought to take full advantage and swiftly took the lead
after the mercurial Len Shackleton dibbled his way through the Yellows’ defence
and squared for his heroic namesake to nod home from three yards, despite being
hobbled with acute frostbite.
The Yellows equalised after Ian Gooner harried Danny into
conceding a corner; I pinged in a delicious centre that saw Steve fizz home,
but only after clearing out Captain Oates. Tony promptly lost his temper and
demanded that the goal be disallowed and a free kick awarded to the Blue team.
But play was suspended after Captain Oates declared he was too injured to
continue and asked for the key to the changing rooms. He promised to bring it
back, but said that this may take some time.
Meanwhile, Alan stabbed home to make it 2-1 to the Blues after
Thomas Cromwell was caught napping in defence, before Danny make it 3-1 after
some good work from Simon Ink on the left.
The Blues could have wrapped things up there and then as a clearly
angry Cromwell scythed down Len Shackleton. Literally. However, Tony was guilty
of a rare failure from the penalty spot courtesy of a fine save from Limahl,
who leapt photogenically to this left and pushed the ball around the post,
before the Yellows got one back. Yev had arrived just after Captain Oates had
left and swapped passes with Doc Holliday, who may have taken some performance
enhancing laudanum, before calmly slamming the ball into the bottom corner.
Given Holliday’s glassy-eyed appearance, Tony was once again aggrieved that
justice had not been done and challenged Doc to meet him at sundown the next
day.
Final score: Blues 3 – Yellows 2
Simon Gas is still looking for his key and Tony hasn’t been since.
Neither has Captain Oates.
See you next month.
